Remember, remember, the fifth of November. Yes, I’ve finally gotten round to re-watching James McTeigue’s 2005 dystopian thriller film “V For Vendetta” 🙂 I’m genuinely surprised that this film is twenty years old already.
Verily! This very film is a venerable… Ok, I’ll leave the alliteration to V.
If you haven’t heard of this film before, it was based on an excellent 1980s comic by Alan Moore and David Lloyd about a mysterious Guy Fawkes-like revolutionary called “V” who has made it his life’s mission to overthrow a far-right dictatorship that has taken control of Britain. Which, because this is a Hollywood movie, consists entirely of London and nothing but London….
This article may contain SPOILERS. The film itself also contains FLASHING LIGHTS as well.
The original comic was made in the politically-polarised context of 1980s Britain, a time of industrial unrest, Thatcher’s ultra-conservative government, Cold War fears, cruel homophobia from the British establishment etc….
The 2005 film adaptation was released four years after 9/11, in the context of the “War on Terror”, when politicians were taking all sorts of civil liberties from everyone in the name of “security”, when Britain had a Labour government, when there were wars in the Middle East, when everyone was fearful, when the US government openly operated a… questionable… prison camp in Cuba etc…
And, in late April 2025 when I was preparing this article, I was re-watching the film in the context of cruel transphobia from the British establishment, another Labour government, political polarisation in the US, Donald Trump openly deporting people to a… questionable… prison in El Salvador, war in Eastern Europe and the Middle East etc… Seriously, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
At first, feeling depressed and angry about everything in the news here in Britain in mid-April, I stumbled across clips of this film on Youtube and got nostalgic for the days when these sorts of dystopian films seemed silly and cartoonish and unrealistic. I couldn’t find my old DVD of the film, or my copy of the film’s novelisation (it existed and I read it back in the day. A novel based on a film based on a comic...), or my late 2000s reprint of the comic, so I ended up ordering a second-hand DVD of it and I’m so glad that I did.
The interesting thing about this film is that, if you just watch clips or trailers on Youtube, you’ll be expecting a whizz-bang feel-good action movie, a very basic “Good vs. Evil” story where a masked hero defeats scores of fascist henchmen. This was how I remembered the film. But, watching it again, it’s actually a much slower-paced and more intelligent film than I remembered it being.
It’s also surprisingly timeless too. Yes, you might notice an old mobile phone or – if you’re in your mid-thirties or older – have an “I remember the days when you could still light up in pubs” moment but, these brief moments aside, it could almost have been made today. I say “almost” because, if it was made today, it would be a “streaming” TV series. Because major Hollywood studios hate the idea of intelligent and slow-paced mid-budget films. Even ones based on comic books. Even ones that teenagers enthusiastically watched twenty years ago.
Yes, the film begins and ends with a few spectacular action sequences but most of the film is actually a lot more slow, cerebral and atmospheric. It’s dark and melancholy, but also hopeful and reassuring. It’s more of a drama, a detective story and a traditional thriller, with the occasional action sequence sprinkled in.
Yes, this scene of a detective looking at evidence is actually a lot closer to what this film is really like most of the time. Lots of slow-paced talking and thinking. And it’s really good 🙂
Whilst the film is one about how “ideas are bulletproof”, it is also a warning against the dangers of totalitarianism and – although the flashback scenes about the dictator’s rise to power were obviously inspired by 1930s Germany – it’s difficult not to see parallels with those creepy populist rallies in the US when watched these days [Edit: Or, later in 2025, that creepy right-wing protest/rally in London, or people hanging “England” flags from lamp-posts, or the press obsessing about the Reform party etc…]. The fictional propaganda TV show in the film isn’t a million miles away from modern British tabloid newspapers or certain conservative news channels in the US either.
In the context of the present day, it’s a chilling mirror of a film… but it’s also oddly reassuring because – well – the villains eventually lose. And, as history shows, they always eventually do in real life too.
But, more than this, this dystopian film is also reassuring these days because of all of the quieter moments, characters and subtle elements. Whilst “V” and the dictator are polar opposites – anarchy vs. fascism – the film is more about the characters in the middle of these two extremes.
Whether it is an ordinary woman called Evey (Natalie Portman) who finds herself accidentally becoming V’s accomplice, or one of the regime’s detectives called Finch (Stephen Rea) whose commitment to the truth gradually puts him more and more at odds with the regime, it’s a film about imperfect and complicated – but likeable – people caught between two extremes.
And the quiet moments are sometimes, ironically, the most satisfying parts of this film. Yes, there are some spectacular fireworks and acrobatic fight scenes but the most emotionally satisfying part of the film is probably the part where, after one of these scenes, Evey wakes up in V’s lair. It’s an amazing ornate underground gallery with giant piles of books, mood lighting, old paintings on the walls etc… It’s a sanctuary and, throughout the film, it remains a safe place from the cruel world outside. A museum, curated and protected by a mysterious hero. And, in 2025, who doesn’t want something like this?
And, yes, you know that V actually reads if he has book piles like this in his lair. Every real reader has at least a few of these.
Most importantly of all, and I totally forgot this part of the film, “V” himself doesn’t personally overthrow the film’s dystopian dictatorship. Whilst he annoys them, settles personal scores against some members of the regime, plots against them etc… it is ultimately the people of Britain who actually get rid of the dictatorship.
A random woman who has been through hell and has had enough, a detective who finds out the truth, a TV show presenter who decides to ignore the censors (at the cost of his own life), a group of ordinary people reacting to an act of police brutality that they just witnessed, and a large crowd of protestors. It is – ironically – the total opposite of the sort of super-hero stories that are popular these days. It’s a criticism of the totalitarian idea that “strong men” can solve all of the world’s problems. And this is the film’s most important – but easily forgotten – point.
It lures you in with an edgy masked hero and the DC Comics logo, but – like a lot of Alan Moore’s work (or, in this case, something loosely-based on it...) – it’s a much-needed criticism of the superhero genre. It’s a criticism of what worshipping “strong men” ends up leading to. A lesson that everyone in the US seems to be re-learning at the moment. This 2005 adaptation of a 1980s comic is only a “timeless” film because – rose-tinted nostalgia aside – the world was just as crappy and miserable when I prepared this article in April as it was in the 1980s or in 2005.
But, yes, if you want something a bit different from the usual superhero slop, if you want a timelessly rebellious film, or if you just want a really good drama which is depressingly dark but also surprisingly reassuring at the same time, then this twenty-year old film is certainly worth watching again. Just don’t judge it by the clips and trailers you see on Youtube. It’s a slow-paced and intelligent drama/thriller film masquerading as an edgy action movie. And it’s really good 🙂
————–
Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
