According to the director of V for Vendetta (2005) a political agenda founded on the idea that people should be free to live as they choose and stand up for their principles without compromise, given there is no negative impact on positive social cohesion, is preferable. Film techniques are employed in the film to convince the audience to embrace this idea. Characters who believe in the ideology are presented as likeable and the film’s heroes resulting in the audience viewing the ideology in a positive manner. Conversely, the antagonists of the film are made to be those who practice a polar opposite ideology causing the audience to associate opposition to the ideology with villainy. While the film acknowledges that the actions taken to advance …show more content…
V’s vendetta against the government is legitimised after the audience discovers that V was tortured and experimented on by the government. When V obliterates the Old Bailey no resulting human causalities are shown in order to minimise the explosion’s negative impacts. After V’s offensives on the Old Bailey and Jordan Tower, the audience is immediately shown the government propaganda response to the attack which the audience knows to be false, distracting the audience from resenting the atrociousness of V’s acts and instead turning their anger towards the government for lying. As previously mentioned, Prothero and Lilliman are made to be villains resulting in the audience having little for compassion for them when they are murdered by V. The one person who was remorseful for her actions, Daisy, is killed painlessly with an injection and has her apology accepted by V, illustrating that V only uses violence on those who do not recognise the fault of their actions resulting in his methods appearing to be fair. In order to advance their agenda by striking fear in the population giving them an excuse to increase control, the government blamed a virus, that they purposefully released and had the only cure, on terrorists. Similarly, the government performed human experiments on civilians whose only crime was not conforming, to eradicate any threats to their dominance. The film intentionally portrays the gravity of the human experiments and biological attack as greater than V’s killing of those who have done serious wrong, and his destroying of empty buildings. Moreover, the gravity of the government’s actions is increased by causing the audience to again negatively associate them with the Nazis, who too performed human experiments and,
Imagine a world where civil liberties have been stripped away, a bare façade of civilization left behind. This is a world that is inhabited by people who were once free-willed and strong-minded. These people have become weak and obedient, easily bent to the will of their oppressive government. The world that these words have conjured up in your mind is the same existence that the characters occupy in Edwidge Danticat’s “A Wall of Fire Rising” and Alan Moore’s “V” for Vendetta. Danticat’s story is about a small family living in present-day Haiti with their small, ambitious son. The country is a mish-mash of people amassing obscene fortune while the rest scrape at the bottom of the proverbial barrel just to make ends meet; the class gap is seemingly far apart. In Danticat’s story, the husband spends his days either working at the sugarcane mill or searching for work elsewhere. Each day the husband watches the mill owner’s son take a hot air balloon up into the sky, and each day becomes more envious of the freedom attached to that action. After complaining to his wife about his exhaustion with their current situation he claims that he wants to take the hot air balloon for himself and leave Haiti for a far-away and better place. The following day, the husband makes good on his word, abandons his family, and takes the hot air balloon up into the sky. In James McTeigue’s version of “’V’ for Vendetta”, the country is a futuristic and dystopian London. Corrupt politicians control every aspect of the country and the citizens within. The main character, a masked vigilante by the name of V, grows tired of his country’s lack of freedom and decides to destroy an historic courthouse at midnight on the morning of November the 5th. The building i...
The approach towards freedom is hard to achieve against a totalitarian government, but possible to win with the people’s belief. 1984 by George Orwell and James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta portrays the same idealism of the anti-heroes, Winston and V. An anti-hero is “a protagonist who lacks the attributes that make a heroic figure, as nobility of mind and spirit, a life or attitude marked by action or purpose” (“Antihero”). Winston is not courageous, peaceful, and self-centered along the path of freedom for Oceania, whereas the anti-hero, V, is violent in his actions, impatient and careless in his pursuit to free London from the totalitarian government. As a matter of fact, V and Winston have the opposite behaviours; this is significant because it helps to compare the approach of the anti-heroes toward freedom. At the end of 1984 and V for Vendetta, the result of their approach is different from each other; Winston gives up on the liberation of Oceania, while V dies knowing that London is freed from Norsefire Party.
The purpose of any text is to convey the criticisms of society, with V for Vendetta and Animal Farm being chief examples of this statement. Through their use of allusion, symbolism and representation, they portray many of society's flaws and imperfections. Such an imperfection includes the illustration of how totalitarian governments abuse the power they have acquired for their own gain, harming the people they are sworn to serve and protect. Through this abusive self-gaining government, we all are liable to become victims of consumer culture caused by the blind obedience to advertising and propaganda, being unable to form or voice an opinion of our own. But this lack of opinion can be at fault because of our own apathy, the ignorance and slothfulness that is contributed to the role we play in our society and the importance of that role's ability to motivate and inspire change.
The dystopian novel “1984” and the movie “V for Vendetta”, share a variety of differences and similarities. Both have a totalitarian government in which they have absolute power over politics, religion and human rights. Extensive speech, critical thinking, thoughtful writing, and voice of opinion has either been restricted or limited in 1984’s Oceania and V for Vendetta’s future London. The protagonists in both novels and films have “resisted” their government. However, the methods used to employ their “rebellion” are quite different.
In dystopian literature, the future of society and humanity is presented in a negative standpoint. Utopian works frequently illustrate a future in which the everyday lives of human beings is often improved by technology to advance civilization, while dystopian works offer an opposite outlook. Examples of dystopian characteristics include an oppressive government, a protagonist, and character nature. Although the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and the film V for Vendetta directed by James McTeigue display different perspectives of a dystopian society, both share similar dystopian characteristics, which include a government who asserts power over citizens, a protagonist who questions society, and characters who are isolated from the natural world.
In the novel 1984 and the film “V for Vendetta”, the protagonist for both stories are captured while performing various acts of rebellion against the totalitarian government, of which is controlling their city. In punishment, the government tortures them with harsh, inhumane methods that are similar to those used in dictatorships during the 1900s like the USSR under Stalin’s rule. However, both protagonists are tortured by different sides, and by people from completely opposite ends of the political ladder: one a government agent, the other a rebel. Although the themes disclosed in relation to the purpose and meanings of torture are similar, the overall message and final opinion that is expressed and conveyed to the recipients are complete opposites.
Similarities between Nazis and the Party of 1984 The government of Nazi Germany greatly resembled the Party, the government in 1984. Both operated similarly and had similar aims. Anything either government did was an action for maintaining power. Both the Nazis and the Party maintained similar ideologies, controlled mass media, educated children in their beliefs, had a secret police force, and had forced labor camps.
In this day in age, it is very common to find films adapted from books. Many of those films do a very well in their adaptations, but some fall short. Since it was finished, and even before its release date, the V for Vendetta film has gained some controversy from its own author. But, although the film did not end up how Alan Moore, the author, would have wanted it, he did not contribute to the project, even so, the filmography very clearly kept with the original work and showed itself as a product of the time.
Political communication—communication with a political purpose about human interaction—takes many different forms including novels, poetry, music, television, and film, which all have their distinct advantages and disadvantages in communicating with the public. Although some political communication intends to enact or drive social changes, some political communication seeks to maintain the status quo. The film medium, which is the subject of this paper, has a much broader mass appeal than other medias and often changes the viewer’s original beliefs and perceptions when he or she experiences over an hour straight of visual indoctrination of only one view.
Propaganda in the broadest sense is the technique of influencing human action by the manipulation of representations. These representations may take the spoken, written, pictorial, or musical form. Since the cinema uses all four of these types of representations, a filmmaker would seem to wield a lot of power as a propagandist. If he so chooses to use his power to its fullest potential. The essential distinction lies in the intentions of the propagandist to persuade an audience to adopt the attitude or action he or she espouses. This is ever so prevalent as Hitler gained support from his nation to exterminate the Jewish people from Germany and Europe alike. He adopted such support by using his Nazi propaganda films as a weapon of mass distraction and manipulation of the people of Germany. If he had not idealized the German soldier as a hero, and bestowed nationalism in his people, and blamed the economic problems of German on the Jewish race then he never would have been able to accomplish what he had in such a short amount of time. The most famous Nazi propaganda film is Der ewige Jude (“The Eternal Jew”).
In every aspect of life, there tends to be a desire to have others see things the way we see them. In theory, if we all share the same views and opinions, we can unite for common goals. Propaganda consists of a communicators objective to impose or manipulate a person, or group of people into adopting his ideals. Perhaps the most common place that Propaganda is used is during times of war. Given the choice, most people would most likely not express a love for war. Some are passionately against it, others, though not in love with the idea, support it when it’s necessary. Due to the raw nature of war and people’s reactions to it, there seems to be some force working to mask the negative feelings towards war and unite people in support of it.
The moral ambiguity of the film is one of the most shockingly relevant criticisms of modern time. The totalitarian Norsefire regime ruling dystopian Britain is portrayed as the greater evil that V, the protagonist, must defeat. In reality, who’s to say who is good and bad? According to the future, it’s the only country in Europe that is still standing in light of a pandemic that has destroyed the countryside. At the same time, the oppression of the citizens is reminiscent of Pol Pot’s Cambodia, Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany. The government controls who lives and dies, and there’s even a Holocaust-like purge taking place. V, on the ot...
The setting of the film, as a whole, displays Marxist ideas of capitalism. One of the foundational themes of Marxist thought is that, within a capitalist society, there will be a distinct polarization between two classes: The ruling class (bourgeoisie), and those whom they rule over (proletariats) (Korczynski, Hodson, & Edwards, 2006, p. 33). V for Vendetta takes place in a not-so-distant future version of a dystopian England.
While Burnham and the PNC were experimenting with its foreign relations, the PPP had moved even further 'left' with its formal induction into the Communist International in July 1969. These developments were partially the result of that party’s increasingly pro Soviet stance, sealed and formalized with its public entry into the Soviet International in 1969. This was after Dr. Jagan returned from a Conference of Communist and Workers Parties in Moscow in the same year. Thereafter, the PPP became a disciplined adherent of doctrinaire Marxism and the long-standing Marxist-Leninist organisation became even more prominent on committees of the Communist International ranging from the World Peace Council to the World Federation of Free Trade Unions (WFTU) and acquired easy access to senior personnel in the Kremlin.
Explore the characters. Are they believable and round, or flat and one-dimensional? Does the major character ( the protagonist) change? What causes the change?