Vagaries &Violence in V for Vendetta for Vendetta (James flow from her eyes. As we wit- Historically, Fawkes was an McTeigue, 2005), based on ness this scene, we hear Evey oppressed Catholic during the Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s Hammond’s (Natalie Portman) reign of King James I of Eng- graphic novel of the same voice-over: land. With a group of fellow name, opens with a medita- conspirators, he hired a cel- tion on the relationship be- Who was he really? What was lar beneath Westminster Pal- tween the political and the he like? We are told to remem- ace (also known as the Hous- personal. It is 5 Novem- ber the idea, not the man. Be- es of Parliament), where they ISSUE 46 V ber 1605 and Guy Fawkes is cause a man can fail. He can laid explosives. The plan creeping through underground be caught. He can be killed was to detonate them as the SCREEN EDUCATION tunnels with a wagon of gun- and forgotten. But 400 years King addressed both Hous- powder, when suddenly he later, an idea can still change es of Parliament (the House of is surrounded by armed men the world … But you cannot Lords and the House of Com- with dogs. Later he is tak- kiss an idea, cannot touch it, mons). Captured, Fawkes was en to the scaffold to be hung. or hold it. Ideas do not bleed. tortured and executed (hung, In the crowd a woman looks They do not feel pain. They do drawn and quartered) for trea- 157 RJURIK on. There is a strange connec- not love. And it is not an idea son. This history is not inves- DAVIDSON tion between them and tears that I miss. It is a man. tigated in V for Vendetta; rath- er, Fawkes is presented as as. It will be about their rela- British Labour Government of vour, which suggests an anti- a symbolic figure. The man tionship to people. It will be Tony Blair. religious stance. The head Evey refers to in her voice- about politics and the part of this government is the over is V (Hugo Weaving), the we play in it. It will be about Fascism and High Chancellor, played by ambiguous hero of the futur- the moral dilemmas faced its enemies John Hurt, in a direct refer- istic and dystopian film, who when opposing a totalitari- ence to Nineteen Eighty-Four wears a Guy Fawkes mask an state. What the opening Shortly after the opening se- (Michael Radford, 1984) in and also plans to blow up doesn’t indicate, however, quence, we see Evey Ham- which he played the hapless the Houses of Parliament, is that the film will also be a mond readying herself to Winston Smith. The media is shown to be compliant with the government’s wishes: forVendetta informs us that it will be a film about the ‘We don’t make up the news, that’s the government’s job. We just report it’ says one re- powerof ideas. I twill be about their relationship to people. porter. In addition, there is constant surveillance, a cur- It will be about politics and the part we play in it. It will be few to maintain order and the threat of ending up in the po- V lice’s ‘black bags’. aboutthe moral dilemmas faced when opposing a totalitarian state. The fascist government is clear about its enemies – to rouse the English masses comment on our current po- visit a friend. In the back- they are the traditional ‘en- against their powerful fascist litical climate: on terrorism ground, ‘The Voice of Lon- emies’ of the far-right wing. government. Evey becomes and war, on authoritarianism/ don’, the spokesman for the Homosexuals have a privi- involved in V’s scheme and is fascism and political protest.1 fascist government, speaks leged place in the film (The ISSUE 46 transformed from a passive The film quite explicitly criti- on the television: ‘Immi- Children of Men, by contrast, character into an active and cizes our contemporary neo- grants, Muslims, homosex- privileges refugees). Most SCREEN EDUCATION powerful agent, a convert to conservative governments uals – disease-ridden de- obviously, there is a short se- V’s ideas. (and in this it stands close generates. They had to go. quence where Evey is appar- to another recent dystopian Strength through unity. Unity ently captured by the authori- Evey’s voice-over at the be- film, The Children of Men [Al- through faith. I’m a god-fear- ties, who torture her for infor- ginning of V for Vendetta thus fonso Cuarón, 2006]) – es- ing Englishman and I’m god- mation about V (though there informs us that it will be a pecially the US Government damn proud of it.’ Thus fas- is more to this scene, which 158 film about the power of ide- under George Bush and the cism is linked to religious fer- I’ll mention later). Locked up in a cell, Evey discov- centration camps in Poland. rus was used to create fear British Flags; in the middle of ers Valerie’s life story writ- amongst the population, and the flag is a swastika, while ten on a piece of toilet paper How did this all come about? led to the spectacular rise of the writing reads: ‘The Coa- hidden in a hole in the wall. When V takes over the state High Chancellor Suttler. lition of the Willing’ (a refer- Valerie had been imprisoned television station, he ex- ence to the Coalition of the in the Larkhill Detention Cen- plains, in a call to the people A critique of Willing which formed the Iraq tre because she was a lesbi- to rise up on the following 5 neo-conservatism War) and ‘To Power’ (a refer- an. Evey retains her strength November: ence to Nietzsche). His other in the face of torture by read- In all of this, V for Vendet- banned items include the Ko- ing this letter. The two prison- How did this happen? Who’s ta makes an argument about ran – the item that ultimate- ers, one dead, the other alive, to blame? ... If you’re look- contemporary politics and ly brings about his execu- are united by this experience. ing for the guilty, you need events. Its critique of religi- tion – and gay erotica. More- The film asks us to have em- only look into a mirror. I know osity could be interpreted as over, the argument that tra- pathy for both of them. ‘Even why you did it. I know you an attack on the religiosity of ditionally conservative pol- though I do not know you, were afraid. Who wouldn’t the Bush government (Tony itics has been changed by and even though I may nev- be? War, terror, disease – Blair is also a deeply reli- the neo-conservative govern- er meet you, laugh with you, there were a myriad of prob- gious man). Other referenc- ments into a politics of fear cry with you, kiss you, I love lems which conspired to cor- es to the contemporary world has become common (see, you’, wrote Valerie. To be tru- rupt your reason and rob you abound. Events leading up for example, the documenta- ly human means not to dis- of your common sense. Fear to the rise of the fascist gov- ry series The Power of Night- criminate, but also to affirm got the best of you. And in ernment include ‘America’s mares: The Rise of the Pol- common humanity with those your fear you turned to the war’ (shown with footage of itics of Fear [Adam Curtis, one has never met.2 The film High Chancellor, Adam Sut- the war in Iraq) and the ‘black 2004]). For Teigue and the thus argues for a non-dis- tler. He promised you or- bags’ of Abu Ghraib prison. Wachowski brothers (script- criminatory attitude to sexu- der, he promised you peace, The ‘Voice of London’, for ex- writers of V for Vendetta), ality and, by implication, re- and all he demanded in re- ample, previously had a mil- the neo-conservative politics ISSUE 46 ligion and race. The Larkhill turn was your silent obedient itary career which reads as, dominant today are a close Detention Centre has obvious consent. ‘Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria – be- relative of totalitarianism. For SCREEN EDUCATION references to the Nazi death fore and after – Sudan.’ Later much of the film, the paral- camps and medical exper- Indeed, later in the film, we in the film, Evey’s friend Gor- lels suggest that the kinds of iments. Scenes of bodies, discover that the government don Deitrich (Stephen Fry) re- neo-conservative politics to- including Valerie’s, lying in itself engineered a virus (the veals a secret room where day might easily lead to total- open graves, recall the foot- St Mary’s virus) which it lat- he keeps forbidden items. A itarianism. age during World War Two of er claimed was the work of poster on the wall shows a Auschwitz and the other con- religious extremists. This vi- composite of American and 159 Resistance and morality motto, ‘People should not progress and liberation (while Yet at the same time, Teigue Opposed to this totalitari- be afraid of their govern- more radical left-wing views and the Wachowski brothers an system is V – an idea as ments. Governments should might see education and cul- are ambivalent about V’s ven- much as a character. V res- be afraid of their people’ is a ture as more two-sided, more detta against those who were cues Evey in a typical super- ‘defensive’ or ‘negative’ con- a matter of reinforcing domi- involved in running the camp hero moment.