Meager featurette made for the DVD release of V FOR VENDETTA, this short film has some interesting interviews but is the usual rah-rah hype. I wish someday they would commission some arm's length or even hostile/argumentative documentaries for these filler slots. Maybe a roundtable on how they ruined the source material, or why they didn't do this or that.
The best interview by a mile is with character actor Stephen Fry, an avuncular fellow who seems to know the material and genre a whole lot better than director/hack James McTeigue and producer Joel Silver, both of whom give fatutous comments throughout. Fry laments the absence of late from the mainstream of dystopic sci-fi films, rattling off an excellent list (from memory) including SOYLENT GREEN, THE OMEGA MAN and even ZARDOZ. Perhaps he's drunk the same Kool Aid about the literary value of graphic novels, but I must admit that virtually anyone reading this entry has already substituted Frank Miller for Emily Bronte in their consciousness.
I come from the Old School of letting a film speak for itself. But even if I concede that we might learn something from a "how we did it" documentary, FREEDOM! FOREVER! fails miserably because it doesn't show how a single thing was achieved, whether SPFX or even acting run-throughs. It's just self-justification, how great we filmmmakers all are, and how fabulous are the Wachowski Brothers. If that's all there is to it, I would have preferred an in-depth look at how the Brothers became Brother & Sis. But that might be TOO revealing.
The best interview by a mile is with character actor Stephen Fry, an avuncular fellow who seems to know the material and genre a whole lot better than director/hack James McTeigue and producer Joel Silver, both of whom give fatutous comments throughout. Fry laments the absence of late from the mainstream of dystopic sci-fi films, rattling off an excellent list (from memory) including SOYLENT GREEN, THE OMEGA MAN and even ZARDOZ. Perhaps he's drunk the same Kool Aid about the literary value of graphic novels, but I must admit that virtually anyone reading this entry has already substituted Frank Miller for Emily Bronte in their consciousness.
I come from the Old School of letting a film speak for itself. But even if I concede that we might learn something from a "how we did it" documentary, FREEDOM! FOREVER! fails miserably because it doesn't show how a single thing was achieved, whether SPFX or even acting run-throughs. It's just self-justification, how great we filmmmakers all are, and how fabulous are the Wachowski Brothers. If that's all there is to it, I would have preferred an in-depth look at how the Brothers became Brother & Sis. But that might be TOO revealing.
