After watching District 9, I decided to look into other politically charged films. I came across V for Vendetta, a film I had seen years ago and had never really quite understood. Reading reviews for it, I decided to give it another try. This time, however, I would look at it through my newfound ASTU lens and try and recognize the politics within the film and then relate it back to our class.
First, a very brief synopsis so you can understand the characters within the film: Britain has become a tyrannical dictatorship in which human rights and life have been oppression. Evey (Natalie Portman) has never been happy with the state of her nation and through a series of events (for which you have to watch the movie to understand) becomes involved with a character named V. V, a mysterious man with a dark and painful past, rebels against the government violently as a lone citizen, all while hidden by a Guy Fox mask. His motto is that of having an idea, and acting upon it in that “behind [his] mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath [his] mask there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof.” It’s these ideas that Evey realizes the power of the lone citizen and how change is needed.
It’s dense, I know. But let me tell you, V for Vendetta was absolutely fantastic. The politics in the film may have been even more profound than those found in District 9. It asks its viewers to look deep down into their moral conscience. The viewer must decide if V is a terrorist or a fighter for freedom. Viewers must essentially decide if he is good or bad. It builds suspense and pressures the viewer to identify the oppression within his/her own life, and then take action upon it. To sum it up: “Everybody is special. Everybody. Everybody is a hero, a lover, a fool, a villain. Everybody. Everybody has their story to tell.” It also brings up a lot of questions on the state of governments in the modern day. This is especially relevant in the wake of the National Security Agency of the United States spying on its citizens as well as other countries.
In terms of ASTU, V for Vendetta draws on a lot of the topics and articles we have discussed. Firstly, the government within the film breaks just about every clause written in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The film delves deeply into bare life living, especially when the film reveals the history behind V and the experiments run at Larkhill. It questions what is living when you’re simply living to be experiment on. Similarly to District 9 it deals highly in biopolitics, in that there are deep suspicions that the government has released a virus upon its citizens in an effort to control them (again against everything The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has to stand for.)
In essence, V for Vendetta is a thoughtful and well-developed film. I highly recommend it to anyone that enjoyed District 9 or movies with intense political messages. This film will resonate in a person, something not every Hollywood Blockbuster is capable of doing.