V For Vendetta (2005) and the Sociopolitical Impact of a Shakespearean Dystopian Avenger
Authors
Forés Rossell, XeloIdentifiers
Permanent link (URI): http://hdl.handle.net/10017/59885DOI: 10.37536/reden.2023.5.2040
ISSN: 2695-4168
Date
2023Bibliographic citation
REDEN: revista de estudios norteamericanos, v.5, n.1 (2023), pp. 128-145 . ISSN 2695-4168
Keywords
V for Vendetta
Dystopian
Shakespeare
Anonymous
Occupy Wall Street
Document type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional
Access rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Abstract
The use of science and technology as tools for political domination is a recurrent topic in dystopian films.
James McTeigue and the Wachowski sisters´ film adaptation (2005) of Alan Moore and David Lloyd´s cult
graphic novel V for Vendetta (1982-89) is a unique example of this kind, as the film has enhanced its impact
on a wider audience and has spread its influence over the sociopolitical arena. After 18 years since its release,
the film´s criticism is still in force and it may be applied to analyze recent political events in the
United States. Far from being a work circumscribed to a specific time, nowadays the film highlights issues
that are still relevant and problematic, such as resettlement camps, pandemics, manipulated information
and massive surveillance. The film adaptation has become a global hit and V´s mask has been claimed and
reproduced in all kinds of protests. Therefore, this masked avenger—inspired by Guy Fawkes and created
forty years ago—has succeeded to become a tragic hero in the fashion of revenge tragedy characters, combining
Shakespearean references with radical political ideas. Thus, people have identified with V through
the years, bringing his mask to the streets in social and political struggles such as Anonymous or Occupy
Wall Street.
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