Politics in Modern Film (V for Vendetta)
Politics in Film
“V for Vendetta”
The film I focused on for this essay, V for Vendetta, was filmed and produced in 2006 by Warner Brothers. The plot of the film circulates around a mysterious and charismatic masked freedom fighter being hunted down by the totalitarian British government in the near future. Although his full identity is kept a mystery throughout the film, audiences learn he was a victim of a cruel scientific experiment involving “unwanted” British citizens and hormonal drugs. He spends decades planning out his revenge on those involved. While making preparations for both his revenge and a nation-wide revolution, the character known only as V has a run-in with a young woman working for the broadcasting station he later taking hostage. The day he takes the station hostage, the woman named Evey recognizes him as the same man who rescued her one night from crooked British patrolmen prowling the streets. Evey comes to his aid as V is almost caught and she is knocked unconscious in the process. The rest of the film leads audiences into the ever-thickening plot as a detective investigates and attempts to track down the “terrorist” only to discover an even more sinister power behind the deaths of thousands of British citizens: their own government. Putting this film into a category based on its intended audience was a challenge. The film expresses values both of the mass and subgroup categories. The values shown are ones that indirectly praise American government for its constitutional rights of religion, press and speech, but it also promotes ideas of anarchy. Although both views have their strong arguing points in the film, I believe this film expressed more mass values. This is because the criteria for subgroup values demands that the public must be largely portrayed as being stupid and counter-active to the goal at hand. However, in this film, V must rely solely on the public‘s participation in order to carry through his vision of freedom.
“V for Vendetta”
The film I focused on for this essay, V for Vendetta, was filmed and produced in 2006 by Warner Brothers. The plot of the film circulates around a mysterious and charismatic masked freedom fighter being hunted down by the totalitarian British government in the near future. Although his full identity is kept a mystery throughout the film, audiences learn he was a victim of a cruel scientific experiment involving “unwanted” British citizens and hormonal drugs. He spends decades planning out his revenge on those involved. While making preparations for both his revenge and a nation-wide revolution, the character known only as V has a run-in with a young woman working for the broadcasting station he later taking hostage. The day he takes the station hostage, the woman named Evey recognizes him as the same man who rescued her one night from crooked British patrolmen prowling the streets. Evey comes to his aid as V is almost caught and she is knocked unconscious in the process. The rest of the film leads audiences into the ever-thickening plot as a detective investigates and attempts to track down the “terrorist” only to discover an even more sinister power behind the deaths of thousands of British citizens: their own government. Putting this film into a category based on its intended audience was a challenge. The film expresses values both of the mass and subgroup categories. The values shown are ones that indirectly praise American government for its constitutional rights of religion, press and speech, but it also promotes ideas of anarchy. Although both views have their strong arguing points in the film, I believe this film expressed more mass values. This is because the criteria for subgroup values demands that the public must be largely portrayed as being stupid and counter-active to the goal at hand. However, in this film, V must rely solely on the public‘s participation in order to carry through his vision of freedom.