STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM “V for Vendetta”

Sep 9, 2019
2 min read

People shouldn’t be afraid of their government; governments should be afraid of their people.

Directed by James McTeigue, screenplay by the Wachowski Brothers (now known as simply the Wachowskis), and based on the graphic novel of the same name (written by Alan Moore) and illustrated by David Lloyd, V for Vendetta is set in a dystopian version of England. A young woman who is rescued from being assaulted by roaming secret police by a vigilante wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, calling himself V.

V is a terrorist; his first act is successfully blowing up the Old Bailey. When the woman is now being hunted by Scotland Yard Inspector Finch for being in league with V, having rescued him from being arrested at the TV studio she works at, V takes her under his wing for her protection. There is a final act of revolution that needs to be done, which will happen a year later, on the fifth of November.

Meanwhile, Finch investigates who V is and why he is doing this; in doing so, he uncovers a secret history involving the atrocities of the government he works for.

There are a lot of things this film does right: the characters and performances, the setting/production design, the dialogue, and the choice of imagery.

There's a lot of clever uses of the letter V, and the number five (roman numeral, of course) that are scattered throughout the film, as a visual cue or through dialogue. If you ever get chance to look up all of them, you'll be impressed.

The story is seen as a parallel of what was going on at the time in 2006 America, though the history portrayed in the film is reminiscent to a lot of atrocities that was happening around the world, particularly to minorities of any kind.

The film is very quotable, a good majority of them come from V himself. Hugo Weaving does an amazing vocal performance, and whoever is performing him in the costume should deserve equal praise, able to exhibit every emotion through the body, as his face is never seen. His introductory monologue, which contains so many Vs, is a language fan’s dream come true.

I was aware of this film when I saw the trailer, and after having seen the Matrix trilogy, and seeing the trailer have some martial arts sequences, I was very excited to see this. Sadly, there are not a lot of these, and the few scenes that do involve fighting are not as well shot. This is really where the film falters for me, as I was really looking forward to them. Luckily, the film is succeeds in other parts that I looked past my expectation.