Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: V for Vendetta ::
Comparing the comic book mini series with the feature film
by William the Bloody
In the not-too-distant future, England is a fascist state. It is ruled with an iron fist by a political party bent on conformity. Strength through purity; Purity through faith is their motto, and every person who posed a threat to this purity is duly rounded up into camps. All of the Jews, blacks, gays, Muslims, and whathaveyou are now gone and the government is everywhere, watching everything you do, listening to everything you say, and ready to round you up as well with or without just cause. One man who goes only by "V" has had enough. Donning the fitting disguise of a historical figure who once dared to alone stand up against England's government, Guy Fawkes, V is making his displeasure with current affairs public, loud, and damaging. One November 5th he blows up an important building, and dares to proclaim that people should not be afraid of their governemnts, but governements should be afraid of their people. V then systematically begins to murder all of the governmental higher-ups, destroy other symbolic buildings, and gives the public and ultimatum to stand up and reclaim their rights once and for all.
The comic book, is brilliantly written by Alan Moore and wonderfully drawn by David Lloyd. Moore's tales of ordinary people in a world where the government controls everything is artistically laid out with ingenious camera angles and dialogue to visual juxtaposition. The characters all develop in response to their individual situations in ways that are realistic and true sounding. Moore also diligently covers nearly all aspects from life in a government run-and-watched world from television, to nightlife, and other day to day points most would not have thought to consider.
The feature film was expertly adapted for the screen by the Wachowski brothers and brought to vivid life by director James Mc Teigue. The cinematography, the sound, gorgeous visuals, and skilled acting on all fronts make this one of the best comic to films adaptations available.
The film manages to successfully interpret scenes from the comic that the printed medium can only hint at such as the destruction of buildings to the strains of the 1812 Overture. The film version also offers more action, and gives V a more thrill-packed death scene as opposed to the comic. The order in which V blows up buildings is changed in the movie versus the comic, but that's okay, really. It wasn't the order of their destruction, but the act in of itself that meant something. They also changed the name of the rose V left as calling cards from Violet Carson to Scarlet Carson, which really made no sense to me at all, other than perhaps Scarlets photograph better. I was pleased that the movie managed to bring in subtly the pro-Arian race television show featured in the comic, Steve Saxton, which is manly about a blond haired, blue eyed action hero who rescues attractive women from black men who make gorilla noises (a nice tip of the hat, I thought). There is also quite a lot of dialogue in the film that is straight from the books, such as "ideas are bulletproof," but they also took out all of the references V makes to cool-ass music lyrics, which is too bad. The absolute best chapters of the comic are "Vermin," "Valerie," and "the Verdict" and I was so pleased that they were indeed included in the film. I was afraid that they might be considered too controversial or "hard core" to make it into the movie, but I was quite the happy fanboy indeed hearing Valerie's story read aloud and translated to film and it was every bit as convincing and touching as the written version.
My main disappointment with the film version is the character of Evey Hammond. In the comic, Evey is a typical English girl who is a product of the government system. She is normal for the times and ignorant of all the things the government outlawed after the war, such as classical literature and old pop songs performed by blacks or anything else the deemed unfit for the new order. It is through her companionship and near apprenticeship with V that she learns about all of these wonderful things. The movie, however, made her the daughter of antigovernment protesters who did everything they could to give Evey a rich, cultured childhood. I suppose they did this to give the film a strong, intelligent female character, but I really think it lessens her impact. The whole point of Evey, I felt, was to have an average person try to take in V's world, to see it as any regular person of that time would, and then to be taken in and transformed by it, and her "grand reveal" and cathartic revelation in the end of the book were sorely missed from the film.
The final verdict: Read the comic, then watch the film. Both versions give two points of view on the same topic and both are definitely worth your while.
The comic book mini series: A
The feature film: A-
