Term paper on V for Vendetta

Nowadays the topic of terrorism is very popular among our population, and the movie “V for Vendetta” is also produced in this vein. First of all, it is important to say that “V for Vendetta” is not a new film in a broad sense of this word, but it is a kind of screen version of Alan Moore’s graphic novel with the same title. Thus, the main aim of this paper is to discuss the movie “V for Vendetta”, and to compare it with Moore’s novel in some details.

At the beginning, it is possible to mention that the movie “V for Vendetta” is considered to be a litmus paper of the problems of our society because the problems of freedom, terrorism, oppression and power are very influential in our society, and these issues make people to be worried about their life day after day. Moreover, the theory and practice of cultural and ideological terrorism (presented in previous works of the movie’s filmmakers) turn to the viewer in a very mysterious side, and it is really great because the movie provokes the audience to think about the own values and idealistic aims.

The film begins from a recitation of the phrase “Remember, remember the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot”, and the phrase sets the pitch to the whole movie, brining the audience back to early 1600’s England, when everything were different from contemporary reality, and when a famous Guy Fawkes was captured and executed for his attempts to change the power and to blow up English Parliament (Lamm, 2006). It seems that exactly such beginning of the movie reports the audience the main essence of the screen version, showing that the struggle for idealistic aims pushes on people, allowing them to forget about such ”˜unimportant details’ as death, fear, and hardships. In addition, by a strange coincidence, the film came out in the big rentals just after the terrible events in the London Underground. And most importantly, the film gives a controversial assessment to the terrorist acts. The film opens a deep understanding of today’s actual problems and depicts something more than ordinary shots of comics, allowing to realize what is happening here and now.

Comparing the movie and the novel in the ideological sense, we can state that the same ideological situation we can find in the novel, where the author shows by the actions of the main hero that the struggle for the seek of the own ideas is very important, and it is important to fight against existing regime with all possible means and try to make the life better not for oneself, but for all people. Thus, it is possible to say that both the movie and the novel are about ideals and struggle against existing reality, where power means much more than people and their fates.

Thinking about the novel and the movie at the same ideological context, we can emphasize on the fact that the movie “V for Vendetta”, according to its scriptwriting, is not even ”˜the Story of a terrorist who changed the world and who returned freedom to the people’, it is much more a story of a girl, Evey Hammond, who got rid of the fear that surrounded her for many years, and finally realized that terrorism does not solve anything, that the V mask is just a mask, a symbol of the ring of something that gives people an understanding that people should not afraid of the government, but exactly the government should afraid of the own people. And this fact allows to understand the nature of two thundering explosion, which do not kill anyone, and are only accompanied by frivolous fireworks, and the mask is also rather a simple-smiling, having more theatricalism than terrifying characteristics in its features. Of course, nobody was going to justify terrorism in the movie, or to compose odes to this phenomenon because the concept of terrorism is just a reminder that will destroy itself sooner or later by giving all the roses on the merits or not, and people will live on.

According to Moore’s plot, “V for Vendetta” is the story of revolution, its origins and subsequent implementation, where Evey’s image was used for the purpose to demonstrate that a person is able to change the own way of thinking only going through some hardships. Both Moore and filmmakers demonstrated that it is impossible to tear the mask from V because it does not exist at all. The movie, in contrast to the novel, is one big metaphor, where the world is more complicated, and the main character is not a specific person, but the driving force behind the protest. In such a way, V is not a person, but a combined image which symbolizes everything people are interested and believe in; V is an idea, which cannot be killed by any bullet, or imprisoned in the jail. And it can be said that V is the wrath of hundreds, thousands, millions of oppressed people, centered under the smiling mask.

In conclusion, we have discussed the movie “V for Vendetta” in this paper, and have compared it with the Moore’s novel. We have also explained that both the novel and the movie are similar in their ideological sense, but different in details.