The 5th of November:
The Past and Present of Revolution in Film
J.D. Casto
CMC 350L
Spring 2011 Dystopia in Global Cinema
April 22, 2011
Abstract: Revolution has been seen in films since its early creation. In this paper I
will use Crane Brinton’s Anatomy of a Revolution to examine two films, Battleship
Potemkin (1925) and V for Vendetta (2006). Though these films are more than
eighty years apart from each other, I will discuss how, as seen within these two
films, the theme of violent revolution as a means to forming a utopian society is
universal and timeless.
Revolution Introduced
Revolution in cinema reaches back all the way to when the art of making a
film was still in development. In the German expressionist film Metropolis (1927),
director Fritz Lang presents a dystopic world run by a wealthy upper class that in
turn oppresses an entire underground city, where the lower class lives, by being
forced to slave away at the machines that keep the city alive. The upper and lower
class are devoid of a mediator that can bring the two together to reach a utopic
world, and it isn’t until the lower class violently revolts against the machines that
they reach utopia. It is through this violent revolution that utopia is finally reached.
Though this is the first feature length science-fiction film, it is not the first film to
feature a violent revolution as a means of reaching utopia. One of the first major
films to present this is Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925). Between this
and Lang’s Metropolis, a formula arises for telling a tale about change that can be
seen in modern films such as V for Vendetta (2006). This formula is very similar to
the formula of revolution itself. Crane Brinton’s Anatomy of a Revolution provides a
tool that of which we can apply to all films depicting revolution within a dystopic
society. In looking at one of the earliest films depicting a revolution, Battleship
Potemkin (1925), and a modern film V for Vendetta (2006), we can see that violent
revolution is one of the greatest tools in reaching utopia, and that Brinton’s stages of
revolution have not changed over the course of eighty plus years.
Brinton details four distinct phases of revolution1, the first phase being the
preliminary stage where the old regime is politically and economically weak. For
Brinton, this is the foundation or primordial soup for revolution. The people begin
to ask for change or for justice from its less than competent government figurehead,
as the intellects start to speak out against the old regime. Phase two, or the first
stage, has the rebels to the old regime upping their tactics. There are more protests
and symbolic acts made against the government. Furthermore, the government at
this point cannot stop the rebellion. It will inevitably move into phase three also
known as the crisis stage. In crisis stage, violent revolution emerges. The radicals
take over by force and will sometimes try to eliminate the old regime’s figurehead to
establish their new role as victors. This is where the violence emerges. Everything
builds until it cannot build any further. Revolution ignites, and the old regime is
overthrown. This stage, once it essentially burns itself out, leads to the final phase or
what Brinton calls the recovery stage. In this stage, revolution dies down, people
who do not agree with the new ideologies have accepted the changes by this point,
and everything slowly goes back to normal. In a sense, they trade liberty for
security. All four stages of Brinton’s revolution are explicitly shown in both
Battleship Potemkin and V for Vendetta. We will now look at the pivotal scenes, in
regards to both plot and to Brinton’s revolution, in both Battleship Potemkin and V
for Vendetta.
These stages have been collected and adapted from Crane Brinton's The Anatomy
of Revolution( New York: Vintage Books, 1958).
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Finding Revolution
Visionary director Sergei Eisenstein, a filmmaker who may well be
considered the father of Soviet Montage, created Battleship Potemkin in 1925 after
the Soviet government selected him to commemorate the failed Russian Revolution
of 1905. The movie details a mutiny on board the Battleship Potemkin that causes
the death of sailor Vakulinchuck. When the ship makes berth at Odessa, the entire
city comes to mourn his death. As they walk to his resting place to pay their
respects, a Tsarist militia arrives and takes aim at the crowd, in what is the film’s
most famous scenes: the Odessa Steps Massacre. Potemkin leaves Odessa as news
reaches that a squadron has been sent to neutralize them. With one heart, they go to
face the squadron. As the battleships approach, Potemkin arms its cannons, but also
sends a signal, “Join us!” To everyone’s shock, the other battleships let Potemkin
pass without being attacked. The story of this film is simple and very effective. The
first scene we will examine in relation to Brinton’s Anatomy of a Revolution comes
from the film’s first episode, “People and Worms.”
The conditions on Potemkin are unbearable – the sailors are being forced to
eat meat full of maggots. The sailors are upset with these conditions. “We’ve had
enough rotten meat! Even a dog wouldn’t eat this,” an unidentified sailor shouts. The
ship’s doctor, Smirnov comes over and examines the meat. He looks at the meat as a
close up reveals maggots crawling all over it. We cut back to his face as he tells the
crew that they can wash the maggots off to make the meat suitable for consumption.
The sailors protest this decision by not eating. The episode ends with a sailor
cleaning what can be presumed to be the commanding officer’s dishes. These dishes
are very ornate. The last one has lettering around the rim that reads, “Give us this
day our daily bread,” a line from the Lord’s prayer. The sailor reads this and
becomes enraged, smashing the plate on the table. This episode shows up the first
phase of revolution almost exactly. The “classes” are struggling with each other and
the symbolic acts of refusing to eat as well as destroying a superior officer’s
religiously charged plate all move the building tension of revolution forward.
In the second episode entitled “Drama on the Deck” we see Commander
Golikov take matters into his own hands. He calls all of his men to the ship’s bow.
Those who ate the borsch are ordered to step forward. For their loyalty they are
dismissed. Everyone else is covered by a tarp and are ordered to be shot by a firing
squad. Vakulinchuk, one of the few sailors to be singled out at the beginning of the
film, then begs his shipmates to rise up against the oppressing commander. All the
officers are killed and the ship is liberated. During the uprising, however,
Vakulinchuk dies. In this episode we witness a revolution upon Potemkin. The
tension comes to a head and Vakulinchuk the intellectual of the sailors asks for
revolution.
In Battleship Potemkin there are two revolutions: one for the Potemkin and
one for the people of Odessa if not all of Russia. For Odessa the call to arms comes
when Vakulinchuk is laid to rest in the city and a letter is read to the mourners.
“Citizens of Odessa! Lying before you is the body of Grigoriy Vakulinchuk, slain by a
senior officer…Let’s take revenge on the bloodthirsty vampires! Death to the
oppressors!” This sets the stage for the crisis stage in the Odessa Steps scene. To
move forward we must now examine V for Vendetta for its scenes that portray
Brinton’s phases of revolution.
In 2006, the comic book adaptation film V for Vendetta, directed by James
McTeigue and written by the Wachowski brothers, was released by Warner
Brothers. V for Vendetta is the perfect example of a dystopian film that utilizes
revolution as a tool for reaching utopia. The year is 2020 and the United Kingdom is
now under a totalitarian rule of the fascist party Nosefire. V, a vigilante who has
been labeled a terrorist by the old regime, blows up a building to Tchaikovsky’s
1812 Overture in a way to wake the citizens out of their fear-induced paralysis. The
first scene2 we will examine from this film is when V broadcasts a call to arms to the
people of 2020 UK, fitting directly with Brinton’s first phase of revolution.
Upon entering the British Television Network (BTN) with a vest made of
bombs strapped to his chest, V makes his way to the control room of the studio
where cuts broadcast and has a network employee play a mini-disc on the
emergency broadcast channel. People have gathered around their television sets at
this point, as normal broadcast has been interrupted by dead air. Then, V appears.
He sits at a desk with a red background, and at the lower right hand section of the
frame is a design, “VTV.” In a monologue that is eerily similar to Bush
Administration America, V talks to the people directly:
Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do,
like many of
you, appreciate the comforts of the everyday routine, the security of the
familiar, the
tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit
of commemoration - whereby those important events of the past, usually
associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle,
are celebrated with a nice holiday - I thought we could mark this November
2
00:18:42 – 00:21:50
the fifth, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out
of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are, of course, those
who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now orders are being shouted
into telephones and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because
while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always
retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning and for those who will
listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly
wrong with this country, isn't there?
The scene cuts between V and groups of citizens watching the broadcast. Their faces
are full of concern as though they know he is right, but they don’t want to admit it.
Where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit,
you now have censors and systems of surveillance, coercing your conformity
and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well
certainly there are those who are more responsible than others, and they will
be held accountable. But again, truth be told...if you're looking for the guilty,
you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were
afraid. Who wouldn't be? War. Terror. Disease…Fear got the best of you and
in your panic, you turned to the now High Chancellor Adam Sutler. He
promised you order. He promised you peace. And all he demanded in return
was your silent, obedient consent…More than four hundred years ago, a great
citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His
hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice and freedom are more
than words - they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of
this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest that you
allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if
you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek...then I ask you to stand
beside me, one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament. And
together, we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever, be
forgot!
This scene acts directly in accordance to Brinton’s first and second phase of
revolution. As previously mentioned, the first phase shows the old regime and the
weakness of the government. V wants the people to see as he sees, and for those
who don’t, he hopes that this message will help them turn towards the light at the
end of the cave. This monologue is also very full of exposition. It sets up the
dystopian world in an eerily similar post-9/11 America setting, where its citizens
have blindly given up their freedoms for security. V by broadcasting is here to make
people realize how they’re being controlled. It also depicts the world as one filled
with fear and desperation. The old regime is controlling them through this fear. The
monologue acts as a call to arms. In one year V wants them to join him in destroying
the Parliament Building. For Brinton’s second phase there are symbolic acts made
against the old regime, which this broadcast is. V is planting a seed within society’s
head that in one year will hopefully ripen and be ready for the revolution that the
country so desperately needs. Like Battleship Potemkin both films use this rallying
call to arms to gather steam. Revolution cannot happen with only one person. It can
be done by a small group of like-minded people though. This is shown in both films
through this call to action. With that being said, this is not the quintessential phase
two scene however. This is simply the call to arms, the inciting incident, which
prepares the revolution process. Our second scene3, however, is what starts the
revolution.
As the 5th of November draws closer, V’s tactics do too. In what has become
known as the “domino scene” we see V’s plan fall into place. V has sent out several
hundred thousand packages containing the Guy Fawkes masks that he himself
wears. He hopes to create chaos. Inspector Finch realizes that this is V’s intent.
“With so much chaos, someone will do something stupid.” As Finch says this, we see
a young girl in the Guy Fawkes mask, hat, and cloak running down the street after
she has completed another one of her “V” graffitis, when a law enforcement officer
takes aim and fires on her. Blood shoots from her chest. As she falls to the ground,
the mask flies off with her glasses still taped to it. We cut to a shot of the dead girl as
3
01:40:10 – 1:44:00
the officer walks up to her, shocked at what he’s done. Finch continues, “And when
they do. Things will turn nasty.” The people who were once controlled by fear, now
gather around the officer, one man striking him with a wrench. The revolution
begins. Riots are seen throughout the city, and Sutler reacts the only way he can, by
force, in exact accordance to Brinton’s phases. It is through the death of this young
girl, like in Battleship Potemkin when Vakulinchuk dies, that the people are thrust
into a violent revolution.
Finding Utopia
In Battleship Potemkin the Odessa Steps Massacre is the violent revolution
that causes the Potemkin to find utopia. In the film’s fourth episode, the people of
Odessa lived harmoniously with the “rebellious ship” in what appears to be a utopic
scene when all of a sudden a group of Tsarist militants come and slaughter the
townspeople without just cause. The Potemkin tries to protect the people but they
can’t, a squadron has been sent to get them. This massacre sends Potemkin out of
Odessa to face the other battleships who eventually join them. If it were not for the
massacre, the uprising met by force, Potemkin could not have gotten the other
battleships to join them in the revolution against the Tsarist regime. In the film’s
final scene, Potemkin sails by the other battleships as the crew yells triumphantly,
“brothers!” Utopia has been reached. The rebellion continues. Unlike modern films,
this does not give us a great sense of closure. There is still a lot to be wanted. The
rebellion is still happening, yet at the same time, the Potemkin has sailed into utopia
by means of a violent uprising. In V for Vendetta we see the ultimate act of violent
revolution that we would today consider to be an act of terrorism4.
The 5th of November has finally arrived and V has taken a hold of the citizen’s
minds in our final scene. V is dead, but not his ideals. A sea of V’s wash upon the city
and approach a line of soldiers. They ask their commanding officers as well as High
Chancellor Sutler for orders. Unbeknownst to them, before V’s death, in his last act,
he killed Sutler and his key followers. They are now on their own to face the tide of
revolution. Below in the Underground, Finch finds Evy and attempts to persuade her
away from following through with V’s plan. The sea of V’s continue to choke the
streets. In the Underground, Evy has her hand on the lever to send the bomb filled
tube train to the Parliament building. Finch asks, “Why are you doing this?” She
responds, “Because he was right…This country needs more than a building right
now. It needs hope.” Finch stands down. We cut above to see the V’s feet away from
the soldiers and their barricade. They too stand down as the V’s wash over them,
causing now harm. The 1812 Overture begins to play on the loud speakers as the
Parliament building erupts into a series of large explosions followed by celebratory
fireworks, destroying the largest symbol of the old regime. The V’s all begin to
unmask themselves, as they no longer need the protection of the guise. Revolution
has succeeded. Brenton’s crisis stage has been reached and has now moved into the
final phase: the new beginning; the utopia.
4
02:00:30 – 02:04:30
The Impact of Revolution
When Battleship Potemkin first came out in 1925, it was considered to be a
revolutionary piece. Now it is considered to be a classic, yet not as impactful. V for
Vendetta, being a modern film that directly alludes to post-9/11 America, however,
is impactful. The reason Battleship Potemkin is not effective is because times are
different. It was a film made about a specific revolution. What is interesting to note
though is that in the film’s companion book written by Richard Taylor, he notes that,
“Time, and propaganda, have so clouded the truth of the ‘Potemkin’ mutiny that it
must surely be among the most inaccurately recorded events in history” (Taylor,
60). Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps Massacre was a complete fictionalization of the
events. He added them to add drama to the story. So then one begins to wonder how
effective this film truly was to its original audience. It’s effectiveness did not stand;
however, the universal message of revolution did.
Similarly, V for Vendetta will lose its effectiveness in the years to come, but
that message will last. In Brian Ott’s article The Visceral Politics of V for Vendetta: On
Political Affect in Cinema, he states, “Although critics were intensely divided on the
film’s merit, they were strikingly unified in their interpretation of the film’s
message. V for Vendetta, critics agreed, was an allegory for life in George W. Bush’s
America, and an unwavering critique of his administration and its policies (both
domestic and foreign) surrounding the war on terror. This message was confirmed
by James McTeigue, the film’s director, who publically noted, “We felt the [graphic]
novel was very prescient to how the political climate is at the moment. It really
showed what can happen when society is ruled by government, rather than the
government being run as a voice of the people.’” (Ott, 40). Between these two films,
even though they are more than eighty years apart, we can see the same steps of
revolution that Crane Brinton details. We can also see that the universal message of
standing up against an oppressing force lasts over time.
Works Cited
Brinton, Crane. The Anatomy of a Revolution. New York: Vintage, 1958. Print.
Ott, Brian L. "The Visceral Politics of V for Vendetta: On Political Affect in Cinema."
Critical Studies in Media Communication 27.1 (2010): 39-54. Print.
Taylor, Richard. The Battleship Potemkin: The Film Companion. London: I.B. Tauris,
2000. Print.