V for Vendetta’s Deleted Anarchy
I saw V for Vendetta the evening it opened last month, with my 12-year old daughter and 32-year old son. We all had a blast. Sure, the message is mixed, the plot sometimes silly, and V’s immobile mask and egotistical manner increasingly hard to take, but I’ve always liked movies where … well, that would spoil the plot, so I won’t finish the sentence.
An unusual piece on Infoshop today urges anarchists
to organize creative actions on Monday, April 17th, to bring the notion of anarchy to viewers of the Hollywood film, V for Vendetta, a watered-down adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic anarchist graphic novel by the same name. April 17th marks the one month anniversary of the US release of V for Vendetta, but in many countries the film is just now premiering.
Actions can include leafletting, street theater, setting up lit tables at theaters, postering campaigns–anything to bring the concept of anarchy to people who’ve never been exposed to our philosophy. In NYC for example, we will be dressing up in V costumes, and having V symbolically “assassinate” government and the state and act out “deleted scenes” acting out portions of the graphic novel where V speaks in support of anarchy. (We are also flyering in costume at theaters on Fridays and Saturdays while the film is in theaters.)
With these events we hope to educate moviegoers and draw media attention……
The organizers’ website aforanarchy.com has a useful “Deleted Scenes” explanation of how the film differs in important ways ways from its graphic novel source material (which I haven’t read, but my daughter wants me to buy it, so maybe I’ll get around to it). Reading this clarified for me why so many anarchists were looking forward to the movie:
It’s no surprise that a film produced by multi-millionaires at Time-Warner, the largest media conglomerate the world has ever seen (revenues last year of over $43 billion) would sell us the sizzle of violence and destruction while holding back the steak of anarchist opposition to capitalism. But it is worth taking a look at the differences between the book and the movie to see the specific ways they drain the story of its revolutionary politics….
In Alan Moore’s comic book, V is an insurrectionary anarchist of the type that gave the ruling class nightmares around the turn of the 21st century—a bomb-throwing, dagger-wielding assassin and saboteur.
Most importantly, in the comic book, Moore’s V hints at the possibilities of a society organized without coercion. V is not only fighting against something, he is fighting FOR something. The constructive side of the anarchist vision is already downplayed in the comic book, but it is totally missing from the movie. What remains are V’s thrilling adventures in assassination and demolition. The viewer is left with a vague impression, however stirring, of rebellion tinged with nihilism. No alternative is proposed. The only mention of anarchism in the entire movie is when a wild-eyed stick-up-man shouts “Anarchy in the UK!” while robbing a grocery store.
Some of the characters are changed subtly as well: ….. [Can’t explain this without giving away some plot, which I hate to do]
The movie’s presentation of fascism is watered down as well. It does draw some crucial links with the present situation in the US, making references to ‘rendition’, targeting of Muslim citizens, black hoods, detention centers, clampdown on radicals, profiteering by government cronies on mass vaccination, and fear-mongering over public catastrophes. But the comic’s clear-eyed presentation of fascism as a collusion between government and business elites to protect private capital is lost. In the movie, we are presented with an oppressive government, but its seems to be an oppression for oppression’s own sake. The real nature of fascism, which at root serves to protect private capital from the power of the people, is obscured.
The site also has links to interviews with Moore and, of course, more discussion of what anarchism is all about.
My advice is to ignore the critics who say the movie just advocates simpleminded purposeless terrorism. Think Anarchy. And bring a teenager.