Historic events also inform us, if we’re willing to listen. Countless books and movies have shown us how well-meaning nations can end up on a slippery slope to demagoguery.
Much has been made on Twitter these past two weeks about Donald Trump’s incoming presidency and what it means for America’s freedoms and traditions. But despite Moore’s protests, V for Vendetta works as a timeless allegory, eclipsing his original vision as an anti-Thatcher manifesto. You’d think someone who adopted characters and storylines to fit his vision would be more sympathetic for others who wanted to adapt his works to a different medium. Jeckyll as seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). V’s plans will hinge on whether or not Evey gives him up to the secret police.Īlan Moore has repeatedly disavowed his movies, which I find a little hypocritical, considering how liberally he borrows from public domain figures such as Fawkes, Alice (in Lost Girls), or Dr. After her boss is arrested for insulting the state, Evey herself is sent to prison, to repudiate V and turn in this enemy of the state. After she escapes V’s hideout however, things don’t improve for her. He tries to enlist Evey in his schemes, although she’s reluctant to become a true outlaw. V has a plan to overthrow the government. V is also trying to survive in this brave new world, although in quite a different manner. Her life is spared when vigilante V (Hugo Weaving) comes to her aid.
While out past curfew, she’s cornered by the secret police and nearly raped.
V FOR VENDETTA 1984 JOHN HURT MOVIE
When the movie opens, things aren’t going too well for Evey. It’s in this world that Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is trying to survive. Lead by High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt), the Norsefire party controls every aspect of people’s lives, from their television to the times they’re allowed outside. The United States is a shell of its former self, while the United Kingdom is ruled by autocratic Norsefire government. V for Vendetta takes place in the not-too-distant future, at a time when much of the world is in turmoil. All of a sudden, movies and films containing dystopian warnings become urgently relevant. In between then and now, the United States elected Donald Trump as our 45th president. Now that we’re two weeks past my original deadline however, I’m coming to write a different sort of article. In the years that followed, the group Anonymous co-opted the film’s most visible symbol: the stylized Guy Fawkes mask. Various protest organizations have also adopted the mask, from members of the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement.Īnd today? I re-watched V for Vendetta a few weeks ago, intending to write an article in time for Guy Fawkes Night. Upon the release of the 2005 film adaptation it became something else: a warning cry against George W. In the beginning, Moore envisioned it as an allegory of the Thatcher government, followed to its logical (for Moore) and terrifying conclusion. V for Vendetta has meant different things to different people in the years since it first appeared in graphic form. It’s no surprise that comic mastermind Alan Moore drew from both Orwell and Huxley for his work V for Vendetta. After all, why spend time arguing which future is worse when both combined is even more terrifying? Postman argued that the future envisioned in Brave New World, with its drugs, sex and triviality, was closer to our current reality than the harsh regime of 1984. Postman argued that George Orwell’s vision of the future was less prescient than his contemporary, Aldous Huxley. In 1985, author Neil Postman released Amusing Ourselves to Death, a treaty on political discourse in the mass media age.