V for Vendetta - some Themes

V for Vendetta themes

                The major themes in V for Vendetta are the role of vigilantes, government, dictators, murder, and discusses the role of rebellion, vigilantes, and government. 

Revolution requires almost insanity to achieve, and that it also requires strong actions and followers as V’s training of Evey illustrate Evey must be at the point of desiring death over imprisonment. She must be willing to do what it takes to break the grip of oppression. 

V for Vendetta simulates complete dictatorship, with leaders that control their people with strict laws and fear. The film constantly draws parallels between being imprisoned and the society that they live in - such as the oppression of the CCTV camera system and the constant police force.

 V’s origin is believed to have originated from a Jewish concentration camp-like facility. He is believed to have experienced some of the worst of the government’s experiments. He believes that only an "insane" people can see the atrocities occurring in England. That through "insanity", people are freed from the confines that society places on them. V for Vendetta was most successful at highlighting the essentials of rebellion and change.

Murder was doubtfully an issue for V for maintaining justification for his actions. If V continues to use murder and terrorism to achieve his goals, then the fundamentals of the society that he wants to create will be built upon murder, terrorism, and having the means justify the ends. His society would likely be worse than the current one.

Wikipedia:

Themes

[edit]Sources

V for Vendetta sets the Gunpowder Plot as V's historical inspiration, contributing to his choice of timing, language and appearance.^[4] For example, the names Rokewood, Percy and Keyes are used in the film, which are also the names of three of the Gunpowder conspirators. The film creates parallels to Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, by drawing direct comparisons between V and Edmond Dantès. (In both stories, the hero escapes an unjust and traumatic imprisonment and spends decades preparing to take vengeance on his oppressors under a new persona.)^[13][14][15] The film is also explicit in portraying V as the embodiment of an idea rather than an individual through V's dialogue and by depicting him without a past, identity or face. According to the Official website, "V's use of the Guy Fawkes mask and persona functions as both practical and symbolic elements of the story. He wears the mask to hide his physical scars, and in obscuring his identity – he becomes the idea itself."^[4]

As noted by several critics and commentators, the film's story and style mirrors elements from Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera.^[16][17] V and the Phantom both wear masks to hide their disfigurements, control others through the leverage of their imaginations, have tragic pasts, and are motivated by revenge. V and Evey's relationship also parallels many of the romantic elements of the Phantom of the Opera, where the masked Phantom takes Christine Daaé to his subterranean lair to reeducate her.^[16][17][18]

The Norsefire regime takes totalitarian imagery from many sources, both historical and fictional.

As a film about the struggle between freedom and the state, V for Vendetta takes imagery from many classic totalitarian icons both real and fictional, including the Third Reich and George Orwell's 1984.^[4][8] For example, Adam Sutler^[8]primarily appears on large video screens and on portraits in people's homes, reminiscent of Big Brother. In another reference to Orwell's novel, the slogan "Strength through Unity. Unity through Faith" is displayed prominently across London, similar in cadence to "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength" in Orwell's book. This connection between the two can also be seen when Evey is being tortured and finds the rat in her room, akin to that being the protagonist's worst fear in 1984.^[19] There is also the state's use of mass surveillance, such as closed-circuit television, on its citizens. Valerie was sent to a detention facility for being a lesbian and then had medical experiments performed on her, reminiscent of persecution of gays and Jews in Nazi Germany (see Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust).^[17] The name of Adam Sutler is inspired by the name of Adolf Hitler. Sutler's hysterical speech is also inspired from Hitler's style of speech although his targets for persecution now include Muslims rather than Jews. Indeed, Deitrich is executed once it is found he had possession of a Quran. Norsefire has replaced St George's Cross with a national symbol similar to the modern Cross of Lorraine (both crossbars near the top). This was a symbol used by Free French Forces during World War II, as it was a traditional symbol of French patriotism that could be used as an answer to the Nazis' Swastika. (The modern Lorraine Cross is also used by the American Lung Association as its symbol for the fight against tuberculosis). The symbol is, literally, a "double-cross" which ties in with the films' theme of corrupt government, and V's anti-authority position. A symbol called the double cross was also used as the flag of the totalitarian ruling party in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. In that film, it was meant to be a parody of the Swastika.The media are also portrayed as highly subservient to government propaganda, a characteristic of totalitarian regimes in general.

[edit]The letter V and the number 5

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage – no mere veneer of vanity – is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one-day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

— V's alliterative introductory monologue upon meeting Evey

Similarly to the graphic novel, there is repeated reference to the letter "V" and the number five throughout the film (note "V" is the Roman numeral five).^[20] For example, V's introduction to Evey is a monologue containing 48 words beginning with the letter "V", and containing a total of 52 letter "V"s. When Evey tells V her name he repeats it slowly as "E... V". In Evey's name, the letter "E" is the fifth letter of the alphabet, "V" is the fifth letter from the end of the alphabet and is the roman numeral for five, and the letter Y is the 25th letter of the alphabet; 25 being 5 squared. In Latin, Evey's phonetic name means "exit V"; the character V acknowledges this, knowing that this event has begun the chain-reaction of events which will end in his demise. During his imprisonment at Larkhill, V was held in cell "V", as is Evey during her fake imprisonment. V's Zorro-like signature is also the letter "V". In the explosion involving the Old Bailey, the fireworks form a red V configuration, completed by a circular firework, thus resembling not only V but the V for Vendetta logo. It is revealed that V's favorite phrase is "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe", which according to the film translates into the 5 "V"ed Latin phrase: "Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici". ("Vniversum" is actually written with a U, but in old Latin, the letter "U" was written as a "V.") In a dance with Evey, the song V chooses is number five on his jukebox. In fact, all the songs are song number five. When V confronts Creedy in his greenhouse, he plays Beethoven's "Fifth" Symphony, whose opening notes have a rhythmic pattern that resembles the letter "V" in Morse code (•••–).^[21][22]The film's title itself is a reference to "V for Victory".^[23] As V waits for night to fall, he arranges a complex domino pattern in black and red which forms the V logo. In the short sequence overlooking the traincars, the railroad tracks form the letter V. In a flyover shot of London towards the end of the film, Big Ben is shown, with its hour hand pointing at 11 and the minute hand at 1, forming a V shape. When the time is read, it shows 11:05, another reference 11–5, or November 5. In the battle with Creedy and his men at Victoria station, he uses five of his six daggers and forms a "V" with his daggers just before he throws them. As V throws two of his daggers at the men on either side of Creedy, the daggers form a "V" shape five times while spinning through the air. After V kills Creedy's men, Creedy fires five shots at V. After the battle, when V is mortally wounded, he leaves a "V" signature in his own blood. The destruction of Parliament results in a display of fireworks which form the letter "V", which is also an inverted Circle-A, a symbol commonly used by anarchists.^[24]

[edit]Modern fears of totalitarianism

"We felt the 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. I don't think it's such a big leap to say that things like that can happen when leaders stop listening to the people."

—James McTeigue, Director^[4]

With the intention of modernizing the film, the filmmakers added topical references relevant to a modern 2006 audience. According to the Los Angeles Times, "With a wealth of new, real-life parallels to draw from in the areas of government surveillance, torture, fear mongering and media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy, you can't really blame the filmmakers for having a field day referencing current events." There are also references to an avian flu pandemic, as well as pervasive use of biometric identification and signal-intelligence gathering and analysis by the regime.^[19]

Many film critics, political commentators and other members of the media have also noted the numerous references in the film to events surrounding the then-current George W. Bush administration in the United States. These include the "black bags" worn by the prisoners in Larkhill that have been seen as a reference to the black bags worn by prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and in U.S.-administered Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, though the pre-Matrix draft of the screenplay also contains this reference to black bags.^[25][26] Also London is under a yellow-coded curfew alert, similar to the US Government's color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System.^[27] One of the forbidden items in Gordon's secret basement is a protest poster with a mixed U.S.–UK flag with a swastika and the title "Coalition of the Willing, To Power" which combines the "Coalition of the Willing" with Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of Will to Power.^[28] As well, there is use of the term "rendition" in the film, in reference to the way the regime removes undesirables from society.^[29] There is even a brief scene (during the Valerie flashback) that contains real-life footage of an anti-Iraq war demonstration, with mention of President George W. Bush. Finally, the film contains references to "America's war" and "the war America started" as well as real footage from the Iraq War. The film also makes a brief reference to wars in Kurdistan, Syria, and Sudan.

Despite the America-specific references, the filmmakers have always referred to the film as adding dialogue to a set of issues much broader than the U.S. administration.^[8] When James McTeigue was asked whether or not BTN was based on Fox News McTeigue replied, "Yes. But not just Fox. Everyone is complicit in this kind of stuff. It could just as well been the Britain's Sky News Channel, also a part of News Corp."^[8]

Political

V for Vendetta deals with issues of homosexuality, criticism of religion, totalitarianism, Islamophobia and terrorism. Its controversial story line and themes have been the target of both criticism and praise from sociopolitical groups.

V for Vendetta - Mock Exam Mod 1: Key Scenes for Analysis of Messages & Values

Section A Question 1

How are the key messages and values communicated in the films you have studied? [40/100 marks]

For questions set on the area of messages and values, candidates may offer discussions centring on the types of messages and values that can be interpreted from the texts selected for response and also discuss the processes by which these messages and values may be communicated. This may include discussions of one or more of the following:

• Cinematography - the use of camera shots, angle, movement, composition, and lighting.

• Editing - the organisation of sequences to construct meaning. This should include transition of image and sound, continuity and non-continuity systems, cutting (shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway, insert).

• Sound - diegetic and non-diegetic sound, synchronous/asynchronous sound, sound effects, sound motifs, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective, and soundtrack (score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound).

• Mise-en-Scène - production design, location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties, colour design, casting.

Key Scenes

Evey's Torture (Guantanamo, Rendition)



 Larkhill (GMO & Vaccines)

Ending (Revolution)

V's Speech (Suicide Bomber, Media Network)

Diettrich's Secret Life

V for Vendetta Messages & Values - Key Scene & Values

V for Vendetta
From the makers of The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta paints the story of a vengeful terrorist – or freedom fighter? – which, whether in Thatcherite Britain of the 1980s or Bush’s America after 9/11, has an eternal message.
Philip Coppens

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“Remember Remember the Fifth of November…” November 5 in Great Britain is notorious for being Guy Fawkes’ night. Fawkes was a “terrorist”, an English Roman Catholic who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the so-called Gunpowder Plot in 1605. The now yearly fireworks that are held across the country are a somewhat mocking “tribute” to his failed attempts.
The plan called for Westminster Palace to be blown up during the formal opening session of the 1605 Parliament, in which the king addresses a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Fawkes’ activities were detected and following a severe interrogation involving torture and a trial, he and his conspirators were executed for treason and attempted murder. Fawkes became a national legend, whose actions continue to be remembered across Britain each year, and is thus on par with notorious Christian saints like St George or St Andrews and the Queen’s birthday. A man was transformed into a legend.
Guy Fawkes is central to “V for Vendetta”, which in origin was a comic book series that appeared in the 1980s, written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd. Though set in the future, it was meant to attack the then present premiership of Margaret Thatcher. The comic book series depicted the Norsefire, the archetypal “evil party” as Thatcher’s Conservative Party, based on fears of an extremist police state, which was notorious (e.g. the miners’ strikes). Norsefire obviously was also based on the Nazi Party, the example of a fascist regime par excellence. In both stories, thte Norsefire/Conservative Party actively participates in the systematic elimination of racial minorities, homosexuals and political dissidents from society.
The comic book was reworked into a film, with the film's original release scheduled for Friday, November 4, 2005 (a day before the 400th Guy Fawkes Night), but the release was delayed; it instead opened on March 17, 2006. Some believe it was postponed due to the July 7, 2005 London bombings, though producers denied this was the reason.
 
Apart from Portman and Weaving, there was also John Hurt in the role of High Chancellor Adam Sutler, a role virtually lifted from Orwell’s Big Brother. Playing Chancellor Sutler was a complete role reversal for John Hurt, as he had previously played the part of Winston Smith, the victim of the Big Brother state in the film adaptation of 1984. 

Fawkes is V’s inspiration. “V” wants to change the course of history by blowing up the Houses of Parliament – he wants to succeed where Fawkes had failed, and the date for this attempt is of course November 5. As to why he wants to do so: he wants to destroy the authoritarian government. V is a freedom fighter who uses terrorist tactics in pursuit of a personal vendetta but, above all, he wants to force socio-political change in a dystopian Britain. In the 1980s, Moore had used the future to paint 1980s Britain, the film used the future to paint, as one reviewer, the paint a "world where politicians lied to get us into an unpopular war [Iraq], one where torture is no longer considered off-limits by people who are supposedly the good guys, and where public surveillance is all but ubiquitous.” The film thus become notorious for one of its plethora of catchphrases: “People shouldn’t fear their governments; governments should fear their people.”
So the story is set in ca. 2038, when Britain is ruled by a totalitarian regime called Norsefire. It follows Evey (pronounced “E-V”) Hammond, a young woman who, at the start of the film, is rescued from the state police by a masked vigilante, who introduces himself as V and then sets out his “mission statement”: “Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.” To which Evey replies: “Are you like a crazy person?” V: “They will say that.” 

V takes Evey to a rooftop location to witness his spectacular first destruction: the Old Bailey, the “ouverture” to his year-long campaign. V has rigged the public address system, which is playing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. The Old Bailey symbolises Justice and V feels it has to be destroyed, as Justice has taken a holiday and an impostor is ruling Britain. Of course, the regime explains the incident as a planned emergency demolition, with experts lined up to speak about a failed structural integrity of the building. The government claims that it was also blown up as evidence of Britain’s decadent past. 

But this is quickly shown to be a lie when V takes over the state-run television station (BTN) later that day. He walks into BTN as a suicide bomber, packed with explosives, and forces the station to play his prepared tape to the entire nation. V now informs the nation of his plan, urging the people of Britain to rise up and stand with him at the gates of Parliament on November 5, one year later. He implies that on that day he will destroy the Houses of Parliament. Though he is seen as a terrorist, V sees himself as a freedom fighter. He underlines that “the truth is that there is something terribly wrong with this country”. There is no freedom to object. The government is coercing your conformity. Who is to blame? Who is held accountable? Not the government, but the guilty, “us”. How did it get like this? “We were afraid. War. Terror. Disease, robbed us of common sense. Fear. And we turned to the Chancellor who promised peace, and to give us silent obedient consent.” Afraid of terror, we have allowed a terrific monster to be created: a totalitarian government, which hopes the nation will suffer from a collective form of amnesia. V wants to remind us of our past. “This country has forgotten something. Fairness. Justice. Freedom. They are more than words. They are perspectives. Stand beside me, one year from tonight, and together we will give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever, be forgotten.” He has laid down his challenge – and his agenda.

Within V’s liberation agenda, Fate then throws Evey, who works at the BTN and who the authorities believe is V’s comrade-in-arms, in the role of his accomplice. As Fate would have it, her parents were considered to be terrorists too. For the police, it is clear why she is doing it; as to V, and who he is, that is a major mystery. They are unable to comprehend that V is a human being; they depict him as if he has no human emotions. Still, “part of him is human”. It underlines how at the first, the police are totally unable to comprehend what motivates V; they see a man who breaks the law and nothing more. The police also search for a connection between V and Evey, but there is none. As to why V does what he does, this is only a slow realisation that the police make as his campaign progresses, before finally discovering that they should indeed be on his side. Meanwhile, BTN News makes it look as if the terrorist V was killed in a “heroic” raid that ended V’s siege of the BTN Tower – in reality, V escapes, and takes Evey with him. 

This episode also refers to one major difference between book and film: the computer system "Fate" is completely missing from the film. Fate was a Big-Brother-like computer which served as Norsefire's eyes and ears and also helped explain how V could see and hear the things he did. Of course, Fate’s presence would have made V for Vendetta very much into a Matrix clone. Instead, there are subtle references to the role of Fate (as in coincidence), with V indicating on numerous occasions that there is no such thing as coincidence, but merely the illusion of coincidence – suggesting an underlying plan – a greater scheme, hinting that V’s personal vendetta is not so much personal, but that perhaps he sees himself acting out a divine retribution, a notion not uncommon in terrorist – or government – propaganda.

Though Evey becomes V’s comrade-in-arms by Fate, we also see how V is not alone in wanting change. Evey finds rescue in the home of one of her superiors from the BTN, Gordon Deitrich (Stephen Fry), who reveals to her that he is a closet homosexual and a collector of banned art and literature. He has a copy of the Koran. He is not a Muslim (which, it is implied, has become outlawed), but he finds the book moving and interesting. Homosexuals too are outlawed. Though well-known and in the public eye, no-one knows him really. “You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you are beneath it.” This of course also applies to V. 

V is also a collector of art. Some of the works of art displayed in V’s gallery include "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck, "Bacchus and Ariadne" by Titian, a Mildred Pierce poster, "St. Sebastian" by Andrea Mantegna and "The Lady of Shalott" by John William Waterhouse. V explains that “artists tell lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.” And it is clear that both the comic book and the film are artistic expressions. His personal motto is "VI VERI VENIVERSUM VIVUS VICI", "By the power of Truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe", taken from Faust, another “dramatis persona” upon which V seems to have based himself. He explains that symbols are important, as they are given power by the people, whether it is the Houses of Parliament, the Old Bailey… or Guy Fawkes. Still, V hiding behind a symbolic mask is used by the government to make ridicule of him: “A man does not wear a mask. A man does not threaten innocent civilians. He is a coward.”

The year-long campaign that V has set out is a killing spree, a personal vendetta, whereby each murder has to be explained away by the authorities, but whereby each murder helps the police paint the truth: that V is doing this spree as it is his personal vendetta.
One by one, leading social figures are killed; there is the murder of a paedophile bishop. There is Lewis Prothero, the “Voice of London”, who “died in his sleep”, rather than in the shower, where V kills him. As the killing spree continues, the trail becomes clear, and involves another V: Viadoxic Pharmaceuticals. It operated a site known as Larkhill, where fourteen years earlier, the company had made a discovery that “could be the dawn of a new age”. The facility is described as the end of atomic, but the start of biological warfare. What no-one knows, is that the agents are tested on humans, which the scientists involved describe as “weak and pathetic” people, “helping” their country. This is where V’s role comes to the forefront. One night, one November 5, the facility was hit by a series of explosions. It turns out that only one person survived: V. He stayed in room 5 – V – and not only is he the sole survivor, it also seems that he was the person who created the explosions, a skill he has also used on the Old Bailey and will use on the Houses of Parliament. 

But that is not all: the leaders of Viadoxic were also the ones who created the totalitarian regime. The ultra-conservative Norsefire party played upon the deeply divided country, trying to gain in power, until a bioterrorist attack occurred, killing 80,000 people. The fear generated by the attack allowed Norsefire to silence all opposition and win the next election by a landslide. A cure for the virus was discovered soon afterwards. But rather than return to a state of peace and freedom, fear was used to turn Britain into a bigoted totalitarian order, with their leader Adam Sutler becoming the High Chancellor.

The entire nation, fourteen years onwards, still lives under the notion that it was a biological attack by a terrorist, but V knows better. The question he poses is what if the worst most horrific biological attack was not the work of religious extremists? (Who were, by the way, executed for it.) What if someone else unleashed the virus and someone else killed all of these people? He asks “Would you really want to know who it was? If it was someone working for this government? If our own government was responsible for the deaths of almost 100,000 people. Would you really want to know?”
The police figure out V’s motive just before the murder of a doctor who was involved in the Viadoxic experiments and who apologises for what they did to V, but V remarks that “I have not come for what you hoped to do, I have come for what you did.” Though the doctor wanted to do differently, she did it just the same.
Only the top echelon of the party, all guilty of the crimes committed against V and the loss of freedom in Britain, now survive. They are trying to stop the police’s Larkhill investigation, by questioning the loyalty of the investigating chief inspector: the contents of the documents are made subject to national security and at the same time put in doubt. They are described as a possible forgery created by the terrorist himself, or a delusion of the writer. Either way, it would be an act of treason if their contents were divulged. “You would do well, inspector, to put it out of your mind.”

A key sequence is when Evey thinks that she is captured by the police, incarcerated and tortured for days, finding solace only in the notes left by another prisoner named Valerie, who was imprisoned and persecuted for being a lesbian. Evey is told that she will be executed unless she reveals V's whereabouts. An exhausted Evey finally says she would rather die, and, surprisingly, is then released. Evey discovers that she has been in V's lair all along, and that her imprisonment was staged by V. By forcing Evey to experience what he had gone through long ago, V hoped that Evey would understand that our integrity, "the very last inch of us", can be more important than our lives. She is now rid of fear, not afraid of dying; she is truly liberated; she has, like V, become “superhuman”. At this point, V reveals that Valerie was the spark of his rebellion and hatred of the government. V tells her that she hates him now for what he has done to her, but “then something happened, it happened to me, just like it happened to you.” V created a lie, but because she believed it, she found something true about herself. “This is the most important moment of your life. Commit to it.” It is here that there is a graphic representation of her rebirth: she receives a baptism of water (rain), interspersed with flashbacks to V's rebirth, when a victim in a cruel pharmaceutical experiment liberated himself, and via a baptism of fire, was reborn as V, heralding a twenty year long vendetta, which is supposed to lead to a new world.

As November 5 nears, V's various schemes cause chaos and the population grows more and more intolerant and subversive towards the regime. The TV pump up the ante and fear, to underline that obedience is required against the danger that is everywhere. There are references to civil war in the United States; water shortage and water coupons; avian flu; quarantaine zones and airborne pathogen, while the terrorist V is linked with an attack on London 14 years ago. The government is trying to maintain the status quo of fear and showing that revolt will lead to severe consequences.
On the eve of November 5, Evey is shown a train in an abandoned London Underground station which V has filled with explosives in order to destroy Parliament. He leaves the decision up to her and leaves to meet Party leader Creedy who, as part of an earlier agreement, has agreed to bring the Chancellor to V in exchange for V's surrender. Creedy kills the Chancellor in front of V, but rather than surrender, V also kills Creedy. During the fight, Creedy asks: “Why won’t you die?” “Beneath this mask is an idea. And ideas are bullet proof.”
V the man, however, is mortally wounded in the fight, but returns to Evey, thanks her, professes his love for her, and dies. His body is placed upon the train with the explosives, his funeral barge, which Evey, with the consent of the chief inspector, sends towards the Houses of Parliament. Meanwhile, thousands of Londoners, all wearing Guy Fawkes’ masks, march on Parliament to watch the event. Because Creedy and the Chancellor are dead, the military receives no orders from superiors and, as a result, stands down in the face of these riots, preventing bloodshed.
Remarkably, the final scene, incorporating Westminster, the area from Trafalgar Square and Whitehall up to Parliament and Big Ben, was actually shot on location. The area had to be closed for three nights. This was the first time the security-sensitive area (home to 10 Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence) had ever been closed to accommodate filming. Furthermore, Prime Minister Tony Blair's son Euan worked on the film's production and is said (through an interview with Stephen Fry) to have helped the filmmakers obtain the unparalleled filming access. This drew criticism for Blair from Conservative MP David Davis due to the controversial content of the film. However, the makers of the film denied Euan Blair's involvement in the deal, stating that access was acquired through nine months of negotiations with 14 different government departments and agencies.

The Houses of Parliament is destroyed by the explosion amid the 1812 Overture. On a nearby rooftop, Evey and chief inspector Finch watch the scene together and hope for a better tomorrow – a real hope, not like the one that would turn an atomic into a biological war. Earlier, V illustrated that Victory was a perilous event, for it would be a domino-effect, illustrated by V playing with dominoes, in which one action leads to a next step, each increasing the former, until a crescendo is reached and the final domino does or does not fall… But in the end, the reVolution was successful.
V is dead; his vendetta has wiped the slate clean; a new world will dawn tomorrow, a new Britain can be built. V is now no longer for Vendetta, but for Victory. But in the end, V is also for loVe; though V’s actions will have major political consequences, in the end, he was also a man, and his motives were not purely for the greater cause, but also because he had suffered as a man. “A man can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. […] Ideas do not bleed. They do not feel pain. They do not want love. But it is not an idea I miss. It is a man.” V.

V for Vendetta Messages & Values 2 - Categorise

There's no mistaking the political statement in V for Vendetta, in which the hero is also a terrorist.

By Steve Persall
Published March 16, 2006

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V for Vendetta is the boldest political statement against the Bush administration since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Even Michael Moore wouldn't prescribe bombing government facilities as a cure for dubious leadership. A futuristic setting in England doesn't disguise the film's rabid intent.

James McTeigue's movie will be branded as irresponsible, even dangerous, by some viewers, although if the past in any indication, the ones who don't see it will yowl loudest. All those knee-jerk critics need to know is that the film's hero is a terrorist.

V for Vendetta audaciously proposes that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and the difference between good and evil is mostly semantic.

The film is based on a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd; the book was released in 1989 to protest the political atmosphere of the Margaret Thatcher years.

The plot has been reworked to post-9/11 sensibilities by Andy and Larry Wachowski, who wrote their first draft before The Matrix made them famous. Alan Moore has distanced himself from the production; an adapted dud such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen can make an author skittish.

Or perhaps he guessed a firestorm lay ahead and didn't want to answer for other authors' ideas. The Wachowski brothers are notoriously reclusive, making this a cut-and-run protest of sorts. V for Vendetta will reignite those claims of disconnect between the film industry and the real world that George Clooney eloquently doused at the recent Academy Awards.

The movie begins with a flashback to 1605 when Guy Fawkes unsuccessfully conspired to blow up Parliament, and was captured and executed. "Remember, remember, the fifth of November,'' the poem begins. But people have forgotten by 2019 when a mysterious figure wearing a cape and eerie Fawkes mask plots an explosive reminder.

Hugo Weaving "Agent Smith'' in the Matrix trilogy wears the mask throughout the film, yet his elocution of the Wachowskis' rich, rebellious dialogue creates a fuller character than expected.

He calls himself V, explained with delirious alliteration to Evey (Natalie Portman), whom he rescues from a trio of lecherous government goons. V takes Evey to a rooftop to witness his masterpiece, blowing up the Old Bailey courthouse on Nov. 5, 2019, to protest a totalitarian regime. She becomes his accomplice, both pursued by grim inspector Finch (Stephen Rea). V vows to complete Fawkes' mission and blow up Parliament on Nov. 5, 2020.

The screenplay stacks the cards in V's favor, with vaguely familiar polemics about strength, unity and faith in God spouted by blustery Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt) and a TV commentator ranting like Bill O'Reilly. Color-coded curfews keep dissent down; the media is a spin-control tool; and a Ministry of Objectionable Materials hides books, works of art, even a jukebox from citizens. Possessing a copy of the Koran is reason for execution, lumping Muslims into the same undesirable group with homosexuals and anyone who disagrees.

"The security of this nation depends upon complete and total compliance,'' Sutler says, and we're urged to hiss.

Such words speak much louder than violent actions in V for Vendetta. This is a film about ideas, not entirely popular ones, that could topple a government faster than bombs if enough people took them to heart. The finale of McTeigue's movie, when V's vendetta spreads to the masses, is so revolutionary that I wondered how this movie ever got made, much less distributed by a major studio (in this case, Warner Bros.).

Does it endorse terrorism? Not as much as it decries politicians using fear to rule. More semantics. The future, the film loudly declares, is now.

V for Vendetta Messages & Values - Characters & Values

V for Vendetta

The Man 
V, is, in even the loosest definition of the word a terrorist. Is one man's terrorist another's freedom fighter? I would normally say no. The two are different. A terrorist targets civilian targets to create un-rest in support of an idelogical goal. A freedom fighter has a specific greivance and often seeks to gain land or territory, some tangible, usually feasible, goal. So which is V? V is, in fact, both a terrorist and a freedom fighter.

We never see V's face. This is very important, as Evey realizes at the end. She can remove his mask, if she chooses. Indeed, part of her wants. But she chooses not to. Why? She realizes that to remove his mask would be to humanize him. V is not a human. He is an idea. This is key. As he states, "Ideas are bullet-proof." An idea cannot be killed, it can only be replaced by a better idea.

What idea is V? What does he stand for? He values culture, the arts, the films and the music. When Evey says that she is nobody, he corrects her. Everyone is somebody. So he values human life. Yet, he takes it so callously. How is this possible? Because V values certain things more than even human life. Namely, Freedom and Truth. These are his ideas.

The Vendetta 
V, at first, appears to be on a personal vendetta against those that wronged him. The suffering he endured in the concentration camp. He escaped. He seeks vengenance on the principle of the thing, the idea. So, he sets out to kill those that wronged him. Then, he proceeds to dismantle their governemt. His vendetta is not against his personal villains, it is against them, their ideas, their symbols, and the institutions that supports them. It is a vendetta, a personal one, against an entire idea.

To complete his goals, he murders those that have wronged him. He blows up their buildings, their symbols. He destroys their institutions, and ultimately, he replaces their ideas with his. All of these must be completed, even after the leader is dead, he still destroys Downing Street, for example.

The Fascists 
Our antagonists are un-abashed fascists. The are Nazis with a different symbol. The Nordic party, for god's sake. The Fascists value two things: Order and Survival. The Order of their society and the Survival of their society. They, unlike V, have no value of human life. They believe the ends justify the means. Thus, to ensure the survival of their society they wipe out all dissidents and all elements that might oppose them with concentration camps and secret police. Susan, the leader, has one love: Fate. We can assume then, that V might represent the opposite of Fate-Free Will.

The Death of an Idea 
V must kill their idea with his own. How? This was perhaps the most startling part to re-discover upon a re-read. V captures Evey and tortures her and beats her and locks her up. Why? To set her free. Freedom has nothing to do with a physical body. She becomes free when she decides that she values her personal identity over her own life. When she refuses to betray V, she becomes free. The change happens only in her own head, to be free is entirely a state of mind. The people willingly put themselves in cages out of ignorance. The people are in charge, always. If the government can cow them into thinking that they are oppressed, then so shall they be. When V shuts down the cameras, when the people begin to riot and over-throw, V has simply shown them that they are free. Now, when the government tries to subdue them, it will likely fail. They are free now, or at least on the path to it.

Evey
 Or as she is more commonly refered to as Eve, aka the first woman, the woman to give birth to the rest of society. The Mother of us all. When we first meet Eve, she is meek and childlike. She attempts prostitution, sleeping with her boss to maintain her job at the TV station. This tells us something, in the beginning her main concern is on survival and money, but mainly survival, as money is simply a means to that end. Similiar to the fascists, she believes the most important part of a person's life is to stay alive at all costs. V takes her under his wing. To be honest, Eve is a confused young woman, part of her wants him to be her father. She is looking for a male figure in her life. After V leads her out and lets her go, as one would an animal or a small child, she becomes attached to a middle aged man. A nice man who lets her stay at his place. Here, she finds something closer to what she thinks she needs. He is at first a father figure, someone to replace her father she lost when she was young. Before he dies, they two briefly ponder the police state they live in, if only life was better....  And then V captures her. And sets her free.
Now, Evey at the end of the novel is very different. When V dies, she is imagining the face under the mask. Her father? Her lover? No. Her face. She realizes she doesn't need the support or help of any male figures in her life. With V gone, she finally becomes a fully self-sufficient person, and assumes the creator portion of anarchy, as V intended all along. As this creator figure, she has no concerns for money or survival as she did at the beginning.

"By the power of Truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe"As V has this quote engraved on his hide-out, it is apparently extremely important to him. This fits with his two ideas, Freedom and Truth. If one were to believe in this saying, it would follow that with nothing but Truth, one can conquer any obstacle. Remember V's destruction of the fascist's ideas with his own.
The second part of this section is to whom he attributes the quote to. A certain Dr. Faust. Dr. Faust, who sold his soul for knowledge. As V seems to support this quote, he apparently believes that Truth is more important than even one's own soul.
And finally, we consider the allusion to Faust V makes to the deal Evey wanted to make with him. Is V comparing himself to the devil, and Evey to Faust? This would fit with V's earlier description of himself as the villian of the story.