V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta (2006)

Cast : Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Fry, Stephen Rea, John Hurt, Tom Pigott-Smith.

Directed by James McTigue.

Written by Alan Moore, David Lloyd

Screenplay by Wachowski Brothers

Review by Zulfiqar (4/5)

            How much does anarchy sell? It has the charm for sure but in practical politics, it is certainly overvalued. Alan Moore’s movie ‘V for Vendetta’ partially supports this debatable point of governance, but in a very silent society, which has lost its vocal power to question the power dealings of the control, it cries out for its must existence.

            It is based on the comics written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd of the same name. The strength of the movie comes from the point that the writers and makers are of highly intellectual nature. Wachowski brothers, who made the Matrix trilogy produced this film while James McTigue directed it. The subject matter is wholly controversial as the fascist government, which rules this dystopian future of Europe’s UK is a rather rotten system. The people however find comfort in the action of silence and observation of inaction. But they know that in the future, it is doomed to collapse, yet no one acts. V, who reneges against this oppressive regime is deemed as a terrorist entity. But then he makes his mark with his few minutes’ lecture on the regime and the people’s promise to get involved with him to thwart it.

            The TV studio through which he connects to the populace is sabotaged by his use of emergency channel and before they could catch him, he escapes with remarkable ease. Who is this V? Chancellor Sutler asks his subordinates, party leader Creedy and inspector Finch (Stephen Rea). But the former two have an inkiling of an idea as to from where he had erupted. Their idea is strengthened as Lewis Prothero, party’s spokesperson and Anthony Lillman, Bishop of London are executed by V. and probably he is moving towards them. Evey, employee of the earlier mentioned news channel, was a falsely charged accomplice to V’s activities and she is imprisoned and questioned, which breaks her fully, until she becomes a wholly different individual. ‘Who does this to her?’ is a completely different question, but what she understands in the prison is more important. From a fellow prisoner, in one of the most diabolical presentations, she understands the story of how the new regime was formed by Chancellor using a deadly virus to win the confidence and desperation of the population. She later understands that V is a product of that finely engineered pandemic. And he won’t stop until he crumbles the whole system.

            The whole story is a symbolic representation of the course of a regime, here a fascist one. It is built on false promises and dangerous grounds, wields a hard hand at the start, treads carefully at the rebelliousness and it’s strong confrontation will be overpowered by the mounting hate of the oppressed. Evey is the representation of common population, V is the first voice of fight, inspector Finch is the thinking man, and Creedy/Sutler is the greedy worm who feeds on the destitute.

            But we should also contemplate as to what happens after the crumbling of the power. Is anarchy the answer to the resurrection? It is nothing but chaos and would be more dangerous. A thing attained by violent means can only breed more violence. It should simmer down to democracy as it is just a changing process but not an answer for building up of a civilization.

            V however is a must thing, which should happen once in a while to check the scrupulous system. He is represented by Guy Fawkes’ mask and is dressed by the voice of Hugo Weaving, whose precise utterances and commanding voice does the entire job needed. The voice doesn’t only consist of unwavering and unfaltering diction, but also persuasive and motivating sing song nature of a doer rather than a preacher. His physicality presentation is done by extras probably, but he does the spirit of the character job, fully. Over the guy Fawkes’ image, it was David Lloyd’s idea to employ that historical, controversial figure as the mask. And it answers the character quite completely. Natalie Portman is sensitive like a slim flower, but she delivers an unconventional performance to capture all the Eveys of the world. John Hurton as ruthless chancellor and Tom Pigott-Smith as scheming Creedy win a lot of mileage.

            However the movie at the end hinges at the way the comic world of the dystopian future UK is shown. It is shown like a world quarantined by the power of the system such that even the voice of the people doesn’t become contagious. The hues are dark with night time being employed effectively to show the lack of intellectual light people are living in. V motivates them to break the comfort and monotony of passive existence. His weapons are knives rather than guns. But he isn’t deterred, because in the end, his great idea is ‘bullet-proof’ of trivial purposes.