Representation in V for Vendetta

What significant examples of gender roles (mother/father/strength/power) are in the characters?

Mother roles
Evey- After V dies, Evey becomes the head of the revolution and assumes an motherly figure, with her role in the revolution to look after everyone as she is the leader.
Delia Surridge- She is the scientist who operated on V and made him a super soldier. V kills her later in the film. Her work on changing V's body and making him different implies an sort of maternal relationship between her and V.

Father Roles
V- V is an father figure for Evey. He looks after her and protects her from the fingerman who attack her at the beginning of the film. He also helps her overcome her fear of death and convinces her to take part in the rebellion. By protecting her like this and teaching her views and life lessons that he feels is important, he assumes the role of a paternal figure.
Gordon Dietrich- Dietrich can also be considered an father figure for Evey. He lets her into his secret life, showing that he trusts her. He also sacrifices himself for her, giving him a tragic role in Eveys life. His sacrifice is important to protect Evey from the police.
Adam Sutler- Sutler is the head of the oppressive government in V for Vendetta. He controls all aspects of life in Britain. He can be considered as an very strict and stern father figure who is dominant over everyone in his control.

Strength/Power
V- V is strong and powerful because he has been genetically modified to be strong and is a very charismatic and manipulative person. He shows power over people with his skill of persuasion and his passion to overthrow the government. His lack of remorse and his willingness to kill people also shows a sense of power.
Adam Sutler- Sutler's regime and oppressive government gives him power and strength over every aspect of normal life under his governments rule. This role of power and strength is a crucial aspect of the stories narrative.

How does the film uses its stock characters?
The film uses traditional film stock characters and utilizes them for two conflicting sides by using opposite roles to conflict with each other. For example, V has characteristics of an superhero,an anti hero and a supersoldier whilst the antagonist, Adam Sutler is a supervillain, and an rake. These descriptions of these stock characters are opposites of each other, which provides conflict between the two sides. The conflict builds the core structure of the narrative and allows messages and values to be put into the film alongside these.

How does the film represent Dystopia Britain as a nation and does it follow film stereotypes?
The film represents Dystopia Britain as an one man government. Adam Sutler controls every aspect of everyday life, with him placing curfews and assigning a secret police (The Fingermen) to supervise British citizens and ensure that there is no homosexuality that could, in his view, pollute the nation. This setting is strongly reminiscent of Nazi Germany and it's oppressive regime. The use of an dystopia in V for Vendetta is different to other similar dystopia films. V for Vendetta doesn't show a society in ruin, but instead shows an near-future, where everything looks like modern day life with a few changes, for example, huge screens in Piccadilly circus where Sutler gives his speeches and a curfew, where if broken, people can be killed.

Father figures in V for Vendetta swede

What can we learn from V's lesson?

Film Studies Lesson 15/9/13

Hypothesis for terrorism in Batman and Four Lions

What are the Messages and Values in V for Vendetta

In the 2006 film, V for Vendetta, the film follows the characters of a freedom fighter called V and a woman called Evey. They live in a tolitarian near future where government controls all aspects of religion and everyday life.  Corruption is rife and terrorism is seen as an act to gain power. The film provides conflicted messages by portraying these tolitarian government in the aforementioned way whilst also portraying V as performing acts of terrorism and revenge. The film justifies and presents these acts as a solution to the oppressive government. Freedom is also an important factor in the film, with the film portraying different kinds of freedom and freedom being the one thing V and Evey should work for. These values act as the films way of portraying its main message.

Tolitarianism

Scene: Diedrichs house

Analysis: They resemble the Nazi party with their political views

They use propaganda, hatred and fear to achieve their means

The scene at Diedrichs house where he is revealed to be an homosexual and keeps religious texts shows the governments true nature.

The use of dark lighting in the scene shows darkness of the conversation and foreshadows to when Diedrich is found out.

Message: The tolitarian government could happen to us.

Terrorism

Scene: V’s speech to London

Analysis: V destroys buildings to achieve aims

Destruction of symbols acts as a message to the people.

V uses fear and threats to persuade the people, mirroring the ways the Norse fire party got into power.

V’s appearance intimidates and frightens people. Editing shows different reactions from different people

Message: V’s use of terrorism is a hypocritical method of persuasion. By using fear as a factor to make a statement, he allows the Norse fire to use the same fear to counteract his own actions.

Freedom

Scene: Evey’s release from V’s jail

Analysis: Evey is only allowed out of V’s mock prison cell when she says that she would rather die than be imprisoned.

Concept of freedom is crucial to V’s message.

The short cuts from Evey in the rain to V in the fire when they both attain freedom suggest Evey and V have different types of freedom.

Evey is free from oppressive government thinking whilst V was literally free from his prison.

Message: Freedom is more important than life – which is in itself a radical rebellious attitude of life.

Revenge:

Scene: V kills woman in bed

Analysis: V kills a female scientist who used to experiment on him in the Lark hill camp. He does it out of revenge poisoning her while she sleeps. Gives her a red rose- red illustrates death, and intimacy with his victims

This scene illustrates V’s secret motive of revenge against the government rather than rebellion being his main concern.

This motive confirms V’s status as an antihero.

The dark lighting symbolises death.

Message- Revenge cannot be considered right and if it is, it clouds the morality of people.

Religious corruption

Scene: Bishop and Evey at church

V dresses Evey up as a young girl to attract a paedophile and corrupt bishop. The corruption inside the religion reflects onto the corruption found into the government.

Norse fire is an extreme Christian group, which is shown by their hatred of homosexuals. The corruption inside the only religion Norse fire allows is shown here. The shots here are an example of the male gaze, which portrays Evey as weak, and helpless until V saves her, where the camera begins to focus on her more.

Message – Are government and religion linked together?

The films main message is that both the government and V are hypocrites. Both label each other terrorists whilst they both submit acts of terror upon the people of England. This use of hypocrisy distances itself away from conventional hero films and presents the anti-hero of V as being morally clouded, unable to compare himself to people he opposes.

 wHT

What can we learn from V's lesson?

V for Vendetta cinematography

V for Vendetta cinematography

 The face is the centre of the image making him the most important figure in the scene. This makes him the most powerful figure in the picture. The people shown below him look small compared to his massive face, which symbolises that they are weak and agree to everything Sutler says. it could represent that they are underneath the mans will.

 

The man looks worried and agrees with everything Sutler says. The pitch black background behind him represents darkness or evil, which fits in with the narrative of the scene, as they discuss how to opress the nation.

Falling Down

Falling Down

What does the sound tell us about this character?
The heavy breathing at the begining of the film shows he is angry because he is focusing on his breathing. With the sound starting before the film starts, the audiences attention is focused on the breathing also. The score symbolized and represented his fustration by building up to a loud crescendo of noise.

What is the function of the opening of the film?
To set the characters mood of fust

Children Of Men and V for Vendetta

                                                     Children of Men and V for Vendetta

Children of Men are a 2006 film loosely based on the 1992 novel of the same name. The film is a sci-fi dystopian thriller set in a near future England, where humans are unable to reproduce and no babies have been born for twenty years. The films plot centres on the protagonist Theo who after a series of events, ends up escorting a pregnant woman Kee to the coast.

V for Vendetta is also a 2006 film based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore. The film, like Children of Men, is a sci-fi dystopian thriller set in a near future England. In the film, the government is portrayed as oppressive and tolitarian and the Anti-hero V are portrayed as a freedom fighter. The films plot centres on V and a woman called Evey who hatch a plot to turn people against the government and destroy the Houses of Parliament.

Style

The cinematography in both films is different. Children of Men use long takes and a stylistic presentation to make the film seem more realistic. The film is noticeable for its cinematography because it uses clever editing and planning to provide an uninterrupted take for over two minutes. An example of this is the scene where Julian is killed in the car which is one long take for over 3 minutes and seven seconds. The film also uses tracking shots to follow the actors around. The cinematography in V for Vendetta is more typical of a Hollywood thriller, with short takes and fast switching of camera angles. V for Vendetta also has a subplot with two detectives, trying to catch V. Children of Men does not have a subplot and is presented as one long continuous story which links with the directors use of long takes.

The majority of environments and costumes in Children of Men are portrayed as dirty, abandoned and ruined. The sets are dark and decayed which links with the subject matter of the films plot. The locations in Children of Men are varied, from deep forests to ruined suburbs. The environments in V for Vendetta show a much different view of the near future than Children of Men does. The film portrays the future as much like it is present day. Most of the costumes and environments are normal everyday locations because of this.

Narrative

The narratives of each film are different but have some similarities. In Children of Men, the film shows Theo (Clive Owen) escorting the pregnant Kee (Chiwifel Ejiofor) to the coastline, whilst protecting her from the rebel group called the Fishes and the oppressive English government. At the end of the film, Theo dies after finally saving Kee. In V for Vendetta, the film shows V (Hugo Weaving) as a freedom fighter who rescues Evey (Natalie Portman) from a gang at the beginning of the film. Evey, over the course of the film, becomes more attracted to V and his views. V also protects Evey from the government who label her as a fugitive. At the end of the film, V dies and Evey puts his corpse onto an underground train filled with explosives, set to explode below the houses of parliament. The train explodes and the people begin to rebel against the government, believing the explosion to be a symbol.

The similarities here are that both Theo and V look after Kee and Evey and are caring towards them. Theo and V both die in an effort to protect the women and others. The two films have similar subject matter, both deal with themes like government, humanity, morality and dystopian societies. Both films show an extreme society, that both characters are trying to change.

The differences are in the protagonists themselves. Theo is a normal man, thrown into protecting Kee because of his promise to his wife. He isn’t a violent man, he only attacks through self-defence and as a last resort, and he is caring and trusts people. This is different to V, who is a violent, ruthless and efficient murderer. V is manipulative, deceitful and cunning. The one similarity the characters have with each other is that both care about other people, which is why they try to rebel against their governments.

Themes

Children of Men’s main themes are its portrayal of society, immigration and humanity. The society portrayed in the film is falling apart, with overpopulation and the United Kingdom one of the only safe places on Earth, for an unstated reason. Immigrants in the film are shown in fenced pens, waiting to be deported or to go to immigrations camps in poor conditions.  When the rebel group the fishes are discussing about Kee’s baby in the farmhouse, they plan to utilize it as symbol to begin the uprising of England against the government.

V for Vendetta’s main themes is fascism and terrorism. The government portrayed in V for Vendetta, is a fascist society, which blacklists books, for example The Koran, tortures prisoners and uses violence to achieve its aims. V is portrayed as a terrorist by the government and at the end of the film; V bombs the Houses of parliament as a symbol to begin an uprising.

Both films have the theme of symbolism with Kee’s baby being used as a symbol for the uprising and in V for Vendetta, with the destruction of the houses of parliament being a symbol for the uprising.

Messages and Values

The message behind Children of Men is that it is a comment on society in the future and how society would react to a hypothetical situation in reality. The idea of humans becoming infertile allows the film to comment on issues that affect the future like immigration and overpopulation and present them in an exaggerated fashion. Another interesting message is the religious sub context in Children of Men. When Kee reveals that she is pregnant to Theo, they are standing in a barn, which could connect to the Christian story of the Virgin Mary and Jesus being born in a barn. Another example of this is when Kee jokes that she is a virgin later in the film. Another interesting message is that in most scenes of the film, an animal is present and animals seem to like Theo. An example is when Theo arrives at the farm with Kee and dogs jump up on his legs. A man comments on this saying ‘they like you, they don’t like anyone.’’

The message behind V for Vendetta is that is a comment of fascism in society. The government are shown as violent and oppressive and using acts of terror to control the population and achieve their aims whilst V opposes them by destroying buildings and murdering people. The film raises the subject of using violence to fight violence. It also has the message of symbolism subtly put in the film. For example the use of the word V and the symbol V is present throughout the film. When V meets Evey, he pronounces her name as E-Vee. His speech at the beginning uses words beginning with V. When V blows up the houses of parliament, the big ben forms a letter V before it is destroyed. When V falls against a wall, before he dies, he leaves a streak of blood on the wall forming a V. Another example of symbolism is the guy Fawkes mask in the film, by handing out thousands of Guy Fawkes mask, he presents it as a symbol for everyone to wear and as an act of uniting people against the government