V for Vendetta

This is an work I have done for my English Class..... about a very good movie.... V for Vendetta.

V FOR VENDETTA

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Richard Jackson

"… voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarshall and Luftwaffe-Chief

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Thomas Jefferson

“You see? You cannot kill me. There is no flesh and blood within this cloak to kill. There is only an idea. And ideas are bulletproof.”

V character of V for Vendetta

This phrases resume what is the meaning of the story of V for Vendetta.

Oppression, tyranny, fascism … all has existed for centuries. There are always dissenting voices amongst the people. Once the voice of the people is lost, liberty is lost.

Inclusive In this days, one Democratic Senator from Wisconsin, seeks to censure George W. Bush for the illegal wiretapping of private citizens' phones. This act is illegal and he believes someone needs to speak out. But so many fear risking their political voices in this current political climate where we are facing a war on terrorism. Does any of this sound familiar? It should, it's an age-old tale.

And so is V for Vendetta. Does it reflect the current political unrest that is felt by people around the globe? Absolutely, but let's not forget that the source material was started 25 years ago, finished just 18 years ago. It is also important to understand that this film is not an indictment of George Bush , 25 years ago the source material was an indictment of Margaret Thatcher. It just so happens that the sentiment is universal and nearly everyone who sees this film with a feel a tickle of excitement. That's the discontent deep in your being, waiting to push aside your complacency and take action.

V for Vendetta is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom. A mysterious anarchist named V works to destroy the fascist government and profoundly affects the people he encounters.

V's background and his identity are largely unknown. All It is known is that V was an inmate at the infamous "Larkhill Resettlement Camp", which was one of many concentration camps where political prisoners, homosexuals, were exterminated by Britain's new religious and fascist regime. While there, he was part of a group of prisoners who were subjected to horrific medical experiments (possibly research into creating super-soldiers).The dozens of prisoners injected all died horribly, all except for one man: the man in room five ("V" in Roman numerals). The experiments actually yielded some beneficial results in the man; he developed near-superhuman reflexes, increased strength, and incredibly expanded mental capacity. One night, he detonated a homemade bomb destroyed the camp and escaped his cell. The camp was evacuated and closed down. He adopted the new identity, "V", and donned a Guy Fawkes mask and costume. V then spent the next four years planning his revenge on the government, building his secret base which he called the "Shadow Gallery", and killing off most of the surviving personel from Larkhill, making each killing look like an accident.

The story of Guy Fawkes inspired Alan Moore's graphic novel The story revolves around the main character, V, who is portrayed as "a resurrected Guy Fawkes." and wears a Guy Fawke's mask. In the story, V plans to blow up the abandoned parliament buildings on a future 5th November as his first move to bring down the nation's fascist tyranny.

A film adaptation was released on March 17, 2006. Natalie Portman stars as Evey and Hugo Weaving as V alongside Stephen Rea, John Hurt, and Stephen Fry. Originally slated for a 5 November 2005 release, to coincide with Guy Fawkes Night and the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, it was postponed until March.

Alan Moore, however, distanced himself from the film.After reading the script, Moore remarked that his comic had been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country

The film follows our main character V, as he attempts to restore hope to a dystopian London of the future by using anarchy and the message of democracy. In this future, we see how a single devastating event that cost many lives can be used to create fear in the people of London, and to eliminate their liberties in an effort to “protect them”.

V, however, knows the truth and begins his plan to destroy the Parliament building to restore the memories of discontent, to remind the people of the 5th of November and how Guy Fawkes once attempted the same. When V rescues Evey from the secret police, their paths are forever entwined as Evey almost seems to represent the fear of the people as well as the path of V himself. And a series of "coincidences" become less coincidental as the line connecting all of the top people as well as the single devastating event that brought about the people's current need for "protection," becomes more clear.

The Guy Fawkes Mask this main character whose lips never move seems silly at first, but starts to become beautiful and haunting. It's more than a man in a mask, with an idea. It is the idea.

It has been said that a film like this could be viewed as a glorification of terrorism, but in the end aren't terrorists usually defined by having lost their cause? The difference is that we agree with those points. And we can't help but agree with V and his cause. As the film itself asserts: “Governments lie to hide the truth, artists and writers lie to tell the truth”

But it is dissenting voices like this one, dissenting voices that make others think, that make others stand up and defend their freedoms that give us all hope that we won't have to repeat the failures of history, but adapt and build on the successes.

^{THE Original} IDEA

In the graphic novel V for Vendetta and its film adaptation, V wears a Guy Fawkes mask, and blows up several buildings, including Parliament, as Fawkes attempted. Fawkes is referred to as the "Great Citizen" throughout the comic and film.

Guy Fawkes (14th April, 1570–31st January, 1606) was an English soldier and a member of a group of Roman Catholic conspirators who attempted to carry out the so-called Gunpowder Plot in 1605, which was prevented on his arrest on 5 November.

The plot was an attempt to assassinate King James I of England, and the members of both houses of the Parliament of England. To do this, Westminster Palace was to be blown up during the formal opening session of the 1605 Parliament, in which the king would address a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Guy Fawkes was in large part responsible for the later stages of the plan's execution, which he was placed in charge of executing due to his military and explosives experience.

His activities were detected, however, before the plan's completion. Fawkes was discovered and arrested during a raid on the cellar in the early morning of 5th November. He was tortured over the next few days, after special permission to do so had been granted by the King.. On 31st January, Fawkes, and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster, where they were hung, drawn, and quartered for the charges of treason and attempted murder.

Guy Fawkes is remembered with Guy Fawkes Night on November 5. It was said that Fawkes was "the only man to ever enter parliament with honourable intentions." (This phrase was commonly seen on anarchist posters during the early twentieth century).

LEGACY

Guy Fawkes' name is also the origin of the word "guy" in the English language, particularly in American spoken English. The burning on 5th November of an effigy of Fawkes, known as a "guy", led to the use of the word "guy" as a term for "a person of grotesque appearance," . Over time, the word evolved to become a general reference for a man.

Shakespeare's Tragedy of Macbeth was finished in 1606 after the plot. It is believed that Shakespeare wrote it as an effort to please King James. Because Shakespeare’s name may have been drawn as one of the conspirators. It is likely that Shakespeare wrote this play to demonstrate his loyalty in the suspicious climate after the plot.

Also Fawkes was later celebrated in poetry. Milton’s Satan, in book six of Paradise Lost is very Fawksian in inspiration. The Devil invents gunpowder to try to match God's thunderbolts. Post reformation and anti-Roman Catholic literature often personified Guy Fawkes as the Devil in this wayThe poet T. S. Eliot mentions Guy Fawkes in the epigraph for his poem The Hollow Men, "A penny for the old guy".

Fawkes, the phoenix that appears in the Harry Potter books, is named after Guy Fawkes. A parallel has been drawn between Fawkes' owner Albus Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix and the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot.

In the story "Witch Week" of the Chrestomanci series, an alternate universe is created when Fawkes succeeds in destroying Parliament.

In Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Jane believes one of the servants thinks her an "infantine Guy Fawkes"--always watching everyone and scheming.

A popular British rhyme is often quoted on Guy Fawkes Night, in memory of the Gunpowder Plot:

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November

The Gunpowder Treason and plot;

I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,

'Twas his intent.

To blow up the King and the Parliament.

Poor old England to overthrow.

By God's providence he was catch'd,

With a dark lantern and burning match

Holloa boys, Holloa boys, let the bells ring

Holloa boys, Holloa boys, God save the King!

Hip hip Hoorah!

Hip hip Hoorah!

A penny loaf to feed ol'Pope,

A farthing cheese to choke him.

A pint of beer to rinse it down,

A faggot of sticks to burn him.

Burn him in a tub of tar,'

Burn him like a blazing star.

Burn his body from his head,

Then we'll say: ol'Pope is dead.

Hip hip Hoorah!

Hip hip Hoorah!"

On John Lennon's solo album Plastic Ono Band, Lennon sings "Remember, remember, the 5th of November" on the song "Remember." The lyrics are followed by the sound of an explosion.