V for Vendetta

“We are oft to blame in this,

'Tis too much proved - that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.”

Hamlet: William Shakespeare Act 3 sc 1

Quoted by ‘V’ to Evey Hammond in the 2005 Film, V for Vendetta.

Born out of the failed Labour election campaign and it’s adoption of the CND of the early
1980’s and heavily influenced by the landslide victory of Margaret Thatcher’s
Conservative party in 1983 came the comic book, V for Vendetta written by Alan Moore
and Illustrated mostly by David Lloyd. This dystopian vision of the next 10 years, being
set in 1990’s England, concerns the story of an ultra-right wing dictatorship by the
fascist ‘NorseFire’ party being brought to it’s knees by the anarchistic actions of a Guy
Fawkes clad anti-hero the eponymous V.

Re-invented for the screen through the writers/ producers, the Wachowski brothers and
director James McTeigue the 2005 version tempers the original anarchistic and terrorist
based activities of V and transforms him into a seeker of the truth and man of the
people, who kills only when required and then only the wrong doers.
This sugar coated rendition of the original themes are the result of not only the 20 years
distance between the original and it’s copy blunting the memory and effects of 13 years
of Thatcherism and it’s associated right wing policies, but more directly as the
American, Warner Bothers, production seeks to dilute the anarchist versus fascist
themes replacing it with a liberalism versus neo-conservatism, themes common in early
21st century American literature and films.
Guantanomo bay, 911, the American / UK war in Iraq and Afghanistan all contribute to
the development to the fears of race, religion, sexual orientation and it’s subsequent
suppression that forms the platform that Norsefire and it’s Hitleresque High Chancellor
Adam Suttler rises to power from.

"[The movie] has been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a
political satire in their own country… It's a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent
American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a
state run by neoconservatives—which is not what the comic V for Vendetta was about.
It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about England."

MTV (2006). ""Alan Moore: The last angry man"". MTV.com.

http://www.mtv.com/shared/movies/interviews/m/moore_alan_060315/.

It is interesting to note that the original release date of the film in the UK, destined for
November 5th 2005, to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot was
cancelled at short notice and pushed back to March 17th 2006. Many sources
speculated that was more to do with it’s proximity to the July 7th London Tube Bombing
of 2005 than Warner Bothers explanation of requiring extra time to complete visual
effects. Eventually the film premiered at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival on February 13th
(my Father’s 51st Birthday) 2006.

The film itself echoes the fears and concerns of a 2006 audience, emphasising the
references and cultural visions of totalitarianism, corporate corruption and manipulation
of the political system and media manipulation through the creation of political and
religious scapegoats for government inadequacies and ineptitude.

Visually, drawing on the original graphic novel, the film displays a very bleak, almost
monochromatic, vision of 1990’s Britain. They display, fuelled by the ‘quaint’ imagery
held by most Americans of UK society, an almost Dickensian quality of a grey-bricked,
smoke-blackend, alleyway linked London that is only alleviated when showing the well
lit, ultra modern houses and premises of the ruling party and its supporters.
The design harks back to another age of hardship and conformity, that of interwar and
post-war Britain of the 1940’s and 50’s. The population’s clothing is adversity Utility
Design crossed with the worst of the 1970’s, whilst the party faithful dress ‘a la mode’:
Evey Hammond’s coat and dress as she tries to visit Daddy Dietrich in the opening
scenes are straight out of the design book of Norman Hartnel and Dior’s New Look.

Much of the design echoes the feel of the

decaying 1930’s Weimar Republic, such as in
the work of Adolph Loos and Otto Wagner
and it’s decent into the Germany of the Nazi
Party. Where the modernist hedonism of the
early 1920’s is now replaced by the grandiose
utilitarianism of the neo-classicalism and art
deco functionalism. Even the original poster
for the film, uses the photo-montage and
graphic style of the mid 1920’s, drawing QuickTimeª and a
heavily on the post constructivist soviet work decompressor
of Gustav Klutsis and Valentina Kulagina. V are needed to see this picture.
himself, often appears in heavy shadow, lit
only by the chiaroscurist effect of
Street lamps and vaulted cellars.

The world is seen in chaos, with only

controlled by the party: “Strength through
Purity, Strength through Faith: England
Prevails! “
The USA is in total breakdown; desperate for
medical supplies it impotently tries to barter
foodstuffs. It is seen as the land that had everything which then imploded.
Yet it is the liberal ideology that the film espouses that is held to be the root of America’s
downfall. Lewis Prothero, the voice of London, accuses the ‘Ulcerated Sphincter of
Arsemerica’ of Godlessness! The ultra-right christian ethos being the catchwords for the
party itself. The state is run by the party, funded by the corporations and absolved by
the state-run religion.

Technology is in the hands on those who control, in shades of 1984, much more
apparent in the original novel, where the organs of the state are clearly named: The
Eye: visual surveillance; The Ear; audio surveillance; The Finger; the secret police; the
Mouth; Propaganda; and the Nose; the remnants of the CID and Scotland yard.
Each house is linked by television to the new British Television Network- curfews are
enforced by closed circuit cameras and state announcements are loudspeakered into
every street corner day and night.
The technology utilised by V, is home-made and therefore untraceable by the state. He
uses the technology against its owners; the state run television cannot be stopped, so
he broadcasts during peak-viewing time. (The show running I ‘Laser Lass’ and in the
small clip shown, an evil Arab-robe wearing villain cackles insanely as the heroine is
about to be blown to bits.)

Following on public fears of the 1990’s the film has deep within it’s themes that of
genetic manipulation and bio-warfare. In the wake of the 1980’s Anthrax scares,
Chernobyl and the often media led scares of Aids and the Tokyo Subway gas attacks of
the Aum Shinrikyo on March 20, 1995.
The St Mary’s Bio attacks, blamed by the party on (unspecified but directed at Muslims/
Arabs) terrorist’s turns out to be a Norsefire inspired plot to close borders and institute a
police state.
V himself if the result of genetic experimentation, his disfigurement, heightened reflexes
and resistance to pain, the elements of his whole new persona are state induced in the
pursuit of the new order.

In all, the character of V is an anachronism, his appearance, the methods of his attacks
(knives and bombs) his lifestyle are redolent of a lost age, an age of gentility an age of
truth. When he is at best an anarchist and at worst a terrorist. In a similar warped
version of history Guy Fawkes is portrayed as a people’s hero, a seeker of truth, when
in reality he was another dissident who wished to change the order to his way of belief
by violence.

V freely quotes from heroic literature, notably Shakespeare –

“We are oft to blame in this,

'Tis too much proved - that with devotion's visage
And pious action we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.”

The opening quote serves as his reminder to the people that it is by their inaction, their
desire for order at any cost, that has created an England in which, “There is something
terribly wrong”.

In the original novel all of V’s lines were written in iambic pentameter, which served to
lift him out of the commonplace and into the notable. Very much in the same manner
that Shakespeare used the verse to differentiate his speech into the realms of poetry
and beyond.
The music is once again used to remind the audience/viewer of times and things long
lost. Often played on an old 1950’s Wurlitzer Jukebox, these include: Cry me a River,
Written by Arthur Hamilton. Performed by Julie London. "Street Fighting Man" by The
Rolling Stones to the explosive version of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky,

Within the film this theme is followed by the use of the cultured, almost accent less,
English used by the character. Interestingly there is no difference when he speaks from
beneath the mask or without it- a feat unsurpassed by actors from classical Greek
theatre to modern productions.

V for Vendetta is very much a film of it’s time, but as it’s influences and themes are
spread across almost thirty years it is difficult to determine which time that is. It has
been espoused by ultra left and right wing groups alike for it’s content and reviled by
both for the same reasons.
The film was both rubbished by film critics (and I use the word very loosely here) such
as Jonathan Ross as a "woeful, depressing failure" and by Harry Guerin from the Irish
TV network RTÉ who states the film "works as a political thriller, adventure and social
commentary and it deserves to be seen by audiences who would otherwise avoid
any/all of the three".

Like the novel it follows the film has generated a great deal of debate and notoriety, not
only for the themes but for their content. Visually and thematically they both raise
questions and emotions that concern us all, often those that remain unanswered.

Evey Hammond: [reads] Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.

V: [translates] By the power of truth, I, while living, have

conquered the universe.

Evey Hammond: Personal motto?

V: From "Faust".

Evey Hammond: That's about trying to cheat the devil, isn't it?

V: It is.

References:
Goldstein, Hilary (2006-03-17). "V for Vendetta: Comic vs. Film". IGN.com.
http://comics.ign.com/articles/696/696867p1.html.

"V for Vendetta - About the production". Official Website.

http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/cmp/prod_notes_ch_03.html.

Ross, Jonathan. "Jonathan on... V for Vendetta". BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2006/03/14/film_2006_v_2006_article.shtml.

Guerin, Harry. "V for Vendetta". rte.ie.

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0315/vforvendetta.html.

"Production Notes for V for Vendetta". official webpage. vforvendetta.com.

http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/cmp/prod_notes_ch_02.html.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta