V for Vendetta

Independent Study: V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a film adaptation of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. It features a freedom fighter (or terrorist) attempting to bring down a right wing dictatorship in England. Using the blowing up of iconic buildings he awakens the hearts of the public to rise against the government. He blinds the authority figures as he strategically assassinates key people to the government. With many similarities being drawn to the gunpowder plot, the most obvious is the main character “V” dressed as Guy Fawkes.

This film is heavily laced with wider contexts and intertextuality, as most graphic novels usually are. This is mainly to entertain the audience more as they tend to be a niche audience who are fans of graphic novels and therefore have a wide knowledge of comic book narratives etc, so they would understand the irony of humour put forward using the intertextual reference. However, the film cuts out some of the more detailed references and indeed edits the plot a bit to make it more accessible to the public as the storyline becomes easier to understand.

The biggest change in the film was the change in order in which V blew up the buildings. The film climaxes as the Houses of Parliament are blown up, however in the graphic novel the Old Bailey is shown as much more important and is blown up after the Houses of Parliament.

The film very much sticks to the expectations of a graphic novel adaptation in terms of media language. The settings are very iconic and pathetic fallacy is used heavily alongside this to really emphasise the mood. The costumes of the characters and the mannerisms of such characters very much follow the stereotypes of a graphic novel. As the main villain the party leader Adam Sutler (changed from Adam Susan in the graphic novel) never does the dirty work himself he commands the party without compassion or mercy. Whilst the lead character “V” could be seen as a counter-type as he is seen as a anti-hero rather than a hero such as superman etc, mainly because of the methods he uses to get the desired end product.

The film director is James McTeigue he isn’t fairly well known but worked with the Wachowski brothers in the matrix movies, the Wachowski brothers also helped write the script for V. The actual graphic novel came from DC comics before being edited by the brothers for the film screenplay. DC comics and Marvel were the two big rivals for the comic book market; V for Vendetta wasn’t one of the biggest creations from DC, more of an experiment on the reaction towards the anti-hero with the audience.

This film fits under many genres and could be seen as a hybrid, Action is the most obvious genre, though there are elements of sci-fi, thriller and drama imprinted in the film. However, there is a good balance between them throughout the film.

The film represents many different ideas and social groups of society. There is a lot of discrimination shown in the film, especially in regards to the ideology of the government in charge. Much the same to the Nazi party, though Norsefire (the British totalitarian government) do not have an ideal race for the country unlike the Nazis with the Aryan race. The character leading the investigation (Finch) appears to love the ideas of law and order much more than the actual government itself, this resulted in him allowing Evey to set the train off towards the Houses of Parliament. It is also important to note that throughout the film Britain is run by a male dominated government and rarely is there any women shown with any power, this is completely contradicted by Evey actually producing the crippling blow at the end of the film by deciding whether to let the train hit the Houses of Parliament or not; showing that she wasn’t always controlled by V’s ideals.

The audience for this film can be quite diverse. The most obvious is the comic book fans or hardcore DC comic fans, who would have read the graphic novel and look forward to seeing the film bringing the GN to life. There3 would also be film fans who are looking forward to an action film, as the trailers show more of the action in the film than the politics which play such a big part.
The film covers ideologies which are socially important at this time. Terrorism and the public viewpoint is covered in the film as the government attempt to put a negative spin of V’s actions, whilst using propaganda to make themselves look good. For instance V blowing up the Old Bailey was claimed to be a scheduled demolition, though the public see through the lies, similarly when the important figures in the government are murdered. 9/11 and the London bombings...