V for Vendeta
V for Vendetta: The Answer to 1984 That We Still Need Today
By Zacharias Liangas
Some films entertain. Some films provoke. And some films become a mirror held up to society, reflecting our fears, our hopes, and our deepest anxieties about power. V for Vendetta belongs to the third category. It is, in my view, the direct continuation of—and the ultimate answer to—George Orwell's *1984*.
The Question That Remains
There is only one question the film leaves unanswered: Who exactly was V?
The answer, of course, is that it doesn't matter. As Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) says in the film's final moments: "He was all of us." V is not a man. V is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof.
Why V for Vendetta is the Answer to 1984
In Orwell's *1984*, Winston Smith breaks. He betrays his love, Julia. He learns to love Big Brother. The novel ends with the terrifying image of a man who has been hollowed out, his spirit crushed, his individuality erased. It is a warning, not a promise.
V for Vendetta takes that warning and flips it. Here, the totalitarian state is not invincible. Here, one person—masked, anonymous, driven—can ignite a revolution. The film acknowledges Orwell's nightmare but refuses to accept it as inevitable.
The parallels are deliberate. John Hurt, who played Winston Smith in the 1984 film adaptation, plays Chancellor Sutler here—the Big Brother figure. The visual language of oppression is the same: gray streets, surveillance, propaganda. But the ending is different. The people rise. The buildings fall. And the voice on the radio asks: "Is everything okay?"
No. Everything is not okay. But it can be.
What the Critics Said
The critical reception was famously divided, and that division is revealing.
Roger Ebert captured the film's central tension perfectly: "Is this movie a parable about 2006, a cautionary tale or a pure fantasy? It can be read many ways." He noted that the film's most pointed idea—"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people"—is not without its problems. "Surely in the ideal state governments and their people should exist happily together. Fear in either direction must lead to violence."
The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw was far less generous, calling it "valueless gibberish" and "like having the oxygen supply to your brain slowly starved." He criticized the film's simplification of Alan Moore's original graphic novel, arguing that it stripped away the moral ambiguity that made the story powerful .
Alan Moore himself disowned the film entirely. He objected to the way the Wachowskis recast his anarchist parable as a liberal-versus-conservative story. In the graphic novel, V is genuinely ambiguous—a killer, a madman, a terrorist. In the film, he is a hero. "I didn't want to tell people what to think," Moore said. "I just wanted to tell people to think."
And yet, despite these criticisms, audiences embraced it. The film holds an 8.1 on IMDb and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes . Why? Because the film's emotional power transcends its narrative simplifications.
Why It Still Matters
In 2011, during the Egyptian revolution, protesters in Cairo held signs that read: "Remember, remember, the 25 of January." They wore Guy Fawkes masks. They quoted V's dialogue. The film had become a tool of real-world resistance .
This is the film's legacy. It is not a perfect adaptation. It is not a subtle political treatise. But it is a rallying cry—a reminder that fear is a weapon, and that weapons can be turned against those who wield them.
In an age of surveillance capitalism, algorithmic control, and the slow erosion of privacy, V's question echoes louder than ever: Who watches the watchmen?
The Final Word
V for Vendetta is not a great film because it is flawless. It is a great film because it dares to say what Orwell could not: that the nightmare can end. That the people can wake up. That an idea—carried by a masked stranger, whispered in the dark, printed on a protest sign—can change everything.
10/10
And as Evey said: "He was all of us."
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