essay

v for vendetta is a dystopian themed film set in the not too distant future, based around a totalitarian government in power and one man who seeks revenge. The film represents typical gender roles in order to communicate messages, but subverts the roles and distorts them. I will allude to the gender roles of the different characters aswell as introducing the idea of phallic and yonic objects, the oedipal complex and hyper masculinity.

phallic and yonic imagery is presented in the film in many different scenes, and is used to symbolise the power being deflated from the party members and the guards. this becomes evident in the scene of the final revolution where the streets of london are flooded by the population becoming active. in this scene alot of the colours are dark colours which sets the overall mood of the scene. Also all of the population are wearing v outfits and masks, categorised under the costume aspect of mise-en-scene. The guards or the army employed by the government try to stop the peacful revolution, with no signs of anarchy, by holding them at gun point, the erect gun being the phallic object. As the population walk towards them, their guns go down, meaning the power has subverted to the population. to extend this point, the government during the revolution go from playing the masculine active role, to the feminine passive and fearful role.

The mother and father roles are dictated by the events and the characters behaviour and they are often distorted from one gender role to another. In this case being the character 'v'. although v fills the criteria of the male active and fearless role, he actually demonstrates some very feminine behaviour and in relation to mise-en-scene, physical appearance. The director alludes to this point in the scene where v is cooking for evey, wearing an apron, his make-up covered mask and his feminine styled hair. In this scene, the gender roles of evey and v switch.