V for Vendetta

Imagine a country in which every action you take is either controlled or spied upon by your government. When you go out to walk your dog, a camera zooms in on your face. If you’re caught walking the streets after the eleven o’clock curfew, you are taken by the secret police and interrogated for treasonous or terrorist activities. Now I would like you to think of a country whose people willingly elected Supreme Chancellor Sutler, the creator of this dictatorship, because the truth had been hidden from their eyes.

This is the world that the Wachowski brothers, producers of the movie, have created in their movie, V for Vendetta. With the globe covered in conflicts ranging from disease to civil wars to global terrorism, the British people are horrified to find their own country ridden with disease in their water systems and an elementary school. 80,000 people died due to this. Before the disease, no one would have expected the totalitarian party, Norsefire, headed by Adam Sutler to win the elections. But promising peace and a return to a normal life through his strict lifestyle changes, Norsefire’s popularity skyrocketed and easily took power. Miraculously, several weeks after his election the disease was found to be the work of Islamic extremists and a cure discovered. Sutler hosted several public speeches telling them of the need to crack down so they would not fall into decay like the rest of the world. He eventually gains entire control of the media and of every aspect of life, and the people accept it.

Image of Chancellor Sutler taken from this website

It isn’t until a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask (his face has been irreversibly damaged by chemical tests in a concentration camp and the mask is symbolic that he is the face of the people) blows up the Old Bailey and seizes control of the government-controlled television station that the people begin to see past the blindfold placed over their eyes. Calling himself “V”, the man plays a speech that is played on every TV in London. He tells them that he understands that the people were afraid, but they have allowed Sutler to take away from them their lives. He asks them to rise up with him one year from that day, November 5th ( Guy Fawkes Day ), to take back their lives. Almost immediately after, the government leaders take control of the TV station and say that the “terrorist” V has been eliminated, another lie to cover up the truth behind their actions. As the movie goes on, V continues to uncover the carefully hidden secrets of Sutler and his minions, including the virus that allowed Norsefire to gain power. On November 5th, one year later, the people, dressed as V himself to show they are ready to fight to regain their lives, gather at Parliament and together destroy the regime.

Image of V taken from this website

When I read about this assignment this was the first movie that came to mind because of the way in which the people are blinded by their situation. They themselves are the ones responsible for electing Sutler into power, yet they try to shift blame to others and accept their miserable states. But just as in “ The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato , the people are shown the light. Although they don’t accept what they see at first because they’re so used to accepting what their government says, they eventually come to see that what V uncovers is the truth. They look at their decision to vote for the Norsefire campaign and evaluate what caused them to do so. Once they see through the curtain of lies, there is nothing that the government can do to convert them back to their sheltered state and they rise up to defend the truths that have been denied of them. He also shows an immense amount of faith in the citizens and also faith in himself through his plans. V was maliciously tortured by his own government for months; used as a test subject for chemical experiments. The fact that he can still trust anyone other than himself after this and still have the courage to stand up for himself when the government could just as easily capture him again or worse, assassinate him, amazes me. This complex and interesting character presented to us by the Wachowski brothers to me is a perfect illustration faith and of "seeing the light."

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