Tuesday, March 4, 2008

V for Vendetta

This being my first time reading the graphic novel, I couldn't help returning back to the movie. When I first saw the movie, I liked it. Even after reading the graphic novel, I still like the movie but not in the same way as before. I'm a strong believer in judging movies-based-on-books separate from the books (i.e. the Harry Potter films).

But while reading V for Vendetta, I was looking for the differences, kind of like those spot the differences cartoons. The overall picture is similar, but there are 10 or however many minor differences. I'm not going to name all of the differences, but one visual difference I saw was Norsefire's slogan. In the graphic novel, it was "Strength through Purity. Purity through Faith", whereas in the movie it was changed to "Strength through Unity. Unity through Faith". (See the pictures below)




One different word and the meaning of Norsefire seems to change. Purity demonstrates the fascist nature of Norsefire while the word unity doesn't have quite the same effect. Unity doesn't come off as severe purity. Maybe this is because unity is something we strive for, but not in the sense of exterminating everyone who sticks out. Unity also reminds me of the commune, which leads to a communism/authoritarian vs freedom nature to the film instead of fascism vs. anarchism as Moore and Lloyd intended.

The film tried to slim down this complex graphic novel and in that attempt left out certain details and failed to acknowledge secondary characters. It's not that the film left out everyone, though the wives are missing in the film, but it passed by them so quickly I couldn't catch their names so I never thought they were as important. I think there will be enough ranting about the movie vs. graphic novel in class.

3 comments:

Zakahi said...

Keen observation with regards to the slogan!

I would suspect that the major reason for this difference comes from the movie's attempt to make a more direct modern political statement about the Neoconservative Religious Right vs. Classic American Liberalism. Unity is a much more believable ideal that ties more closely with the Bush Administration than purity does.

Chris said...

Absolutely. "Purity" sounds too Hitler-esque for a tome about contemporary American politics. "Unity" is more realistic and therefore creepier.

Air Viper said...

I'm on the opposite side I like the books over the movies, the one exception is Death Note. The anime followed the manga storyline almost to the letter.

Chris is right about the "purity" and "unity" reference. After all Arbeit macht frei. I liked how Prothero almost said co.. (concentration) and then changed to resettlement camp.