A controversial film with an enduring message

Mourkas Dimitris

The “sinister” Guy Fawkes

Fawkes was a member of the Gun power plot which on 1604 tried to blow up the parliament in London and kill the catholic King James. After the disclosure of the plot and the execution of Fawkes Londoners celebrated every year the “plot night” with fireworks and by throwing Fawkes dummy into the fire. Fawkes in England was considered the embodiment of treason.

The context of the Film

• United states had unleash a full scale war against terrorism were due to the polarized atmosphere the “good” and the “evil” were regarded as the only option. Bush’s administration in order to justify the “crusade” that under-took on that time invested on creating fear to the citizens by establishing a set of stereotypes that in many cases were completely irrelevant to the war against terrorism. Conservatism became the dominant ideology resulting thus in a non tolerable attitude towards minorities, sex orientation and political activism. The fear made the people willing to give up part of their political freedoms and their humanitarian values. Tortures collateral casualties and the discrimination of people according to their religion (Muslims) was regarded as a normal monitor procedure of National security.

• Andrew Soap on his book “Terror and American Pop Culture” negotiates the manipulation of fear by artifacts that are used to perpetuate the simplification of the use of “good” and “evil” into the American popular culture. According to Soap V for Vendetta a movie is unconventional since the distinction of good and bad is not that clear. What is clear in the movie was the confirmation of the difficulty of distinction between a freedom fighter and a terrorist.

The Movie• The plot: Based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta is set in Britain in 2020, when liberal democracy has

given way to a fascist totalitarian society led by ‘Chancellor’ Adam Subtler of the ‘Norse fire’ regime. Due to apparent acts of bioterrorism, which have caused tens of thousands of casualties, the Norse fire party has gained power by election, by blaming religious extremists for the terror.

• Individual liberty is severely curtailed. Censorship, curfews and paternalism have changed an open society into a closed one, resembling the world of George Orwell’s 1984 just as all totalitarian societies resemble each other. Technology and the media are used to control the actions and thoughts of the citizens, to make the public into a obedient, thoughtless crowd who don’t even see that there’s anything wrong in the way they live. Big Brother is still watching – and not only watching, Big Brother uses violence as well, in many ways.

• The bioterrorist attacks in the movie turn out to have been perpetrated by people from Norse fire itself, who deliberately created a lethal virus, using humans for their experiments, then became rich and powerful by selling the antidote. In some ways Bush may indeed resemble Chancellor Subtler, in limiting individual freedoms and promoting and abusing nationalism.. The resemblance is a matter of degree: in the movie there is hardly any individual freedom, whereas the present-day US and UK governments limit individual freedom somewhat, but it’s still there.

• The movie was launched n 17 March 2006 Warner Brothers released a feature-film adaptation of V for Vendetta, directed by James Mac Teigue(first assistant director on The Matrix films) from a screenplay by the Wachowski Brothers. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond and Hugo Weaving as V, together with Stephen Rea John Hurt Stephen Hurt.. Originally slated for a 4 November 2005 release, a day before the Guy Fawkes Night and the 400th anniversary of the Gun Power Plot, it was postponed until March 17, 2006, possibly due to, although producers denied this was the reason.

V vs. Batman (Sorry Niko)• V is not an unquestionable hero since

he is a villain and a victim.• V has as a goal to liberate people

from their fear which is considered the main enemy. V requires the involvement of the people to the higher cause.

• Adoption of Bakunin's view that an act of destruction can be creative (L. Call 2008)

• V embodies every person.• For V “order” is the reason that

humanity has immersed into the chaos.

• Anarchy

• Batman is the vigilante that dedicated him self to the war against crime.

• In Batman people are incapable of saving themselves and they need the strong hero to intervene.

• Batman is struggling to protect the iconic imaginary Gotham City.

• Batman is the embodiment of the American culture. Masculine rich and famous uses his “gadgets” to beat the bad guys.

• Batman is the last reserve of restoring order in Gotham City.

• Conformity

Controversy of the Film• David Lemby: “V for Vendetta,” a dunderheaded pop fantasia that celebrates terrorism and

destruction, is perhaps the ultimate example of how a project with modest origins becomes a media monster. And for people driven mad by the ineptitude and folly of the Bush Administration this film may seem like a brazen romp. Only the West could have made a movie in which blowing up civic temples is a “provocative” media statement. The country “doesn’t need a building,” V says. “It needs an idea.” Yes, but “Vendetta” doesn’t have any ideas, except for misbegotten belief in cleansing acts of violence.

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/03/20/060320crci_cinema#ixzz1tc7hcPC3

• Richard Corliss on the other hand argues that “These days, with many millions around the world seeing every evil in Bush and Cheney, a film like Vendetta is, at least, timely. And if the villains are the big guys, the hero can be a terrorist--or should we call V an insurgent?

://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1169916,00.html#ixzz1tcB1dMaa

Post modernity

In the postmodern world, all things are subject to reconsideration . And that is how one can look at postmodernism: a reconsideration of the central constellation of ideas in the arts,

economics, politics, philosophy, and sociology and history.

Post Structuralism

The symbol can be just arbitrary as the sign. The decomposition of the symbols used by all meta narration, give the opportunity not only to attack their symbols but also to use them in way that would generate new meanings new metaphors and new narrations.

“This country needs more than a building right now”.

“Move from the continuity of history, to "history from below“Human actions continue to generate history, even if no one really knows where it is

going or can honestly claim to control it.

Thank you