Antonio Miranda
5/5/14
Professor Brett Latimer
Introduction to Comparative Politics
Comparative Politics Film Analysis Paper
V for Vendetta
Sociopolitical/Historical Context and Synopsis
The film V for Vendetta was released in 2005 and was based on Alan Moore and David
Lloyd's 1982 graphic novel of the same name. The film and novel are obviously works of fiction
so there is no real sociopolitical or historical context to the film but it is both influenced and
draws upon events that have occurred in real history and issues that we still face or could face
in the modern day. The movie does open up with the words "Remember, remember, the fifth
of November" which is a reference to the Gunpowder Plot of November 5th, 1605 in which a
group of English Catholics, the movie especially singles out Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy
parliament and the King with explosives in hopes of reinstalling Catholic reign throughout
England.
In V for Vendetta, the world has fallen into turmoil. The United States of America
essentially went into a second Civil War which resulted in different areas splitting up and the
European continent was ravaged by a pandemic known as the "St. Mary's Virus". The United
Kingdom is one of the only countries who has remained stable at the cost of being ruled over by
the fascist party known as Norsefire who is ran by Chancellor Adam Sutler. Society is heavily
oppressed and there are very little freedoms. One of the main characters, Evey Hammond,
works for the state run television network known as the British Television Network (BTN) and
goes out for a walk past the imposed curfew. She is stopped by two men who turn out to be
members of the nation's secret police and is about to be assaulted when she is saved by our
second main character who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and simply identifies himself as V. V
takes Evey to the top of a roof and has her watch the destruction of the Old Bailey criminal
court which he planted explosives in. The following day the government declares that the Old
Bailey went under an "emergency demolition" but soon after the television network is
infiltrated by V who forces the network to play a broadcast of him where he speaks out on the
injustices of the current regime and calls for the people of the United Kingdom to rise up
against their government and meet him a year later on November 5th. The police attempt to
capture V at the station but he is helped by Evey who is then knocked out and brought to V's
residence. V tells Evey that she cannot leave until next year and about his plans and how he has
been killing government officials. At the same time, the chief of police, Inspector Finch, sets
out to uncover V's whereabouts but at the same time has a distrust for the current
government. Evey escapes and is eventually recaptured by what she believes is the
government who tries to get information out of her on V. She refuses and is placed in jail
where her only socializing comes in the form of someone slipping her notes into her jail cell.
Eventually, Evey finds out that V staged her capture in order to rid her of her fears and though
she initially hates V for doing this to her, she determines that she is a stronger person now and
that she will return to V before November 5th. Inspector Finch traces V's identity to a chemical,
bioweapons program and meets with an individual, who is a disguised V, and he tells him that
the program was run by Adam Sutler, back when he was a secretary, and that they developed
the St. Mary's Virus as a false flag terrorist attack to cause panic and have the Norsefire party
come into power with the promise of security being brought back to the United Kingdom.
November 5th arrives and V has distributed Guy Fawkes mask throughout the country. The
people begin to show up and march their way onto Parliament while V instructs Evey to decide
if she wants to send a train of explosives directly into the Parliament building. V then meets of
with the Secret Police Chief Peter Creedy who executes Chancellor Sutler in exchange for V
turning himself into him. V, however kills the armed police and Chief Creedy but is mortally
wounded. He finds his way to Evey and dies in her arms and Evey places him into the train and
alongside Inspector Finch sends the train to explode Parliament. With no commands by the
now dead government, the military stands down from the crowd of people and they watch as
Parliament gets blown up.
Human Nature
I think the rule of the Norsefire party and that of Chancellor Sutler could be described as
a sort of terrifying love. In Sutler's eyes, immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals, and disease ridden
individuals were the source of all of London's problems and so he rounded those people up into
concentration camps and exterminated them to rid of the country of so called degeneracy and
that is why the Norsefire government exists and implements the policies of surveillance and
censorship in order to protect the people from these undesirables.
In terms of self-interest, the film does have an example of both enlightened and
unenlightened self-interest. Enlightened self-interest can be described as acting in the interest
of another individual, or group of individuals in order to further your own self-interests. An
example of this in the film is when V stages the imprisonment of Evey and locks her up. He did
this in order for her to get rid of her fears and indeed when she is finally released she says
herself that she has become a stronger person. By helping Evey eliminate her fears, V also
furthered his own self-interest because he now had another person close to him that he could
trust to carry out his plans of toppling the Norsefire government and realizing his dream of
having the country rise up against the regime. Unenlightened self-interest can be described as
simple greed and someone acting for their own self-interest even if it is detrimental to the
group as a whole. In the movie, it is revealed that in the past the current dictator, Chancellor
Sutler, ordered the creation of the "St. Mary's Virus" in order to create panic across the country
and have people vote him into power. Sure enough he was voted into power and a few
individuals did profit from Sutler's self-interest but as a whole the people's freedom was
restricted and their actions monitored while Sutler enjoyed being in rule.
The Good and The Good Society
In the film both the Norsefire government and the character of V have their own ideas
of what The Good is or what their standards of right and wrong are. Norsefire, as I've
mentioned, believe that things such as surveillance, censorship, and restrictions are good and
necessary for the country to prosper and continue to be stable and secure. V rejects tyrannical
rule and values freedom and justice above all else. One thing both have in common is the use
of intimidation to get their ideologies across. The government quickly kidnaps and executes
any person critical of the regime and has secret police everywhere who make sure everyone is
kept in line and isn't out after curfew. V does the same except he goes after and kills
government officials and bombs government buildings.
The Norsefire government view themselves and their ways as absolute moral good and
abide by the slogan Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Faith. At the start of the film Lewis
Prothero, the man in charge of spouting propaganda on the state television, is talking about the
downfall of the United States and states that the reason for its downfall was godlessness and
that no one escapes judgement. Norsefire rule under the guise that they are a god-fearing
government and nation and that they were tested during the world's crisis and that is the
reason the country prevails.
Other Relevant Course Concepts
One thing I think this film somewhat portrays and that we discussed about in this course
was the human predicament cycle. V explains in his hijacked broadcast how the government
has removed the liberties that the people of the UK used to have and asks how it happened. He
then explains that it was the people themselves who put themselves into this position. People
were afraid of the chaos occurring in the world such as war, terror, and disease and Norsefire
brought the promise of order and peace in exchange for their silent, obedient consent. We
discussed in this class that most people in the world would eventually reject Anarchy after a
few days and that they would prefer a Tyrannical leadership over Anarchy. The people in V for
Vendetta did not even let revolution or anarchy occur and went straight to electing a
dictatorship into power.
In our book for this class, it mentions that in a good society, people are able to meet
their physical needs, make informed decisions, live in safety, and exercise their democratic
rights. Physical well-being includes nourishment, healthcare, and housing. As far as you can
tell, the United Kingdom in this world is probably very similar to our world and people seem to
have adequate housing and nourishment in the film. There isn’t anything really in the film that
indicates that this society is lacking in physical well-being. The same can be said about
informed decision making. The people in the film appear to be literate; however, the
government does suppress some knowledge from the people through the use of propaganda.
The good society must also provide its citizens with safety and security. As is expected of a
society that imposes a curfew on their citizens, has police all over the place, and is under
complete surveillance, the citizens in V for Vendetta are safe and don’t really have to live in fear
of getting assaulted by anyone, at the cost of losing a lot of their liberties. The only thing the
citizens aren’t safe from is their own government who, as long as they silently comply, will
somewhat leave them be. As far as the exercising of democratic rights, this society does a
terrible job of allowing their citizens to participate democratically. The Norsefire party is a
dictatorship and the Chancellor, once elected, has refused to step down. It is assumed that the
other members of the party were not democratically elected and instead placed in their
positions by the Chancellor himself.
Political/Historical Reality vs. Hollywood
I think V for Vendetta does a good job of demonstrating some of the issues and fears
that we face in our modern world. Certainly terrorism, disease and disaster are all problems
the modern world faces. Though fascism as it once was has been virtually eliminated,
totalitarianism isn’t. Things present in the film such as surveillance are topics that are discussed
today especially in the United States with things such as the NSA and PATRIOT Act. We are
generally against totalitarian regimes such as North Korea and we see things such as Russia
taking over parts of the Ukraine as something that must be stopped because we get flashbacks
to similar situations, such as Nazi Germany, and fear the past repeating itself. The authors of V
for Vendetta are self proclaimed anarchists so I do believe there is a certain bias to anarchist
and libertarian views in the film with the whole message being that people should not be afraid
of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people. In the movie everything
culminates with people finally marching against the government and congregating to see
Parliament blown up, but what happens next? No one in the film, especially V, states what will
become of the UK. The Norsefire government officials have basically been wiped out but who’s
to say that another totalitarian person won’t come into power and repeat the cycle? Many
anarchists and libertarians praise the movie but fail to explain how a stable government would
be formed after the people rise up. In some ways, I like the message of the movie. If a
government oppresses its people there has to be a point where the people say enough is
enough and as John Locke said, they have a right to rebel. What I don’t agree with is how V is
essentially a terrorist in the movie using fear and intimidation to get his points across to the
Norsefire government and to a smaller extent, the people. As previously mentioned, I also
dislike how there is no way of knowing what direction the country will go and how it will avoid
the human predicament cycle. What I really agree with its movie is its strong message against
apathy and how idleness can allow governments to strip our rights and freedoms. Many people
complain about the government while simultaneously saying that it’s a waste of time to go
vote. If you are not involved in the political process and vote or even campaign for individuals
who share your views, how can you ever expect things to change?