Name
EN300 Class of 2014
V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue and The Matrix directed by The
Warchowski Brothers: A Comparison.
1
Dystopian Genre Feature
Character:
1. Main characters
need to survive
and overcome.
2. Characters are
“dark”.
3. Characters become
enlightened.
V for Vendetta
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The Matrix
Evey survives and overcomes FEAR.
V survives Larkhill Detention Centre
where he was physically and
psychologically experimented on.
V overcomes his desire for revenge.
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V’s desire for revenge makes him a dark
character. He is seen as a terrorist by the
Norsefire Government but others see
him as a freedom fighter. He does blow
up buildings and kill to make his point.
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V is enlightened by Evey about love.
Evey becomes enlightened about V’s
reasons for killing members of the
Norsefire Government and blowing up
buildings.
The people of Britain are enlightened by
V to their corrupt government.
Perhaps we, the audience, are
enlightened by the film to think about
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Neo survives and overcomes his fear of
being the “one”. He develops a belief in
himself (like Evey)
Neo survives death.
The agents, such as Agent Smith, are the
bad guys who want to entrap humanity
for their own purposes.
Are the characters in “The Matrix” dark?
Most have a positive faith in the “one”
except Cypher who only longs to live in
the fantasy created by technology.
Neo becomes enlightened about The
Matrix.
Neo also becomes enlightened about
himself as “The One”
corruption and injustice surrounding
us???
4. Teachers and
students.
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5. Strong males and
weak females.
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6. Allusions to
religion (Jesus
Christ).
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7. The representation
of love
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8. The individuals
conflict with
society
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Teacher= V
Student=Evey. It appears as if she will
take over the teacher role at the end
when she says to Finch, “Tell me Mr
Finch, do you like music?” just as V said
to her in the beginning of the film.
This film kind of supports this dystopian
feature in the beginning but Evey does
develop to become a strong character.
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Morpheus teaches Neo.
What does the film teach us?
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This film also differs from the stereotype
of strong men and weak women. Trinity
is a strong female character. In the
beginning, Neo is pretty weak. Both Neo
and Trinity are androgynous (look it up).
V could be compared to Jesus Christ as he
sacrifices his life to get a message across:
“People shouldn’t be afraid of their
governments, governments should be
afraid of their people.”
When V and Evey first met, V only
appeared to Evey as her life saver and
nothing else, except perhaps a terrorist
and a madman
Once Evey starts to get to know V she is
repulsed towards him, but as she started
to understand his perspective and
reasons for his actions; she shockingly fell
in love with, as did he with her.
Destroying the government and many
people that consist the government is V’s
way of grieving for what happened to
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Neo dies and comes back to life. He
sacrifices himself to save Morpheus and
Zion, the last city of humanity.
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Neo feels as if the right thing to do is to
save Morpheus’s life in exchange of
risking his own.
Trinity knows that she will love “the
one”. That is why she believed Neo is
“The One” who will save humanity,
because she falls for him.
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The awakened humans who are
enlightened about The Matrix have and
cause conflict with the machines
2
Themes:
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1. Control
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2. Enlightenment
(getting an insight
into something
3
Settings:
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1. Futuristic settings
2. Destroyed/ruined
settings
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3. Rules and control.
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him and people like Valerie (Muslims,
immigrants, homosexuals…)
The Norsefire Government use FEAR to
control the people of Britain. They made
a biological attack on their own people to
scare them into conforming.
V has control in this movie, the power of
being unseen – He is an idea, freedom
from injustice, rather than a person and
“ideas… never die”.
V enlightens the people of the U.K
making them realize that they were being
under the control of the government.
Evey’s rebirth after being tortured and
imprisoned by V.
Set in the year 2020. The U.K is the only
stable country, and America is at broken
due to prolonged conflict.
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The Old Bailey and the Parliament
building get blown up.
Freedom is destroyed, ruined by fear.
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The people have a 10 o’clock curfew, the
High Chancellor and the Norsefire Party
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(agents) who created The Matrix to keep
humanity imprisoned.
The A.I agents have control in this movie,
manipulating people whilst being
trapped in the “Matrix”. However, the
enlightened humans are a threat to their
control as they are aware of humanity’s
entrapment.
Morpheus enlightens Neo on what the
Matrix really is, and the world behind it.
Enabling him to try save Morpheus’s life
and the last standing city of humanity
(Zion).
Set in 2099. Neo and the “Rebels” have
superhuman abilities (but only within the
Matrix).
The sun was destroyed in an attempt to
get rid of the Artificial Intelligence that
are a danger to humanity. People
destroyed the sun believing the AIs
would no longer be able to exist without
a power source. However, they
entrapped humanity within the Matrix to
use them as a power source. As a result,
earth is basically destroyed without a
sun.
The A.I’s have control over the people,
manipulating them to be their source of
energy whilst being stuck in the Matrix.
control the people of Britain. V threatens
their control.
4. A barren
wasteland
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5. Hopelessness
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Perhaps the rest of the world is barren
which is why the Norsefire protect Britain
so completely???
Evey believes she will die, whilst being
held hostage until she tells who she think
is the “Fingermen” where V’s
whereabouts are.
Evey is hopeless at the beginning
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Wide shots of London, especially as the
Old Bailey and Houses of Parliament are
blown up.
Usual low angles showing powers, high
angles showing victims, weakness…
Varies from quite dark lighting to quite
bright vibrant lighting
Bright vibrant lighting in a flashback
scene of Valerie and her girlfriend while
she was on scene.
The dark lighting is seen throughout the
movie captivating the idea of being
sinister and horrible things to come.
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The earth has become a barren
wasteland without the sun. Humans and
technology destroyed the sun.
Neo believes he is not really the “one”.
6. Other…
Film techniques:
1. Shots and angles:
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2. Lighting
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Wide shots show the vast amounts to
humans in pods powering The Matrix.
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The lighting is a cross between both and
dark and light.
In every scene inside the matrix, the fill
light is green. This casts a slight shroud
of unreality on everything we see
without actually having to tell us
anything.
Then, when we get to the real world,
that same light is blue, giving everything
a harsh and unadorned quality that
highlights the nature of human existence
in this post-apocalyptic world.
Everything in the Matrix is bathed in a
green light, as if the camera were
capped with a green-tinted lens. (The
green in question is the color that
characters on computer screens used to
be before the advent of Windows and
word-processing programs that used
black-on-white color schemes to make
the computer world look more like the
“real” world of paper and ink.) This color
suggests that, unlike in the real world,
what we see in the Matrix is being
shown, or filtered, through something
else.
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3. Use of symbolism
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The symbolism of being fearless is shown
in Evey when she says to the officer “I am
not afraid to die”.
Norsefire imagery reminds us of Nazi
imagery.
The Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol of
freedom fighting.
Evey and V getting ready to go out at the
beginning of the movie. Both put on a
mask. Both look into a mirror.
V’s mirror in The Shadow Gallery has
written on it: Vi veri universum vivus vici,
a Latin phrase meaning: "By the power of
truth, I, while living, have conquered the
universe".
The Jesus pose. Evey and V.
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The renegades and the Agents always
wear sunglasses in the Matrix.
Sunglasses hide the eyes and reflect
those who are being looked at.
The removal of sunglasses signals that a
character is gaining a new or different
perspective, or that he or she is
vulnerable or exposed in some way.
When Morpheus offers Neo his crucial
choice between the pills, the blue pill is
reflected in one shade of his sunglasses,
the red pill in the other, an overt
reference to the two different ways of
seeing that Neo must choose between.
When Neo enters his new world, his
sunglasses serve as protection for him,
keeping him invulnerable to the dangers
and surprises he encounters.
Mirrors reveal how we see the outside
world, but also, crucially, how we see
ourselves and our own world.
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4. Enlightening
dialogue
Our job is to report the news, not fabricate it.
That's the government's job.
People should not be afraid of their
governments. Governments should be afraid of
their people.
When Neo takes the red pill, he enters
the real world, and the mirror he
touches infects him slowly with metallic
goo, suggesting the fraying of all his
illusions as he enters a new realm of
perception.
 Other reflective materials are shattered
throughout the trilogy. Skyscraper glass
rains down, water rains from above and
pools below, and anything transparent
continually shifts forms and locations,
transforming whatever it reflects.
 Zion: In The Matrix, the city is discussed
but not seen and works mostly as a
metaphor for a promised land of sorts,
and a goal that makes the fighting
worthwhile.
The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us,
here even in this room. You can see it out your
window, or on your television. You feel it when
you go to work, or go to church or pay your
taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over
your eyes to blind you from the truth...
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the
Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
~Morpheus
The building is a symbol, as is the act of
destroying it. Symbols are given power by
people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with
Morpheus: "You have to let it all go Neo. Fear,
enough people, blowing up a building can
doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind."
change the world.
Neo: "I can't go back can I." Morpheus: "No, but
if you could would you really want to?"
If our own government was responsible for the
deaths of almost 100,000 people... would you
really want to know?
Trinity: I know why you're here, Neo. I know
what you've been doing... why you hardly sleep,
why you live alone, and why night after night,
you sit by your computer. You're looking for
Thank you, but I'd rather die behind the chemical him. I know because I was once looking for the
same thing. And when he found me, he told me
sheds.
I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for
Then you have no fear any more. You're
an answer. It's the question, Neo. It's the
completely free.
question that drives us. It's the question that
brought you here. You know the question, just
But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the
as I did.
guilty you need only look into a mirror. I know
Neo: What is the Matrix?
why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who
wouldn't be? War, terror, disease.
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that
I've had during my time here. It came to me
when I tried to classify your species. I realized
that you're not actually mammals. Every
mammal on this planet instinctively develops a
natural equilibrium with the surrounding
environment, but you humans do not. You move
to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until
every natural resource is consumed. The only
way you can survive is to spread to another
area. There is another organism on this planet
that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human
beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you
are a plague, and we are the cure.
Neo: I know you're out there. I can feel you
now. I know that you're afraid... afraid of us.
You're afraid of change. I don't know the future.
I didn't come here to tell you how this is going
to end. I came here to tell how it's going to
begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then
show these people what you don't want them
to see. I'm going to show them a world without
you. A world without rules or controls, borders
or boundaries. A world where anything is
possible. Where we go from there is a choice I
leave to you.
5. Other film
techniques that are
similar
Purpose of films
1. A warning for our
future if we do not
change.
It’s not a call to rise up against your rulers, but a
warning about the way fear can be used to give a
person or organization too much power. It’s an
old lesson, but one that bears frequent
repeating. It’ll stick with you after you leave the
theater. You won’t want to think about it, the
ideas in this film are too dangerous, but you’ll
have to. V is that kind of powerful. Once you see
it, there’s no escaping it.
"By the power of truth, I, while living, have
conquered the universe." – V’s personal motto
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The Matrix film is a spiritual wake-up
call. It is encouraging the audience to
look deeper, ask questions, pay
attention to their instincts.
People who have freed their minds of
materialism in the modern world
understand exactly what Morpheus is
talking about in his blue pill/red pill
speech. “… the matrix is everywhere …
You can see it when you look out your
window or when you turn on your
television. You can feel it when you go to
work. When you go to church. When you
pay your taxes. It is the world that has
been pulled over your eyes to blind you
from the truth … that you are a slave
Neo … born into a prison that you cannot
smell or taste or touch. A prison for your
mind. Unfortunately no one can be told
what the matrix is. You have to see it for
yourself.” Morpheus description of the
Matrix fits perfectly as a description of
the marketing empire that brainwashes
billions of people today.
2. Reflections or
allusions to a horrible
past (for example, World
War 2 and The
Holocaust).
Allusions to Plato’s Cave and Enlightenment.
Allusions to Nazism and The Holocaust.
Allusions to Plato’s Cave and Enlightenment.