The film was originally scheduled for release by
Warner Bros. on Friday, November 4, 2005 (a day before the 400th
Guy Fawkes Night), but was delayed; it opened on March 17, 2006, to positive reviews. Alan Moore, having been dissatisfied with the film adaptations of his other works
From Hell (2001) and
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), declined to watch the film and asked not to be credited or paid royalties.
V for Vendetta has been seen by many political groups as an allegory of oppression by government;
libertarians and
anarchistshave used it to promote their beliefs. David Lloyd stated: "The
Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way."
[4]
In the late 2020s the world is in turmoil, with the United States fractured as a result of prolonged civil war and a
pandemic of the "St. Mary's Virus" ravaging Europe. The
United Kingdom is ruled as a
fascist police state by the
Norsefire Party.
Political opponents,
immigrants,
Muslims,
homosexuals and other "undesirables" are imprisoned in
concentration camps. On November 4, a
Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante identifying himself as "
V" (
Hugo Weaving) rescues
Evey Hammond (
Natalie Portman), an employee of the state-run British Television Network (BTN), from members of the "Fingermen"
secret police while she is out past
curfew. From a rooftop, they watch his demolition of the
Old Bailey criminal court building, accompanied by fireworks and the
1812 Overture. Inspector Finch (
Stephen Rea),
Scotland Yard's Chief of Police, is tasked with investigating V's activities while BTN declares the incident an "emergency demolition". V interrupts the broadcast to claim responsibility and encourage the people of
Britain to rise up against their government and meet him on November 5 (
Guy Fawkes Night), outside the
Houses of Parliament. During the broadcast, the police attempt to capture V. Evey helps him escape but is knocked unconscious.
V takes Evey to his home, where she is told she must remain for one year. V then kills Lewis Prothero (
Roger Allam), Norsefire's chief propagandist, and Anthony Lilliman (
John Standing), the Bishop of London who is also a
pedophile. Evey offers to help, and uses the opportunity to escape to the home of her boss, comedian and talk show host Gordon Deitrich (
Stephen Fry). In return for Evey trusting him with her safety, Gordon reveals prohibited materials including
subversive paintings, an antique
Quran, and
homoeroticphotographs. After Gordon performs a
satire of the government on his show, his home is raided and Evey is captured. She is imprisoned and tortured for information about V, with her only solace being a note written by actress Valerie Page (
Natasha Wightman), a former prisoner.
Evey is told she will be executed unless she reveals V's location. When she says she would rather die, she is released and finds herself in V's home. It turns out that V was the one who had "captured" her at Gordon's home, and staged her imprisonment and torture to free her from her fears. The note was real, passed from Valerie to V when he was imprisoned. He also informs her that Deitrich had been executed when the Quran was found in his home. While Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realises she has become a stronger person. She leaves him, promising to return before November 5.
Finch learns V is the result of human experimentation and is murdering the people who detained him. Finch searches for the true identity of V, tracing him to a
bioweaponsprogram at a detention centre for "social deviants" and
political dissidents in
Larkhill concentration camp. Finch meets William Rookwood, who tells him that the program, directed by then-
Undersecretary Adam Sutler (
John Hurt), resulted in the creation of the "St. Mary's Virus" and its release in a
false flag terrorist attack. The deaths of over 100,000 people and the resulting fear enabled the Norsefire Party to win the next election and turn the country into a
totalitarian state under Sutler's rule as High Chancellor. Finch later discovers the man he met was V in disguise, and Finch initially disbelieves his story.
As November 5 nears, V distributes thousands of Guy Fawkes masks and the population questions Party rule. On the eve of November 5, Evey visits V, who shows her an explosive-laden train in the abandoned
London Underground, set to destroy Parliament. He leaves it to Evey to decide whether to use it. V meets Party Leader Creedy (
Tim Pigott-Smith), with whom he made a deal to surrender in exchange for Sutler's execution. After Creedy executes Sutler, V reneges on his deal and kills Creedy and his men. Mortally wounded, he returns to Evey and tells her he loves her before dying.
As Evey places V's body aboard the train she is found by Finch. Disillusioned by the Party's regime, Finch allows Evey to send the train. Thousands of unarmed Londoners wearing Guy Fawkes masks march towards Parliament. As Creedy and Sutler are both dead, the military receives no orders, and allows the crowd to pass. Parliament is destroyed as Finch asks Evey for V's identity, to which she replies, "He was all of us."
Actor
Hugo Weaving in 2012. He portrayed V in the film, keeping his face hidden by his mask or obscured throughout.
- A charismatic and skilled freedom fighter who was the unwilling subject of experimentation by Norsefire. James Purefoy was originally cast as V, but left six weeks into filming, citing difficulties wearing the mask for the entire film.[5] He was replaced by Weaving, who had previously worked with Joel Silver and the Wachowski Brothers on the Matrix series.
- Director James McTeigue first met Portman on the set of Star Wars: Episode II РAttack of the Clones, where he worked as assistant director. In preparing for the role, Portman worked with dialectologist Barbara Berkery in order to perform with an English accent. She also studied films such as The Weather Underground and read the autobiography of Menachem Begin.[6] Portman received top billing for the film. Portman's role in the film has parallels to her role as Mathilda Lando in the film L̩on.[7] According to Portman: "the relationship between V and Evey has a complication [like] the relationship in that film." Portman also had her head shaved on screen during a scene where her character is tortured.[8]
- Finch is the lead inspector in the V investigation, who, during his investigation, uncovers an unspeakable government crime. When asked whether the politics attracted him to the film, Rea replied "Well, I don't think it would be very interesting if it was just comic-book stuff. The politics of it are what gives it its dimension and momentum, and of course I was interested in the politics. Why wouldn't I be?"[9]
- A former Conservative Member of Parliament and Under-Secretary for Defence, Chancellor Sutler is the founder of Norsefire and is Britain's dictator. Hurt played a contrary role in another dystopian film: Winston Smith, a victim of the state in the film adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four.[10][11]
- Stephen Fry portrays Gordon Deitrich, a closeted homosexual and talk/comedy show host. When asked in an interview what he liked about the role, Fry replied "Being beaten up! I hadn't been beaten up in a movie before and I was very excited by the idea of being clubbed to death."[12]
Sources[edit]
V for Vendetta sets the
Gunpowder Plot as V's historical inspiration, contributing to his choice of timing, language and appearance.
[6] For example, the names
Rookwood,
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."
[6]
As noted by several critics and commentators, the film's story and style mirror 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 re-educate her.
[16][17][18]
Modern fears of totalitarianism[edit]
"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[6]
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.
[10]When James McTeigue was asked whether or not BTN was based on
Fox News Channel, 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."
[10]
Production and release[edit]
Development[edit]
The film was made by many of the same filmmakers involved in
The Matrix series. In 1988, producer Joel Silver acquired the rights to two of
Alan Moore's works:
V for Vendettaand
Watchmen.
[24] After the release and relative success of
Road House, writer
Hilary Henkin was brought on to flesh out the project with an initial draft – one that bears little, if any, relation to the finished product, with the inclusion of overtly satirical and surrealistic elements not present in the graphic novel, as well as the removal of much of the novel's ambiguity, especially in regard to V's identity.
[25] The Wachowskis were fans of
V for Vendetta and in the mid-1990s, before working on
The Matrix, wrote a draft screenplay that closely followed the graphic novel. During the post-production of the second and third
The Matrix films, they revisited the screenplay and offered the director's role to
James McTeigue. All three were intrigued by the original story's themes and found them to be relevant to the current political landscape. Upon revisiting the screenplay, the Wachowskis set about making revisions to condense and modernise the story, while at the same time attempting to preserve its integrity and themes. James McTeigue cites the film
The Battle of Algiers as his principal influence in preparing to film
V for Vendetta.
[6]
Moore explicitly disassociated himself from the film due to his lack of involvement in its writing or directing, as well as due to a continuing series of disputes over film adaptations of his work.
[7] He ended cooperation with his publisher,
DC Comics, after its corporate parent,
Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the film. Moore said that the script contained plot holes
[26] and that it ran contrary to the theme of his original work, which was to place two political extremes (fascism and
anarchism) against one another. He argues his work had been recast as a story about "current
American neo-conservatism vs. current
American liberalism".
[27] Per his wishes, Moore's name does not appear in the film's closing credits. Co-creator and illustrator
David Lloyd supports the film adaptation, commenting that the script is very good but that Moore would only ever be truly happy with a complete book-to-screen adaptation.
[24]
Filming[edit]
V for Vendetta was filmed in
London, United Kingdom, and in
Potsdam, Germany, at
Babelsberg Studios. Much of the film was shot on
sound stages and indoor sets, with location work done in
Berlin for three scenes: the Norsefire rally flashback, Larkhill, and Bishop Lilliman's bedroom. The scenes that took place in the abandoned
London Undergroundwere filmed at the disused
Aldwych tube station. Filming began in early March 2005 and principal photography officially wrapped in early June 2005.
[24] V for Vendetta is the final film shot by
cinematographer Adrian Biddle, who died of a heart attack on December 7, 2005.
[28]
To film the final scene at
Westminster, the area from
Trafalgar Square and
Whitehall up to Parliament and
Big Ben had to be closed for three nights from midnight until 5 am. 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.
[29] Prime Minister (at the time of filming)
Tony Blair's son, Euan, worked on the film's production and is said (according to an interview with Stephen Fry) to have helped the filmmakers obtain the unparalleled filming access. This drew criticism of Blair from
MP David Davis due to the film's content. However, the filmmakers denied Euan Blair's involvement in the deal,
[30]stating that access was acquired through nine months of negotiations with fourteen different government departments and agencies.
[29]
Post-production[edit]
The film was designed to have a future-retro look, with heavy use of grey tones to give a dreary, stagnant feel to totalitarian London. The largest set created for the film was the Shadow Gallery, which was made to feel like a cross between a crypt and an
undercroft.
[31] The Gallery is V's home as well as the place where he stores various artefacts forbidden by the government. Some of the works of art displayed in the gallery include
The Arnolfini Portrait by
Jan van Eyck,
Bacchus and Ariadne by
Titian, a
Mildred Pierceposter,
St. Sebastian by
Andrea Mantegna,
The Lady of Shalott by
John William Waterhouse and statues by
Giacometti. One of the major challenges in the film was how to bring V to life from under an expressionless mask. Thus, considerable effort was made to bring together lighting, acting, and Weaving's voice to create the proper mood for the situation. Since the mask muffled Weaving's voice, his entire dialogue was re-recorded in post-production.
[29]
Promotion[edit]
The cast and filmmakers attended several press conferences that allowed them to address issues surrounding the film, including its authenticity, Alan Moore's reaction to it and its intended political message. The film was intended to be a departure from some of Moore's original themes. In the words of Hugo Weaving: "Alan Moore was writing about something which happened some time ago. It was a response to living in
Thatcherite Britain... This is a response to the world in which we live today. So I think that the film and the graphic novel are two separate entities." Regarding the film's controversial political content, the filmmakers have said that the film is intended more to raise questions and add to a dialogue already present in society, rather than provide answers or tell viewers what to think.
[10]
Release[edit]
The film adopts extensive imagery from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators plotted to destroy the then Houses of Parliament in order to spark a revolution in England.
[24] The film was originally scheduled for release on the weekend of November 5, 2005, the Plot's 400th anniversary, with the tag line "Remember, remember the 5th of November", taken from a traditional British rhyme memorialising the event. However, the marketing angle lost much of its value when the release date was pushed back to March 17, 2006. Many have speculated that the delay was caused by the London tube bombing on the
July 7 and the failed
July 21 bombing.
[32] The filmmakers have denied this, saying that the delays were due to the need for more time to finish the visual effects production.
[33] V for Vendetta had its first major premiere on February 13 at the
Berlin Film Festival.
[10] It opened for general release on March 17, 2006 in 3,365 cinemas in the United States, the United Kingdom and six other countries.
[3]
Reception[edit]
Commercial[edit]
By December 2006,
V for Vendetta had grossed $132,511,035, of which $70,511,035 was from the United States. The film led the U.S. box office on its opening day, taking in an estimated $8,742,504, and remained the number one film for the remainder of the weekend, taking in an estimated $25,642,340. Its closest rival,
Failure to Launch, took in $15,604,892.
[3] The film debuted at number one in the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan.
V for Vendetta also opened in 56
IMAX cinemas in North America, grossing $1.36 million during the opening three days.
[34]
Critical[edit]
Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating.
Roger Ebert stated that
V for Vendetta "almost always has something going on that is actually interesting, inviting us to decode the character and plot and apply the message where we will".
Margaret Pomeranz and
David Stratton from
At the Movies stated that despite the problem of never seeing Weaving's face, there was good acting and an interesting plot, adding that the film is also disturbing, with scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
[35] Jonathan Ross from the BBC blasted the film, calling it a "woeful, depressing failure" and stating that the "cast of notable and familiar talents such as John Hurt and Stephen Rea stand little chance amid the wreckage of the Wachowski siblings' dismal script and its particularly poor dialogue."
[36] Sean Burns of
Philadelphia Weekly gave the film a 'D', criticizing the film's treatment of its political message as being "fairly dim, adolescent stuff,"
[37] as well as expressing dislike for the "barely decorated sets with television-standard overlit shadow-free cinematography by the late Adrian Biddle. The film is a visual insult."
[37] On Alan Moore removing his name from the project, Burns says "it's not hard to see why,"
[37] as well as criticising Portman's performance: "Portman still seems to believe that standing around with your mouth hanging open constitutes a performance."
[37] Harry Guerin from the Irish TV network
RTÉ states the film "works as a political thriller, adventure and social commentary and it deserves to be seen by audiences who would otherwise avoid any/all of the three". He added that the film will become "a cult favourite whose reputation will only be enhanced with age."
[38] Andy Jacobs for the BBC gave the film two stars out of five, remarking that it is "a bit of a mess... it rarely thrills or engages as a story."
[39]
Political[edit]
On April 17, 2006 the New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists organised a protest against DC Comics and
Time Warner, accusing it of watering down the story's original message in favour of violence and special effects.
[45][46] David Graeber, an anarchist scholar and former professor at
Yale University, was not upset by the film. "I thought the message of anarchy got out in spite of Hollywood." However, Graeber went on to state: "Anarchy is about creating communities and democratic decision making. That's what is absent from Hollywood's interpretation."
[45]
Film critic
Richard Roeper dismissed right-wing Christian criticism of the film on the television show
Ebert and Roeper, saying that V's terrorist label is applied in the film "by someone who's essentially Hitler, a dictator."
[47]
LGBT commentators have praised the film for its positive depiction of homosexuals.
Sarah Warn of
AfterEllen.com called the film "one of the most pro-gay ever". Warn went on to praise the central role of the character Valerie "not just because it is beautifully acted and well-written, but because it is so utterly unexpected [in a Hollywood film]."
[48]
David Walsh from the
World Socialist Web Site criticises V's actions as "antidemocratic," calling the film an example of "the bankruptcy of
anarcho-terrorist ideology;" Walsh writes that because the people have not played any part in the revolution, they will be unable to produce a "new, liberated society."
[49]
Clay Duke, the perpetrator of the
2010 Panama City school board shootings, was reportedly obsessed with the film
V for Vendetta. Prior to the shootings and his eventual suicide, Duke spray-painted a red
V inside a red circle, a supposed allusion to his fascination with the graphic novel.
[50]
Differences between the film and graphic novel[edit]
The film's story was adapted from Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novel
V for Vendetta; this was originally published between 1982 and 1985 in the British comic anthology
Warrior, and then reprinted and completed by DC. Moore's comics were later compiled into a graphic novel and published again in the United States under DC's
Vertigo imprint and in the United Kingdom under
Titan Books.
[53]
There are several fundamental differences between the film and the original source material. For example, the comic is set in the 1990s, while the film is set sometime between 2028 and 2038: Alan Moore's original story was created as a response to British Thatcherism in the early '80s and was set as a conflict between a fascist state and anarchism, while the film's story has been changed by the Wachowski Brothers to fit a modern political context. Alan Moore, however, charged that, in doing so, the story has turned into an American-centric conflict between
liberalism and
neo-conservatism, and abandons the original anarchist-fascist themes. Moore states "There wasn't a mention of anarchy as far as I could see. The fascism had been completely defanged. I mean, I think that any references to
racial purity had been excised, whereas actually, fascists are quite big on racial purity." Furthermore, in the original story, Moore attempted to maintain moral ambiguity, and not to portray the fascists as caricatures, but as realistic, rounded characters. The time limitations of a film meant that the story had to omit or streamline some of the characters, details, and plotlines from the original story.
[6] Chiefly, the original graphic novel has the fascists elected legally and kept in power through the general apathy of the public, whereas the film introduces the "St. Mary's virus", a biological weapon engineered and released by the Norsefire Party as a means of clandestinely gaining control over their own country.
Many of the characters from the graphic novel underwent significant changes for the film. V is characterized in the film as a romantic freedom fighter who shows concern over the loss of innocent life.
[54] However, in the graphic novel, he is portrayed as ruthless, willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Evey Hammond's transformation as V's
protégée is also much more drastic in the novel than in the film. At the beginning of the film, she is already a confident woman with a hint of rebellion in her; in the graphic novel, she starts off as an insecure, desperate young woman forced into prostitution. V and Evey's relationship, though not as obvious in the book, ends in the film with pledges of love. In the graphic novel's finale, she not only carries out V's plans as she does in the film, but also clearly takes on V's identity.
[7] In the film, Inspector Finch sympathizes with V, but, in the graphic novel, he is determined to stop V and goes as far as taking
LSD to enter into a criminal's state of mind. Gordon, a very minor character in both adaptations, is also drastically changed. In the novel, Gordon is a small-time criminal who takes Evey into his home after V abandons her on the street. The two share a brief romance before Gordon is killed by a Scottish gang. In the film, however, Gordon is a well-mannered colleague of Evey's, and is later revealed to be gay. He is arrested by fingermen for broadcasting a political parody on his TV program, and is later executed when a
Quran is found in his possession.
[7]
Marketing[edit]
Home media[edit]
V for Vendetta was released on DVD in the US on August 1, 2006
[55] in three formats: a single-disc wide-screen version, a single-disc full-screen version, and a two-disc
wide-screen special edition.
[56] DVD sales were successful, selling 1,412,865 DVD units in the first week of release which translated to $27,683,818 in revenue. By the end of 2006, 3,086,073 DVD units had been sold, bringing in slightly more than its production cost of $58,342,597.
[57] The single disc versions contain a short (15:56) behind-the-scenes
featurette titled "Freedom! Forever!
[58] Making V for Vendetta" and the film's
theatrical trailer, whereas the two-disc special edition contains three additional documentaries, and several extra features for collectors. On the second disc of the special edition, a short
Easter egg clip of Natalie Portman on
Saturday Night Live can be viewed by selecting the picture of wings on the second page of the menu. The film has also been released on the
HD DVD high definition format, which features a unique 'in-film experience' created exclusively for the disc. Warner Bros. later released the video on
Blu-Ray, on May 20, 2008.
[59] The film also saw release on Sony's PSP UMD format.
[60]
Soundtrack[edit]
Three songs were played during the ending credits which were not included on the
V for Vendetta soundtrack.
[62] The first was "
Street Fighting Man" by the
Rolling Stones. The second was a special version of
Ethan Stoller's "BKAB". In keeping with revolutionary tone of the film, excerpts from "On Black Power" (also in "A Declaration of Independence") by
black nationalist leader
Malcolm X, and from "Address to the Women of America" by feminist writer
Gloria Steinem were added to the song. Gloria Steinem can be heard saying: "This is no simple reform... It really is a revolution. Sex and race, because they are easy and visible differences, have been the primary ways of organising human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour on which this system still depends." The final song was "
Out of Sight" by
Spiritualized.
The original graphic novel by Moore and Lloyd was re-released as a hardback collection in October 2005 to tie into the film's original release date of November 5, 2005.
[65] The film renewed interest in Alan Moore's original story, and sales of the original graphic novel rose dramatically in the United States.
[66]
A novelisation of the film, written by
Steve Moore and based on the Wachowski Brothers' script, was published by
Pocket Star on January 31, 2006. Spencer Lamm, who has worked with the Wachowskis, created a "
behind-the-scenes" book. Titled
V for Vendetta: From Script to Film, it was published by Universe on August 22, 2006.
[67]
As well as promotional items created to publicise the film (which included a shoulder bag and bust of "V"'s Guy Fawkes mask), replicas of the mask and action figures were released.
[68] Figures released by NECA include a 12-inch (30 cm) action figure which speaks phrases from the film, a 12-inch resin statue and a seven-inch (17 cm) figure.
[69]
Cultural influence[edit]
- The ideology of the hero of the film has greatly influenced the ideological group called Anonymous, which adopts the typical mask as its symbol.
- In 2007 Italian comedian and activist Beppe Grillo, on the occasion of V-Day and V2-Day (a political campaign of public mobilisation in Italy to prevent the nomination as Parliamentary candidates of recipients of criminal convictions and other issues), has reused the graphic symbol of the "V" revising the ideology of Moore's work. The same "V" is also contained in the symbol of the 5 Star Movement, founded in 2009 by the same Grillo.
- French rapper Keny Arkana used the symbol "V" for her song "V por Vérités", a hymn to collective awakening and for an uprising against a sick system.
- Film has much fan-made trailers and music videos, some from which has original idea, for example in "V for Vendetta poetic trailer" (2011), created by Nikolai Kurbatov, dominated musical poetry and the film's plot in the trailer shows through dialogue.
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