TERRORIST OR PATRIOT? 'V FOR VENDETTA' ASKS HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT GOVERNMENT.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Natalie Portman didn't have to be in Whitehall Square on any of the three nights that the makers of the political popcorn movie ``V for Vendetta'' shut it down for filming. Her character - a young woman who casts aside her fears to fight a futuristic, totalitarian government - wasn't in any of the scenes. Still - how do you stay away when they're parading tanks and troops in front of the British Houses of Parliament?

``You can't,'' Portman says. ``It's a strange kind of movie to be allowed to film there, given the final act of violence that takes place in the film. It had to pass, like, 20 different ministries for permission to be granted. I think it speaks very highly of British government officials and is a great testament to the democracy in England.''

This is not an overstatement. ``V for Vendetta,'' based on a graphic comic, began as a series in 1981, at a time when its creators, writer Alan Moore and illustrator David Lloyd, feared that Margaret Thatcher's England would soon slip into becoming a totalitarian state. Moore's story follows a terrorist - a man who models himself after Guy Fawkes, a revolutionary famous for trying to blow up Parliament in 1605 - intent on toppling the fascist government ruling a war-ravaged England.

Moore leaves it up to the reader to decide whether V is a terrorist or a freedom fighter or, as is often the case, something of both. Portman plays V's protege, a woman he saves from a violent crime and in whom he awakens a latent activism and alternative hairstyle. (Portman famously shaved her head for the film.)

``The movie depicts a bleak world, but I think it's hopeful about what people can do to change it,'' Portman says. ``It shows the opportunities people have to stand up for themselves and make their individuality heard and not blend into some amorphous mass.''

Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote the screenplay draft for ``Vendetta'' more than 10 years ago, before they began work on ``The Matrix.'' The movies certainly share similar views of a dystopian future where the sated masses need to be prodded into action by those who have cast aside the shackles of groupthink and see the world for what it is.

Because of this shared sensibility, ``V for Vendetta'' has been labeled a Wachowski brothers film by anyone writing about it. They wrote and produced it but did not direct it, leaving that to James McTeigue, the first assistant director on all three ``Matrix'' movies. McTeigue understands his place as well as the lure of Wachowski lore.

``They are the producers and wrote the script and had very heavy involvement in the final film,'' McTeigue says. ``When we started, I thought it would be good to hark back to the '70s models of director-producer integration. It's a symbiotic relationship. We all have ideas, and it was great to have them as a sounding board. I don't need to get out there and say who did what.''

The movie was originally scheduled to be released last November on the 400th anniversary of England's Guy Fawkes Day, but the summer's London subway bombings left Warner Bros. executives skittish, and the release date was bumped to March 17. McTeigue says he was disappointed at the time but feels, if anything, the events of ensuing months will make the film more powerful.

``You can feel a groundswell of people asking questions about their governments that wasn't there last summer,'' McTeigue says. ``Now not a day goes by where we don't have a discussion about terrorism.''

If the movie has an overt message, it's that people shouldn't fear their governments; governments should fear their people.

``There's a perversion of that nowadays,'' McTeigue says.

Adds Portman: ``It all takes place in an imaginary world, so it lets you ask these questions - how, if and when violence is justified - in an abstract way. 'Munich' asks the same questions, but in a very tangible, real-world way. It's always easier to answer ethical questions in the abstract than in the practical because practical answers aren't always idealistic. It's much easier to be an idealist in an imaginary world.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

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Director James McTeigue and star Natalie Portman - here with more hair than she has in the film - explore what it means to oppose a totalitarian government in ``V for Vendetta.''