Britflix: V for Vendetta

Dystopian stories are a subgenre fiction that the British have mastered, including Alan Moore’s famous graphic novel V for Vendetta. It was famously adapted by the Wachowskis in 2005 and the film immediately became a cult classic.

In the near future, Britain has become a fascist state. The government constantly blasts religious propaganda, Islam is outlawed, and a curfew is enforced. But there is hope in the form of a masked vigilante only known as V (Hugo Weaving) who takes the fight to the government. He sets out to unite the British people and get them to rise up within a year. By a twist of fate a young woman, Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), ends up caught up in V’s scheme and becomes enamoured by the mysterious man.

I debated whether V for Vendetta would actually qualify as a British film, so I ran by a poll on Twitter, and I have to abide by the results. The justifications for classifying V for Vendetta as British are it was based on a British graphic novel, the film was mostly shot in England, and most of the cast and crew were British.

The original graphic novel was a dark story. The country was a hellhole because World War III (where Britain was neutral) had wreaked havoc to the environment; a fascist government has risen and rounded up all political dissidents and ‘undesirables,’ poverty was ripe, and Scotland had turned into Northern Ireland. The graphic novel opens with a 16-year-old orphan preparing to prostitute herself. V was an anarchist and there was moral ambiguity on both sides.

The film adaptation was a simplified version of the story. The timeframe was condensed to a year and a subplot where V causes political infighting was cut. The other simplification was in the characterisation and the framing of the world. The Wachowskis and director James McTeigue made the ideology and factions black-and-white: the government was all bad whilst V was good because he wanted people power. In the graphic novel, V’s anarchism wasn’t much better than fascism.

This framing was done for two main reasons. The first was the studio belief that American audiences want a good vs. evil story instead of something more nuanced. The other reason was the political commentary. V for Vendetta came out when George W. Bush was president. The War on Terror was in fall swing, invasion of Iraq was fresh in everyone’s minds, and the American government had introduced the Patriot Act. Many officials within the Bush administration were religious and wanted to enact a socially conservative domestic agenda.

Britain in the V for Vendetta film ended up being a surrogate for Bush’s America. The film opens with Lewis Prothero (Roger Allam) addressing the nation like a Fox News anchor. He says ‘he’s a God-fearing Englishman and damn proud of it.’ The Norsefire Party came to power through fearmongering and a false flag operation that was done by government officials and business interests. The government continued to use fear stories in the media as a method of control.

V for Vendetta clearly struck a chord with a lot of people. V’s Guy Fawkes mask because popular with activists around the world and the mask became a symbol for Anonymous. The message has reminded popular, particularly the ideas of people power and V’s own statement that a man can be killed but ideas are bulletproof.

Besides the political ideas, V for Vendetta works as sci-fi entertainment. The film does adapt some key scenes from really well done. One of the best scenes was a quiet one when V meets Delia Surridge (Sinéad Cusack). There was mutual respect between the two and his revenge killing of her was gentler than any of the others. I personally loved the scene that showed V’s origins at Larkhill where people suffered from experimentation and his escape from the faculty. The film had some brilliant montages like how Norsefire rose to power and Chief Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) describing the chaos Britain was falling into.

The action highlight of the film came at the end when V and Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith) face off against each other. It was a fantastic moment when V kills Creedy’s guards as they reload their guns. This was when the film employed a similar technique that used in The Matrix films i.e. bullet time.

As a Brit I personally found it amusing how much the word ‘bollocks’ was used. It’s a fun swear word, but we don’t say it as much as it was in the film. The large amount of JVC product placement was in the film was also amusing. Natalie Portman’s accent was all over the place and she was not the right person to play Evey. I personally would have preferred Kiera Knightley but it’s a case of could’ve, would’ve, should’ve.

Chad Stahelski and David Leitch both worked as stuntmen on the film and they have ended up having successful careers as action directors. The film also gave Imogen Poots her first role.

V for Vendetta was a culturally important mainstream film because of its political themes and does it in an accessible and entertaining package.