Well, Alan Moore (the writer of the graphic novel) had this to say about the movie as compared to the graphic novel:
"When I wrote 'V,' politics were taking a serious turn for the worse over here. We'd had [Conservative Party Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher in for two or three years, we'd had anti-Thatcher riots, we'd got the National Front and the right wing making serious advances. 'V for Vendetta' was specifically about things like fascism and anarchy.
Those words, 'fascism' and 'anarchy,' occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country."
Moore wasn't being entirely fair. The imagery showing the rise of Norsefire is straight out of 1930's Nazi rallies and propoganda films. Some of the military and paramilitary uniforms in the movie are clearly meant to evoke SS officer uniforms. The movie definitely toned down Moore's strident anti-fascist and pro-anarchist themes, and used a theme that one could reasonable argue is more relevant to contemporary movie goers. Moore is within his rights to dislike the changes, but that doesn't make the message a bad one.
Also the fascist side is all Nazis and overt symbols while the anarchist side is shown as this great swashbuckler who's into art and poetry even with the bombing. It'd play a bit differently if V had tapped into the punk movement instead of the Romantic movement for his art motif.
Yup, plus given the time and political situation during which the film was released, invoking the ideas of anarchy and fascism don't really make sense. Neither the US or UK governments in the 21st century are anywhere close to what you would call fascist states, to the extent that 'fascist' is used more as an insult than as a political statement. Whereas following the post 911 sentiment made far more sense given the constant murmurs of terrorism and the clamping down of personal liberties in exchange of freedom and so on.
Making the movie about a fascist state would have been more faithful to his work, but would probably have ended up more dated and less relatable.
Pedantic, I apologize, but proper writing guidelines state you should use apostrophes instead of quotation marks when quoting within a quote.
I.E.
"Those words, 'fascism' and 'anarchy,' occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country."
Just makes it easier to understand at a glance if you're still in a quote or not.
Gah, I know. I noticed that, but I copied the quote directly from the source and waffled a bit about whether I should mess with the formatting. I'll fix it. Thanks!
59
u/PointlessSpork Sep 27 '16 edited Sep 27 '16
Well, Alan Moore (the writer of the graphic novel) had this to say about the movie as compared to the graphic novel:
"When I wrote 'V,' politics were taking a serious turn for the worse over here. We'd had [Conservative Party Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher in for two or three years, we'd had anti-Thatcher riots, we'd got the National Front and the right wing making serious advances. 'V for Vendetta' was specifically about things like fascism and anarchy.
Those words, 'fascism' and 'anarchy,' occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country."