Set in a dark near future in which Britain is ruled by fascist fanatics and corrupt politicians, ‘V for Vendetta’ is a film orchestrated in a way that shows the evil of the controlling government. The director James McTegiue creates this effect by subtly comparing the struggles of the oppressed London citizens and the lives of the main characters in the film; ‘Evey’ and ‘V’ to events, places, and people in the world today. These attempts to relate scenes in the film to our own society are often expressed through diegetic sound and certain camera shots. Two scenes; the “domino” and “end fight” scenes are particularly effective in this regard. 

An example of the directors intention to reveal the evil in Vs world is the“Domino scene”. Where Detective Finch visits Lark hill and becomes somewhat enlightened about the nature of Vs plan; “I suddenly had this feeling that everything was connected”. What follows is a montage of short shots of events that have happened in the story and those that will happen. One wide angle shot in particular shows the chancellor gesticulating at a rally with red banners and flags behind him. The director uses the scene of the marching soldiers, red banners, and an all powerful leader to show the similarities between Vs government and the familiar sight of an oppressive state like The Nazi regime and the 3rd Reich. The Nazi regime being almost the basis for cultural representations of evil in modern media. This scene gives the viewer the idea that something is fundamentally wrong with the England they see in front of them as opposed to the one that exists today.

As the people of London become more agitated by the arrival of thousands of Vs costumes. And with tensions beginning to rise, Detective finch realises what is going to happen; “with all this chaos, someone will do something stupid”. At this point the shot cuts to a girl running away from a police officer only to be shot. A slow motion shot of blood spilling out of her as she falls combined with the diegetic sound of her gasp, creates a strong feeling of loss in the viewer and thus hatred towards the officer and the government he works for. The fact that this scenario is seen all the time in the real world, especially in countries like America, where police shootings are common place particularly for minorities. Due to this scenes relation to aspects of the real, the idea that the chancellors government is evil world hits close to home for the audience and directly assists in the directors intention to display the government in that way.

As the domino scene continues we see V beginning a cascade of dominos by flicking one with his hand ,the scene alternates between shots of the dominos falling in V’s hideout and actual footage of the 1981 Brixton riot. This combination of two very different shots at first gives the viewer the impression the rioting is happening in morbid 2020 London, until later they realise this has already happened. One of the more stark references to the real world, this flickering contrast between forged and real combined with the intensifying sound of the dominos falling shows the viewer that the violence that is occuring in V’s world is also in the world we know today and that the differences between the two are not as great as they seem. The other effect the use of real footage has is that it may conjure some people’s memories of the Brixton riot, making them feel much more emotionally affected by the scene and thus more engaged in the story. As for the directors intention to show Evil the contrast between the extreme violence of the riots and the calm of the dominos falling shows that although Evil is occurring, so is change.

The use of camera shots, diegetic sound and symbolism can also be seen in the fight scene between V and Mr Creedy and his men. Once again, the three film techniques are used to relate the events in the scene to aspects of the real world.  Just before V begins to strangle Mr Creedy a close up of Vs battered but intact mask can be seen as he utters the sentence; “beneath this mask there is an idea Mr Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof”. This powerful image of Vs cracked and chipped face combined with an even more powerful line, gives the viewer an idea of Vs struggle and the scale of his victory. The short scene also shows us the directors intention to show us how powerful an idea can be, as in some way they can’t be killed. The fact that an idea cannot be ‘killed’ or removed from society completely is commonplace in our own reality. It can be seen in places like the middle east where an ideology encouraging revenge transcends the flesh and bones of the temporary lives of people and thus war continues.