V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta bore many similarities to Nineteen Eighty-Four, more than most of the other films we’ve seen. It makes sense, since putting an end to fascism was seemed to be the overarching theme of the movie, and a fear of fascism was one of the things that spurred George Orwell to write the original Nineteen Eighty-Four novel.

For the most part, V for Vendetta seemed like Nineteen Eighty-Four except it takes place in 2020 instead of 1984 and is also way more action-packed (which, again, makes sense given its heritage.) One similarity that Monica Martin brings up in her article, ‘A World at Risk’, is that of the giant screen of Adam Sutler staring down at what are essentially his government goons, and comparing it to a poster depicting Big Brother with the words “Big Brother is watching you” printed at the bottom. That line, or some variation of it, is probably one of the most quoted from the novel and film.

The idea of constant surveillance, intrusive or not, seems to be one of the cornerstone themes of dystopian science fiction. And like the Ingsoc party of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Norsefire Party is always watching and they use it to their advantage. The Norsefire Party “fabricates news according to its needs” and “[uses] terrorism as a label to apply to all its political opponents.” All they have to do is to know who to put in their crosshairs, and then they’re free to simply pull the trigger. Sound familiar?

And maybe it’s not just the idea of surveillance, but rather screens themselves, that are the constant in dystopian fiction. Oftentimes, it’s the people that are depicted as watching the screens, rather than the people being watched by the screens. Another comparison that Martin makes is between Children of Men and V for Vendetta, where characters are glued to a television screens of government broadcasts. We rely so much on visual media as a means of communication and for obtaining information that this comparison actually hits fairly close to home for us, which is very appropriate for dystopian fiction.

In fact, there’s a recent television series that tackles the idea that screens might be too large a part of our lives today. The series is called Black Mirror (the “black mirror” being the screens of our televisions, computers, smart phones, etc.) and it’s like Twilight Zone set in the modern-day where instead of science fiction being the perpetrator of events, it’s technology. Screens are so commonplace today, and so seemingly innocuous in our lives that we hardly ever give them much thought, but the show (or the first episode, at least, since that’s all I’ve watched thus far) does a fantastic job at making you think about how powerful, and potentially dangerous, a screen can be. I don’t necessarily know if Black Mirror qualifies as dystopian fiction (I feel the message is more “don’t underestimate the bounds of technology”, but I guess the Terminator films are dystopic in their own way), but the first episode of the series is definitely worth a watch if you’re interested in seeing a television screen doing all sorts of harm. The first season of the series is on Netflix.