V for Vendetta
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- This article is about the comic book series. For the film, see V for Vendetta (film).
V for Vendetta is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom. A mysterious anarchist named "V" works to destroy the authoritarian government, profoundly affecting the people whom he encounters.
The series is set in a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war, which has left much of the world destroyed. In this future, an extreme fascist party called Norsefire has arisen. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government.
There is an emphasis on technology, especially closed-circuit television monitoring in the mode of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
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[edit] Background
The first episodes of V for Vendetta were originally published in black-and-white between 1982 and 1985, in Warrior, a British anthology comic published by Quality Comics. The strip was one of the most popular in the title and featured on several covers during the 26 issues of Warrior.
In writing V for Vendetta, Moore drew upon an idea for a strip called "The Doll" he had submitted to DC Thomson when he was 22. In "Behind the Painted Smile,"<ref>Moore, Alan (1983). "Behind the Painted Smile". Warrior (17).</ref> Moore revealed that the idea was rejected as DC Thomson balked at the idea of a "transsexual terrorist." Years later, Warrior editor Dez Skinn invited Moore to create a dark mystery strip with artist David Lloyd.<ref>Brown, Adrian (2004). Headspace: Inside The Mindscape Of Alan Moore (http). Ninth Art. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref> Lloyd and Moore went through several proposals, including one in which the story was called 'Vendetta' and set in 1930s America. The setting developed through their discussions, moving from 1930s America to near-future Britain. As the setting progressed, so did the character; once conceived as a "realistic" gangster-age American, he became first a policeman rebelling against a totalitarian state before becoming an anarchist hero.Moore and Lloyd conceived the series as a dark adventure strip influenced by British comic characters of the 1960s, as well as Night Raven, a Marvel UK strip which Lloyd had previously worked on with writer Steve Parkhouse. Editors Dez Skinn and Graham Marsh came up with the name V for Vendetta. David Lloyd developed the idea of dressing V as Guy Fawkes after previous designs followed the conventional superhero look.
During the preparation of the story Moore made a list of what he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted Mask":
"Orwell. Huxley. Thomas Disch. Judge Dredd. Harlan Ellison's "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman, Catman and The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World by the same author. Vincent Price's Dr. Phibes and Theatre of Blood. David Bowie. The Shadow. Night Raven. Batman. Fahrenheit 451. The writings of the New Worlds school of science fiction. Max Ernst's painting "Europe After the Rain". Thomas Pynchon. The atmosphere of British Second World War films. The Prisoner. Robin Hood. Dick Turpin...<ref>Moore, Alan (1983). "Behind the Painted Smile". Warrior (17).</ref>"
The political climate of Britain in the early 1980s has also been cited as an influence on the work<ref>Boudreaux, Madelyn (1994). Introduction. An Annotation of Literary, Historic, and Artistic References in Alan Moore's Graphic Novel, V For Vendetta. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref>, with Moore positing that Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government would "obviously lose the 1983 elections", and that the Michael Foot-led Labour government that replaced it, being committed to complete nuclear disarmament, would allow the United Kingdom to escape relatively unscathed after a limited nuclear war. However, Moore felt a post-holocaust Britain quickly would be subverted by fascists.<ref>Moore, Alan (1983). "Behind the Painted Smile". Warrior (17).</ref> Moore's predictions were perceived to be unlikely, and, addressing this when DC reissued the work, noted:
Naivete can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge England towards fascism.... The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1982 General Election should tell you how reliable we were in our roles as Cassandras.<ref>Moore, Alan, Introduction. V for Vendetta. New York: DC Comics, 1990.</ref>
When Warrior was cancelled in 1985 (with one completed episode unpublished due to the cancellation), several companies attempted to convince Moore and Lloyd to let them publish and complete the story. In 1988 DC Comics published a ten-issue series that reprinted the Warrior stories in colour, then continued the series to completion. The first new material appeared in issue #7, which included the unpublished episode that would have appeared in Warrior #27. Tony Weare drew one chapter ("Vincent") and contributed additional art to two others ("Valerie", "The Vacation"); Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds worked as colourists on the entire series. The series, including Moore's "Behind the Painted Smile" essay and two "interludes" outside the central continuity, was then collected as a graphic novel, published in the US by DC's Vertigo imprint (ISBN 0-930289-52-8) and in the UK by Titan Books (ISBN 1-85286-291-2).
[edit] Plot
November 4, 1997, London. V rescues a young woman, Evey Hammond, from a gang of police agents — known as "Fingermen" — who are about to rape and kill her, when she attempts to start a life of prostitution after curfew. After blowing up the Houses of Parliament, V takes Evey to his secret lair, which he calls "The Shadow Gallery." Evey tells V her life story, describing the nuclear war of the late 1980s and the fascist coup in which her father became a political prisoner.
The investigation into the bombing is assigned to Eric Finch, an experienced investigator who serves the government out of a love of order, rather than political conviction. Through him we meet other figures in the Party, including the Leader, Adam James Susan, a recluse who is fixated on the police state's computer system, "Fate."
V next blows up the Old Bailey, and confronts three Party figures to accuse them of past crimes: Lewis Prothero, the propaganda broadcaster who serves as the "Voice of Fate"; Bishop Anthony Lilliman, a pedophile who represents the Party in the clergy; and Delia Surridge, a seemingly apolitical doctor who had a personal relationship with Finch and with V. V attacks each of them in an ironic fashion, derived from previous encounters. V drives Prothero to insanity after destroying his collection of priceless dolls in a reproduced death camp oven; he kills Lilliman by forcing him to consume a cyanide-laced communion wafer; and Dr. Surridge is killed with a lethal injection.
Finch begins his research upon his discovery of Dr. Surridge's diary. It reveals that all three victims were officers at the Larkhill Resettlement Camp, and that over the previous several years, every other staff member from the camp has died, apparently killed by V — the vendetta of the title. Finch later discovers that this "vendetta" actually served as a diversion from the true cause of action. V, the only prisoner to have survived the death camp, chose to eliminate its surviving officers to prevent the Fingers from discovering his true identity. It could also be said that they were killed as retribution for the death and pain that prisoners experienced because of the officers of Larkhill's adherence to the fascist administration. Without existing records of his real name or personage, V can operate covertly. Now, all that is known is that he was subjected to medical experiments involving hormonal injections of a substance called "Batch 5," which apparently caused V's transformation into a brilliant and obsessive avenger.
Six months later, V breaks into Jordan Tower, the broadcast centre for the Party, to broadcast an anarchist speech that calls on the people to take charge of their own lives. He escapes by tying up Dascombe, the broadcaster in charge of normal operations, and placing a copy of his own costume and mask on him, standing him up in the control room, where he is shot by police who storm the room. Eric Finch, in going over the crime scene, punches a superior for a personal remark related to Delia Surridge (with whom he was romantically involved), and is sent on a forced vacation.
Evey has developed a strong attachment to V, but he has begun to challenge her morality. After a confrontation in the Shadow Gallery, she finds herself abandoned on a street, unable to find V. She is taken in by Gordon Deitrich, a petty criminal, and they cross paths unknowingly with Rose Almond, the widow of a policeman killed by V; Rose has been forced to work as a burlesque dancer, and has consequently developed a strong hatred for the Party. Creedy, a petty criminal-turned-leader of the secret police, begins organizing a private militia, hoping to use V's destabilization of the Party to mount a coup against the Leader. V, maintaining surveillance on all of these various factions, appears to be manipulating them against each other.
When Gordon is murdered by the gangster, Ally, whom he was currently working with, Evey attempts revenge but is arrested, detained, and tortured. In her cell, Evey finds a letter from a former inmate, Valerie, an actress who was imprisoned for being a lesbian. Evey's interrogator gives her a choice of collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie's defiance, she refuses to give in, and is told she is free. To her shock, Evey learns that her imprisonment was a hoax constructed by V, to put her through an ordeal like the one that shaped him. He reveals that Valerie was another Larkhill prisoner, who died in the cell next to his; the letter that Evey read is exactly the same one that V read. Evey's anger gives way to acceptance of her identity and freedom.
November 1998. V destroys the Party's communication and surveillance centre (housed in Post Office Tower), spurring a wave of wanton violence and hedonism which is violently suppressed by Creedy's street gangs. Meanwhile, V notes that this is not The Land of Do-As-You-Please end result he wants, but rather it's mere chaos in The Land of Take What You Want — an interim period which he intends to follow up with the establishment of true anarchy, a voluntarily orderly society. Finch's assistant Dominic realises that V has had access to the Fate computer since the very beginning, explaining his seeming foresight; this news accelerates the mental collapse of the Leader.
Finch travels to the abandoned site of Larkhill, on the Wiltshire Downs, where he takes LSD. His hallucinations lead him to an intuitive understanding of V, and returning to London, he discovers that the Shadow Gallery is hidden in Victoria Station, part of the abandoned London Underground. Finch enters the underground. V, who knows his time is finished, meets him and allows Finch to shoot the fatal bullet. The crippled V flees and dies in Evey's arms. Evey considers unmasking V, but decides not to learn his identity; instead, she assumes it, donning one of his spare costumes. Meanwhile, Rose Almond's private vendetta has led her to assassinate the Leader. In the ensuing chaos, Creedy's own men kill him, while Finch reports the news that V is dead. When Evey appears to the crowd as V, a general insurrection begins.
Evey completes V's final terrorist act. As requested by V, she performs the destruction of Parliament of the United Kingdom, by giving her mentor a "Viking funeral" with an explosive-laden Underground carriage containing his body set to detonate at the desired location. She rescues Dominic from the mob and takes him back to the Shadow Gallery, implying that she intends to train him as her successor, having vowed to help the people to create the society the original V dreamed of creating. Having removed the totalitarian old regime, there's no longer a need for destruction. Finch observes the chaos raging in the city before heading to the countryside. All forms of authority in Britain are now gone; its future is left uncertain. Thus, V has created chaos, and the audience is left to assume that Evey will create anarchy.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Major characters
- V: Less of a character than an idea, he is a romantic, anarchist revolutionary, well-versed in the arts of explosives, subterfuge, computer cracking, and others; also has a vast literary, cultural and philosophical intelligence. V is the only survivor of an experiment in which 48 people were given injections of a pituarin/pinearin compound called "Batch 5". The compound caused vast cellular anomalies that eventually killed all of the subjects except V, on whom it apparently granted enhanced strength (enough to drive his fingers into a man's chest) and reflexes. Although Dr. Surridge believes V was driven insane by the injection, there exists the possibility that feigning insanity to some degree was the first step in V's plan for freedom. Throughout the novel V almost always wears his trademark Guy Fawkes mask, a shoulder-length wig of straight dark-brown hair, and an outfit consisting of black gloves, tunic, trousers and boots. When outside the Shadow Gallery, he completes this ensemble with a circa-1600's peaked hat and floor-length cloak. His weapons of choice are roughly foot-long daggers that he wields and throws expertly, along with explosives and tear gas. He allegedly takes his name both from the Roman numeral "V" from "Batch 5" and the number of the room he was held in during the experiment.
- Evey Hammond: The main character of the story, a teenage girl who is saved by V from the "Fingermen". She is taken under V's wing, learns of his past, his current battle against the government, and eventually becomes his successor. Evey's name is composed of "E", the fifth letter of the alphabet (5 in Roman numerals is V), "V", and "Y", the 25th letter of the alphabet, 25 is the square of 5 - yet another reference to 5 and the Roman numeral V. The three Vs may be a hint at her eventual succession of V. The sum of the letter positions in Evey's entire name is 125, which is equal to 5 cubed.
- Eric Finch: Chief of New Scotland Yard and Minister Of Investigations, which has become the "Nose", Finch is a pragmatist who sides with the government because he would rather serve in a world of order than one of chaos. He is nevertheless honourable and decent, and trusted by the Leader because he is reliable and without ambition. He eventually achieves his own catharsis and self-knowledge, expressing sorrow over his complicity with Norsefire's atrocities; nevertheless, he is the one who kills V. He is at one point referred to as Edward Finch (an error on the part of Helen Heyer). Numerically, Eric's name begins with E, the fifth letter of the alphabet.
[edit] Minor characters
- Adam J. Susan: Also known as "The Leader", the Prime Minister of Britain; he is the controlling personality of the fascist party that now rules England. An ex-chief of police, he is solely devoted to upholding order and romanticizes his reasons for having murdered countless people in concentration camps. He is also a racist and a homophobe. Susan is in love with the Fate computer system, who he views as a divine being, and prefers its companionship to that of women, having been a virgin all his life. His social ineptness leads to his downfall, being shot by Rose Almond as he reached out to shake her hand during a public appearance, after Fate had let him down and he wished to reach out to the people of his country. Susan also believes that he is the only real person in Earth, and that the only existing beings are him and 'God' (referring to the Fate computer).
- Gordon Deitrich: He is a petty criminal specializing in bootlegging, who is at one point Evey Hammond's lover. He is murdered by Alistair Harper, a ruthless gangster who is trying to expand Scotland's organized crime syndicate into London.
- Lewis Prothero: Was the Commander of "Larkhill", the concentration camp that once held V. Afterwards he became "the Voice of Fate", the government radio broadcaster who daily transmitted information to the public. He is driven insane by a combination of an overdose of Batch 5 drugs and the shock of seeing his prized doll collection burned in a mock recreation of Camp Larkhill. He remains incapacitated for the rest of the story.
- Bishop Anthony Lilliman: As the voice of the Party in the Church, Lilliman is a corrupt churchman given to pedophilia and embezzlement. Like Prothero, he worked at Larkhill before being given a higher employment by the state. He is killed when V forces him to take communion with a cyanide-laced wafer.
- Delia Surridge: Repentant Larkhill camp doctor whom V nevertheless kills by lethal, albeit painless, injection. Because of the government's destroying of all files about Larkhill and V's vendetta, Surridge is also insinuated to be the only person from Larkhill who remembers V's true identity (upon realizing who V is, former camp commander Prothero is only able to recall him as "the man from room five")
- Rose Almond: The abused wife of Derek Almond, the head of the Finger who hunted for V following the destruction of the Houses of Parliament and the murder of Bishop Lilliman. When he too is murdered, Rose becomes depressed and turns to Roger Dascombe (the broadcaster) for company. She is forced to become a showgirl dancer as a means of supporting herself after Dascombe's death at the hands of V. Out of desperation and anger, she kills the Leader near the end of the series. Her last appearance shows her being beaten and tortured by Fingermen who are attempting to get her to confess to killing the Leader for V.
- Helen Heyer: The ruthless, scheming wife of Conrad Heyer. She uses sex (or rather, the lack thereof) and her superior intellect to keep Heyer in line, and to further her own goal of ultimately controlling the country after Conrad becomes Leader.
- Peter Creedy: A self-centered, ambitious and weak man who replaces Derek Almond as Security Minister of "the Finger" after the latter's death. His ambition is to replace the weakening Susan as Leader, but due to Mrs. Heyer's plot, he is killed shortly after seizing power.
- Conrad Heyer: In charge of the "Eye", the agency that controls the country's CCTV system. He is subservient to his wife Helen, and she intends for him to become leader, leaving her as the power behind the throne. In the end, V sends Conrad a videotape of Helen being unfaithful and he snaps, killing her lover but sustaining a fatal wound in the process.
- Dominic Stone: Younger policeman who is Inspector Finch's assistant. Dominic is the one who figures out the connection between V and the former Larkhill camp staff . At the end Dominic is rescued from a mob by Evey and recruited to be her apprentice now that she is V - much as V did with her.
- Valerie Page: A critically acclaimed actress who was imprisoned at Larkhill when the government found out she was a lesbian. Her tragic fate at the hands of the regime motivated V to become a freedom fighter and revolutionary.
- Roger Dascombe: The technical supervisor for The Party's media division and the Propaganda Minister of "the Mouth". During V's elaborate attack on Jordan Tower, he is set up as a dummy "V" whilst the real V makes his escape, and killed by the police.
- Alistair Harper: Scottish organized crime leader who kills Evey's lover Gordon. Initially he and some of his men are hired by Creedy to temporarily bolster the police force after V destroys the government's surveillance equipment, but Helen Heyer recruits him to her side to ensure Creedy's downfall by offering to place him in charge of the Finger after Conrad comes to power. After Creedy's takeover, Harper fulfills his end of the bargain and kills Creedy with a straight razor. He is himself beaten to death by Conrad, but inflicts fatal wounds on him in the process.
- Sarah: Played by Laura Greenwood in the film.
[edit] Themes
The series was Moore's first use of the densely detailed narrative and multiple plot lines that would feature heavily in Watchmen. Panel backgrounds are often crammed with clues and red herrings; literary allusions and wordplay are prominent in the chapter titles and in V's speech (which almost always takes the form of iambic pentameter, a poetic meter reliant on five pairs of syllables, the second syllable of each pair being more stressed than the first; its most famous usage has been in the majority of the works of Shakespeare).
The structure of the book has several direct parallels with Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera: the Shadow Gallery doubles for the Phantom's Lair, and Evey's abduction and re-education mirrors Christine Daae's. V reads Evey to sleep with The Magic Faraway Tree. This series is the source of "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" and "The Land of Take-What-You-Want" alluded to throughout the novel.
[edit] Anarchism versus fascism
The two conflicting political viewpoints of anarchism and fascism permeate the story. The Norsefire regime shares every facet of fascist ideology: it rules by fear and authority and worships strong leadership (i.e. the führerprinzip). However, the regime was put in place by democratic means, just like the regime in Nazi Germany. As in most fascist regimes, there are several different types of police and military police who engage in power struggles with each other yet obey the same leader.
The fascist regime embraces total corporatism. An important aspect of corporatism is the total identification of society with State, and to think of society as a body where the different institutions are organs. This is reflected by institutions named after parts of the body: the police (The New Scotland Yard) is The Nose, the surveillance organization is The Ears and The Eye, the secret police is The Finger (and those who work for them are called Fingermen), and the state-controlled media is known as The Mouth. In creating this system of control, Moore provocatively evokes mainstream English political thought, namely Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, which imagined the state as one vast corporate gestalt, with its legitimacy founded on the need to maintain order and prevent indiscriminate violence (as was hinted at in the Norsefire backstory). The sovereign formed the natural 'head' of the society, which perhaps explains the anatomical nomenclature of the various arms of state government.
In order to keep this "body" healthy, fascist ideology generally prescribes that it be cleansed of "unhealthy elements" (as exemplified by the motto Strength Through Purity), thus the totalitarianism and concentration camps. In issue #5 (see below), Delia Surridge recaps the Milgram experiment as an explanation as to why ordinary people like herself can engage in such obedience. The connection to Anglican Christianity and Purity Through Faith is a typical feature of clerical fascism in Catholic countries (such as southern France under the Vichy regime 1940-4, Spain under Franco 1939-75 and Austria under Dollfuss and Schuschnigg 1933-38); such a form has taken hold specifically in England where, in reality, the Church of England (which is Anglican) is 'established' with the Queen being its head as well as the head of state. This may explain why, in story continuity, non-Anglican parts of the UK (such as Scotland) are engulfed in violent uprisings against Norsefire's rule.
The anarchism proposed by V is classic and built specifically around the ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, who is often associated with the idea that the old society has to be torn down before a new one can be built upon its ruins. In issue #2, V has a fictional dialogue with Madam Justice and concludes that anarchy has taught him that "justice is meaningless without freedom", a phrase which closely parallels similar statements by Bakunin.
Several anarchist (or similar) traits encountered are related to 1960s counterculture. V's tactic to humiliate and make fun of the fascist regime to destabilize it is similar to the ideas of the situationist movement. In issue #8, the phase between fascism and anarchy is called Verwirrung, a German word meaning "confusion" but used here probably as a reference to The Illuminatus! Trilogy (Book One of the first part of the trilogy has this title). It also may be a direct reference to Discordian philosophy in general, as many other aspects of the series (chaos, the creative arts, anarchism, and the obsession with the number "5") draw similar parallels. An aspect of 1960s counterculture was the idea that domestic partnership and its legal forms can constitute a power imbalance between two people where one controls and dominates the other. This is exemplified by the relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Almond as well as Mr. and Mrs. Heyer, but this aspect is not developed theoretically. When Mr. Finch eventually uses LSD to clear his mind and uncover V's hideout, this is probably a reference to Timothy Leary who repeatedly claimed that this particular drug could be used for loosening stiff thinking in general.
[edit] Identity
V himself is something of an enigma whose history is only hinted at; it is strongly suggested that he is physically disfigured from the explosion and fire he engineered to escape Larkhill. The bulk of the story is told from the viewpoints of other characters: V's admirer and apprentice Evey, a sixteen-year-old factory worker; Eric Finch, a world-weary and pragmatic policeman who is hunting V; and several contenders for power within the fascist party. V's destructive acts are morally ambiguous, and a central theme of the series is the rationalisation of atrocities in the name of a higher goal, whether it is stability or freedom. The character is a mixture of an actual advocate of anarchism and the traditional stereotype of the anarchist as a terrorist.
Moore stated in an interview:
...the central question is, is this guy right? Or is he mad? What do you, the reader, think about this? Which struck me as a properly anarchist solution. I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think, and consider some of these admittedly extreme little elements, which nevertheless do recur fairly regularly throughout human history.<ref>MacDonald, Heidi (2006). A FOR ALAN, Pt. 1: The Alan Moore interview (html). The Beat. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref>
Moore has never clarified who V supposedly was, beyond stating that V is not Evey's father; he does point out that V's identity is never revealed in the book. The ambiguity of the V character is a running theme through the work; it is left for the reader to determine for himself whether V is sane or psychotic, hero or villain. Before donning the Guy Fawkes mask herself, Evey comes to the conclusion that V's identity is unimportant compared to the role he plays.
[edit] The number 5
Main article: The number 5 in V for Vendetta
There are numerous references throughout V for Vendetta to the number 5 and letter V, which is itself "5" in Roman numerals:
- The character V is seen reading and quoting from Thomas Pynchon's novel, V., and listening to Beethoven's fifth symphony (the first four notes of which can be represented as the letter V in Morse code and were used as a call sign by the BBC during World War II). Beethoven himself also referred to those opening notes as 'Fate knocking on the door'. 'Fate' of course is the name of the supercomputer belonging to the Leader, Adam Susan in the novel.
- V introduces himself to Evey with a five-syllable phrase: "You can call me V." A large part of V's speech is in iambic pentameter, which is comprised of five iambs.
- The phrase "Remember, remember, the fifth of November" is referenced. This is the first line of a nursery rhyme detailing the exploits of Guy Fawkes.
- Evey's name—"Evey" —is actually composed of "E" (the fifth letter of the alphabet), "V" (5 in Roman numerals, and the fifth letter from the end of the alphabet), and "Y" (25th letter of the alphabet, or 5 squared).
- V is eventually identified as the prisoner from Room 5 at Larkhill Internment Camp. The five doors are labeled with Roman numerals, so Room 5 is emblazoned with a "V".
- In numerous apartment scenes, V is filmed stationary with his arms slightly apart from his body, forming an inverted V
- "5" converted to binary numerals is "101", so "Room 5" is "Room 101". This is an allusion to the infamous torture chamber in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
- V's hideout is accessed from the closed Victoria Park tube station, the damaged sign of which resembles a sideways V when Finch locates it.
- V's personal motto consists of the Latin phrase Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici (By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe), which in turn consists of five words that begin with the letter V.
- "V for Vendetta" has 5 syllables.
- November is the only month in the Gregorian calendar with the letter V in it.
- The woman who dies in the cell next to that of V at Larkhill is named Valerie Plame. The word "Valerie" begins with the letter V.
- As Evey appears to give her speech to the public after she has assumed the identity of V, the visual angle of the frame causes a V to be formed between the edges of the building she is standing on and the building behind her.
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Music
David J of the band Bauhaus, who has collaborated with Moore on other projects, recorded a version of V's song This Vicious Cabaret and other music inspired by the book, which appeared on an EP titled V for Vendetta. According to David, Moore proposed the idea for him to compose music for a set of lyrics that made up an entire chapter of the novel. Within an hour of receiving the lyrics, David had composed the music for the entire chapter. The band Jocasta used Moore's dialogue in their song The Land of Do-As-You-Please. [citation needed]
Pop Will Eat Itself also included several references to V for Vendetta on their 1989 album This is the Day...This is the Hour...This is This! - the song Can U Dig It? includes the the lyric "we dig V for Vendetta" and the chorus finishes with the line "Alan Moore knows the score". Another track, The Fuses Have Been Lit, includes references to "the voice of Fate" and "The Land of Do-As-You-Please".
The progressive metal band, Shadow Gallery took it's name from V's hideout, as admitted in their website's FAQ.
[edit] Theatre
The Swedish production company Stockholms Blodbad staged a live theatrical adaptation of the graphic novel in 2000 under the title Landet där man gör som man vill, which translates as The Land of Do-As-You-Please. This contained pre-recorded video clips of scenes from the graphic novel, such as the bombing of the Houses of Parliament, a scene from the racist sci-fi TV show Storm Saxon, scenes of torture at Larkhill, and Finch's revelation at the camp. [citation needed]
[edit] Film
A film adaptation was released on 17 March 2006, directed by James McTeigue (first assistant director on The Matrix films) from a screenplay by the Wachowski brothers. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond and Hugo Weaving as V together with 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, possibly due to the 7 July 2005 London bombings, although producers denied this was the reason.<ref>Griepp, Milton (2005). 'Vendetta' Delayed. ICv2.com. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref>
Alan Moore, however, distanced himself from the film sight unseen, as he has with every screen adaptation of his works to date. He ended cooperation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the movie.<ref name = "slam">MOORE SLAMS V FOR VENDETTA MOVIE, PULLS LoEG FROM DC COMICS. Comicbookresources (April 22 2006).</ref> After reading the script, Moore remarked:
"[The movie] has been "turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country.... It's a thwarted and frustrated and largely impotent American liberal fantasy of someone with American liberal values standing up against a state run by neoconservatives — which is not what the comic 'V for Vendetta' was about. It was about fascism, it was about anarchy, it was about England."<ref>MTV (2006). "Alan Moore: The last angry man". MTV.com. Retrieved on 2006-08-30.</ref>
He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest what was going on in America, then they should have used a political narrative that spoke directly at America's issues, similar to what Moore had done before with Britain. The film changes the original message by arguably having changed "V" into a freedom fighter instead of an anarchist. An interview with producer Joel Silver suggests that the change may not have been conscious; he identifies the V of the graphic novel as a clear-cut "superhero...a masked avenger who pretty much saves the world," a simplification that goes against Moore's own statements about V's role in the story.<ref>Douglas, Edward (2006). V For Vendetta's Silver Lining. Comingsoon.net. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref> Moore also disputed several other details in the film, such as whether "eggy in the basket", which V cooks for Evey, is an actual British dish. As Moore puts it: "They don't know what British people have for breakfast, they couldn't be bothered. 'Eggy in a basket' apparently. Now the US have 'eggs in a basket,' whish [sic] is fried bread with a fried egg in a hole in the middle. I guess they thought we must eat that as well, and thought 'eggy in a basket' was a quaint and Olde Worlde version."<ref name = "slam" />
Co-author and illustrator David Lloyd, by contrast, embraced the adaptation.<ref>V At Comic Con. Retrieved on 2006-04-06.</ref> In an interview with Newsrama.com, he states: "It's a terrific film. The most extraordinary thing about it for me was seeing scenes that I'd worked on and crafted for maximum effect in the book translated to film with the same degree of care and effect. The "transformation" scene between Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving is just great. If you happen to be one of those people who admires the original so much that changes to it will automatically turn you off, then you may dislike the film — but if you enjoyed the original and can accept an adaptation that is different to its source material but equally as powerful, then you'll be as impressed as I was with it." <ref>David Lloyd: A Conversation. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.</ref>
A novelization of the film's screenplay was created by comic writer Steve Moore.
[edit] Collections
The entire V saga is collected in paperback form, ISBN 0-930289-52-8.
[edit] Notes and references
<references />
[edit] External links
- V for Vendetta official site at DC Comics
- V for Vendetta: Comic vs. Film at IGN
| V for Vendetta | |
|---|---|
| Main Characters | V | Evey Hammond | Eric Finch | Adam Susan |
| Secondary Characters | Peter Creedy | Gordon Deitrich | Valerie Page | Roger Dascombe | Dominic Stone | Delia Surridge Lewis Prothero | Anthony James Lilliman | Brian Etheridge | Conrad Heyer |
| Miscellaneous | 2006 Film Version | Norsefire | Storm Saxon | This Vicious Cabaret |
da:V for Vendetta
de:V wie Vendetta (Comic) es:V de Vendetta fr:V pour Vendetta is:V for Vendetta it:V for Vendetta he:ונדטה (קומיקס) ja:Vフォー・ヴェンデッタ nn:V for Vendetta pl:V jak Vendetta (komiks) pt:V for Vendetta fi:V niin kuin verikosto sv:V for Vendetta
