V for Vendetta

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about V for Vendetta's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of V for Vendetta completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 22 March 2005.

Overall comments and recommendations

V for Vendetta is a thought-provoking action movie delivering messages about fascism, terrorism and civil war. It is fast paced and visually stunning, with excellent computer generated images and convincing acting performances.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie V for Vendetta contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Set in the near future, High Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt) heads up a Nazi, Fascist type government which controls the populace of London with an iron fist, revoking all civil liberties. Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a television station mail clerk, is out after curfew when she is confronted by two government security agents and threatened with sexual assault. She is saved by a caped vigilante called “V” (Hugo Weaving), whose face is hidden behind a smiling Guy Fawkes mask.

Before the night is over Evey witnesses “V” blowing up London 's Old Bailey. V then hijacks the television station where Evey works, and announces to the world that in one year's time on 5 November he will return and blow up Parliament. Evey becomes entangled in V's escape from the television, and is knocked unconscious as a result. Unable to leave an unconscious Evey to the authorities, V takes Evey to his underground hideaway where she becomes his captive / guest.

V becomes Evey's personal mentor, while simultaneously carrying out his personal vendetta murdering a select group of people. When Evey is eventually released by V, she is captured, imprisoned and tortured by the establishment. Tension mounts as 5 November approaches and V, Evey and the people of London all have a part to play.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Fascism and terrorism

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

V for Vendetta contains brutal and sadistic acts of physical violence (some with graphic images of blood and gore), acts of terrorism, intimidation, the threat of sexual violence, inhuman holocaustic-like experimentation resulting in the mass murder of hundreds of innocent people, and torture both physical and psychological. Violent scenes include:

• two very nasty, intimidating males threatening to sexually assault Evey
• the police repeatedly shoot an innocent man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and cape
• V attacks a number of police officers, using long bladed knifes to stab and impale them, slashing their throats, so that copious amounts of blood from severed throats spray the wall
• V embeds one of his knives in the forehead of one police officer, while snapping the neck of another
• Evey sprays mace into the face of a police officer, and is then knocked unconscious when she receives a blow to the head
• a man is tortured with an electric cattle prod
• in several scenes, V murders high profile people who are the target of his vendetta, although actual violence is not graphically shown
• V tells a victim that he is going to kill them and why; the person is then shown lying dead on the floor with a stream of vomit coming from their mouth
• flashback images of Evey as a little girl hiding under her bed while riot police bash her mother to unconsciousness and then cover her head with a black bag
• Evey is imprisoned and tortured by the authorities: she is put in solitary confinement, hosed down with a fire hose, and has her head held under water for extended periods
• while hiding under a bed, Evey witnesses the police bashing her boss over the head and across the face with a baton resulting in him lying unconscious on the floor with his face covered in blood
• a young girl is shot in the back by secret police for spray painting the letter V on a wall.

V is portrayed as an invincible, superhuman, charismatic fifteenth century Prince Valiant, and his use of violence is a stylised blend of martial arts and swordplay, At other times, V is presented as a ruthless, cold blooded, evil madman, who vengefully murders both men and women.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scary scenes and visual images, which could seriously disturb children under eight including:

• brutal graphic acts of violence and torture involving blood and gore
• children being harmed or murdered
• holocaustic like images of dead naked bodies being dumped into mass graves
• Evey watching her mother and father being bashed and hooded by Nazi like storm troopers, then taken from her never to be seen by her again.
• V is consumed by fire and his body a mass of burns
• V's horribly burnt and disfigured hands are shown
• Evey has her hair shorn off and is tortured
• Evey is shown being very distressed in solitary confinement.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

All of the scenes described above are capable of disturbing, or scaring children over the age of eight, including adolescents, particularly:

• Evey watching her parents being bashed and taken away
• the young girl being shot in the back
• holocaustic like images of dead naked bodies being dumped into mass graves
• Evey's torture and distress.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

In addition to the above mentioned scenes, of particular concern for adolescents over the age of 13, are:

• the realistic nature of the film's portrayal of violent acts
• the realistic depiction of how the victims are traumatised by the violence
• brutal acts of violence and torture involving blood and gore
• the attempted sexual assault on Evey

Sexual references

The film contains occasional sexual references, including:

• the attempted sexual assault on Evey: “Not only will you be the sorriest piece of arse in London , but you'll be the sorest”
• a church bishop is supplied with what he believes to be a young adolescent girl (actually Evey) for his sexual entertainment. He refers to her as having a delightful mind, and expresses the hope that the rest of her is just as delightful. He then refers to her as a “bitch” and a “little whore”
• Evey seeks refuge at her employer's house. One the wall is a photograph of two males kissing and Evey's employer implies that he is gay.
• While in prison Evey receives a secret letter from an unknown female prisoner in which she discloses intimate details about her relationship with another woman.

Nudity and sexual activity

The film contains some implied sexual activity and partial nudity, including:

• two women kissing each other on the mouth
• a scene in which storm troopers raid an apartment where two males (clothed) are asleep in bed, the inference being that they are a couple.
• hundreds of naked bodies are dumped into a mass grave. Breasts and pubic hair are visible.
• a number of showgirls wear costumes consisting of G-strings and bikini-like bras.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances, including:

• prison guards inject large numbers of prisoners with an unknown substance.
• a reference to large quantities of drugs being found in a television personality's home
• V holds a syringe, which he has just used to inject poison into one of his victims.

Coarse language

The film contains the use of frequent coarse language, used exclusively by the film's nastier characters. Examples include:

• bloody
• Goddam
• shit
• balls
• fucking
• hell
• bitch
• whore
• bollocks
• Jesus bloody Christ.

The movie's message

The film is about how an individual, as a result of suffering physical and psychological injustices, is able to inspire a population to overthrow an evil and oppressive dictatorship. There are a number of thought-provoking take-home messages relating to issues of tolerance and intolerance, government suppression of values and beliefs, the violation of civil liberties, the transition of ordinary people to terrorists, war, fascism, same sex relationships and social injustices.

Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• V's empathy towards the need of others to live a life free from tyranny and social injustice
• the internal strength Evey found.

Parents may wish to use the film to discuss conflicts surrounding the use of higher moral reasoning. At times during the film V was presented as a murderous madman, while at other times he was presented as the people's saviour, whose murderous actions were justified. The film opens discussion as to whether the use of a lesser evil is acceptable to destroy a greater evil. Could a peaceful means have been found to resolve the conflict, or did the film present a situation where the only possible means of achieving peace was through the use of violent acts?