In 1982, famous comic book writer and possible wizard Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd began releasing the story V for Vendetta in issues until 1989. The story centered on a post-apocalyptic, dystopian 1990's Britain where a fascist political party named Norsefire is governing with a tight grip on everything and everyone is always being watched and listened to. Soon, this society begins to fall apart when a mysterious figure known only as V begins to knock the legs out from under the government through various daring and dangerous acts. The comic received fantastic reviews and became a cult classic for comic book lovers. In 2005, a film version of the story was released starring Natalie Portman, John Hurt and Hugo Weaving as the titular character to mixed but generally positive reviews. Surprisingly to some, and not so surprisingly to others, writer Alan Moore distanced himself from the film and had his name removed from anything associating him to the film without viewing it and before it had even been released. In many ways, Moore's distancing himself from the film is understandable. While the film wasn't actually bad there were many changes done to the story over the course of the transition from book to film that loyal fans of the comic may not be so keen on.
One of the most significant and noticeable differences between the two works is the portrayal of the two main characters; V and his protege Evey Hammond. In the original comic, V, for the most part is portrayed as something almost not human, he's a mysterious figure with little known about his past and no real name or proper face to attribute to him. He's shown to be, for the most part, ruthless, emotionless, intelligent and incredibly cold and calculated. He makes himself out to be something more than just simply human, the living embodiment of an idea, in fact, and rarely shows true emotion accept for a few occasions, most of which are when he lets his rage show through. V from the film, however, is portrayed as considerably more human (and slightly less crazy). He still retains his mysterious persona and nothing more is really given of his past, nor is his face shown either, but he is seen showing emotion far more often and doing things that would seem out of character for his comic book counter part, such as cooking Evey breakfast (in a floral apron no less).
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| The face of a revolution. |
Evey, on the other hand, is a naive sixteen year old at the beginning of the comic. She begins as a poorly educated girl prepared to sell herself on the street to get by and never had any inclination of acting out against the government before meeting V. By the end of the story she has become a completely different woman who is not only much smarter and more confident but ready to take over for V upon his death. The Wachowski Brothers' version of Evey, on the other hand, is a twenty-something year old woman who is rather well educated to begin with, even working at the government television station and is the daughter of political activists. She still assists V in his mission to take down Norsefire and is taught many things by V, but at the end of the film does not take up V's mantle after he dies like she does in the comic book. She instead gives V his viking funeral via Subway train full of explosives and goes about her way.
The differences between the two characters and their film counter parts is significant at times, but for the most part, not without reason. V is the main focus of the story, and when making a film that will be enjoyable for not only fans of the comic book but people who have never experienced the story before, having to watch a character on screen for two hours who's little more than a talking mannequin in the way of emotional connection isn't going to be very engaging for an audience that isn't already involved in the story. As for Evey, she's an important character for the audience because she's their emotional connection to V and the story. In the comic, the writers had seven years worth of issues to flesh out her personality and have her change from a naive teenager to an intelligent revolutionary at the pace they wished. Film isn't often afforded that kind of luxury. Developing Evey's character like it was in the comic would have taken longer and left less room for other aspects of the story that needed to be fit in. Plus, Portraying Evey as a more capable woman, already somewhat involved in the resistance effort is easier for an audience to get behind then a teenager who has no other choice but to sell her body to survive and has never thought about resisting against her repressive government.
Finally, one of the most drastic changes to the story would have to have been the portrayal of Norsestar and it's leader, Adam Susan, or Adam Sutler, as he's known as in the film. In both the film and the book Norsestar is a fascist government party that takes over after democratic society crumbles and immediately begins rounding up anyone who is labelled an "undesirable", in other words, anyone who isn't white, heterosexual and christian. They both consist of several parts, each serving a different use and named after a body part, all of which are controlled by the head of the party Adam Susan/Sutler. In the book, however, Norsestar is a far more gritty organization, with several members scheming to undermine others in the party to replace Susan as head of the party. Susan himself is a socially inept man who rules the party, and by extension, the country and gives orders from his office, mostly occupied by a large super computer called Fate. He is an extreme fascist and believes civil liberties are threats to a secure society and unnecessary. Susan tries desperately to stop V from destroying his government, but only through the use of the many departments of his government, rarely leaving his office. He has a disdain for most human contact deciding that if he cannot be loved he can at least be feared and respected. It's revealed that the closest he can get to genuine human emotion is with his computer Fate, who he is in love with, referring to it as his god and at times believing they are the only two real things in existence. V eventually uses this against him When he reveals that he has had access to Fate and has been using it to manipulate Norsestar and Susan by making the computer express love, controlling and manipulating the entire party. This only serves to drive Susan more insane than he already was.
The film's version of Norsefire is much more extreme, resembling many famous totalitarian governments both real and fictional. This version of Norsefire takes over after a biological weapon kills millions, rather than a nuclear war like the comics. In the film, Norsefire's reign feels much like the nazi's, but some of their tactics are similar to US methods, such as dragging people away with a black bag over their head and making them disappear. Overall, this version of Norsefire is much more vicious and overtly evil, poisoning and killing thousands of children to help them rise to power. Adam Sutler is also different, as well. He still lives in seclusion, appearing mostly on screens and giving his lieutenants orders from his underground bunker, but he seems less disdainful of human contact than his comic counter-part even rather charismatic when he speaks at rallies in front of his people. The subplot of Sutler being in love with his computer was also cut from the film and isn't addressed or referenced. Overall, in makes for a much more drastic and easily hated villainous government.
While these are also large and significant changes to the story, they weren't done out of disregard for the original. Norsefire is made to seem more violent and drastic to fit better with modern times and gives the audience a big old villain to hate along with the rest of the cast. Making the party like many classic fictional and non-fictional regimes also helps establish to the audience the kind or rule they have over the people and the state of the country with minimal effort. As for the changes to Adam Susan, they were necessary because in the comic, Susan's hatred of people in general but horribly disturbed love for his computer humanized him and the party. In the film they wanted Norsefire to seem like this big, powerful, intimidating regime and the original character wouldn't have fit this image so they changed him to a more powerful and charismatic dictator type, similar to that of Hitler.
There are plenty of big changes between the movie and the comic for V for Vendetta, but there are also many similarities. Most of the changes made were for the benefit of the audience to make the story better fit for a wider variety of people. It ends up giving the movie a significantly different feel to the comic, but it still contains many of the same messages as the original. Overall, the move isn't really bad, it's good, even, there are just changes that needed to be made for the benefit of the wider audience in the transition to film and some aspects of the original just got lost in that translation. In the end, no film adaptation will ever be perfect, there will always be changes that need to be or just will be made from one medium to another, but it's not always because the creator just felt like changing things, sometimes it's for good reason.
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