The 2005 film adaptation of Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel, V for Vendetta, is a classic dystopian story on par with the writings of even George Orwell and Aldous Huxley Through the great use of characterisation, director James McTeigue , who also directed The Matrix trilogy and Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, has created a masterpiece in modern film storytelling, directing and editing. The film has become a major popular culture reference and its social and political effect on society has been demonstrated time and time again at mass rallies and protests by those who don a Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol of rebellion. The Guy Fawkes mask has now become synonymous with the film an V as not only a character by as a symbol of an individuals rebellion against society.
The film stars Hugo Weaving as a man simply known as V, after the Roman numeral for the number 5, the room in which he was experimented on in a government run laboratory in a concentration camp for undesirables. After escaping from the camp and with superhuman abilities as a result from the experiments, V seeks Vengeance or Vendetta, on those who imprisoned not only him but the thousands of innocent people persecuted, imprisoned and killed by the Totalitarian government party, Norse fire. Norse Fire’s totalitarian regime which utilise secret police to keep fear installed in the populace, and their attempt to rape a young woman ,named Evey Hammond ( Natalie Portmann) is foiled. After Destroying a government building and raiding Evey’s place of work at the government run television network, V and Evey are hunted by Norse Fire who label them as terrorists as the viewer would as freedom fighters. As Adam Lowry states “ The film, while set in the year 2030, is really a commentary about America and its policies since the September 11th terrorist attacks. This is in contrast to the graphic novel, which is a commentary on Britain and the political climate of the early 1980s. In the film, when V forces his way onto TV after destroying the Old Bailey, he does so that knowing that if he hadn’t, the government would have covered it up as construction work or as an attack by Islamic extremists. V instead takes his place in front of the camera and explains his actions for all of England”( Lowry, 2012).
As V’s popularity amongst the disillusioned population of Britain, he has become a symbol not only in the film but in modern culture as a political symbol of one man’s struggle against injustice. Symbolism in politics is always highly recognisable in society eg. Che Guevara for Socialists and now V for neo-Anarachists and anti-facists, Neil Anderson States “The most obvious symbol is the Guy Fawkes mask. V wears it because (we are led to assume) his face has been disfigured by the diseases he fought when he was the subject of Delia Surridge’s medical research. While V’s mask is a real one, Gordon Deitrich speaks of symbolic masks when he says, “You wear a mask so long you forget who you were beneath it ( Anderson, 2013)
Although he ultimately succeeds in bringing down Norse Fire and the population of Britain rises up with him, his success is a posthumous one, being killed in a gun battle between himself and secret Police Chief Creedy. To honour V and his commitment to his cause, Evey places him on a sub-way packed with explosives to finish the job that the orginal Guy Fawkes set out to complete and destroys Parliament house in full view of the now rebellious London.
References:
1. Adam Lowry, The Cultural and Political Impact of V for Vendetta, July 6, 2011, http://tnlproductions.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/the-cultural-and-political-impact-of-v-for-vendetta/
2. Neil Anderson, V For Vendetta, 2013
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