List the pop cultural and/or historical references in the film "V for Vendetta"

I just need more space on my list!!

For me the 1984 connection is particularly interesting because of John Hurt. Hurt, who plays Adam Sutler, was protagonist Winston Smith in Michael Radford’s adaptation of 1984. I love that.

Also, Valerie’s autobiogragphy mentions the word “rendition”. That to me seems a definite reference to the extraordinary rendition policy.

And the statement “A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having” made me think of something I’ve often seen attributed to Emma Goldman (but which I think is actually a popular paraphrasing of something she wrote): “If I can’t dance, I want no part of your revolution.”

I think V look like “Night Baron” main character of novel which is written by Conan’s father in Conan Detective japanese comic. He is a thief & nobody knows his background except author who make him alive in his book—just like V.

While I was watching this movie I also think that “Adam Sutler” character seem to be Hitler & Suddam Hutsen who are the most cruel man in the world. They think what they were doing was a very important thing that thier people needed but all people weren’t. They think all the things they said was all the things people wanted. In the truth they wanted to use the power of fear to be thier power to do something they needed but sometime they might not know what they really do & want. Not only they wanted to grasp anything, they might had inferiority complex in thier mind & wanted to fulfill this but they don’t know themselves.

I think for another things & I will write about it next time.

well, i really loved both the movie and the graphic novel – and it was littered with tons of references to various stuff.

the scene of the Chancellor( the title itself reminiscent of a Teutonic connection? i don’t recall England ever having a ruler with that title – except maybe Oliver Cromwell) reviewing marching troops – very reminiscent of an old documentary clip i once saw of Hitler watching Nazi troops march by.

From the way V was reading and hoarding books, along with the other stuff, maybe even a Fahrenheit 451 situation – with less emphasis on the actual burning of the books and more on the censorship anad unavailability for mass consumption.

Orwell’s 1984 – was a definite influence for the setup of the story. Lots of derivative stuff – Big Brother, Govt. control, etc.

Haven’t read Alan Moore’s original graphic novel in a while – need to refresh my memory and try to determine why he found the movie so distasteful as to distance himself from it.Does anyone else know?

The link I pointed to briefly mentions dominoes but doesn’t really delve into the particular aspect that came to my mind. Dominoes are used to talk about things falling into place, plans coming to fruition, having dominion over people, getting the better of someone. All these uses are appropriate for the point in the movie in which this image is used.

While watching the film, there was a reference to the “Vault of Objectionable Materials.” I knew I had heard this before in another film or a book. It drove me nuts.

Hmm, not 1984, not Brave New World... Aha! I suddenly got it! In the 2002 film Equilibrium, when items were collected through raids, they were filed by entering them into a large database where they were either stored or destroyed. They refer to this as a “vault of obejctionable materials” among other things.

Also in Equilibruim, the Council eliminates war by forcibly surpressing emotions. Like in V for Vendetta, there is an undistorted (but incomplete) version of history. Only are the horrific acts attributable to emotions ever described by “Father” in detail, leading to additional conditioning by which the Librians obediently continue to take their shots and accept their society as the necessary sacrifice.

On a side note, I don’t think that The Chancellor’s role in V for Vendetta is not a direct reference to 1984’s Big Brother as much as it was to a dictatorship such as Hitler’s (as a few have already posted here).

This was such a powerful movie because of the historical references in pop culture.

Namely, the 1812 Overture. This work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was made to commemorate the unsuccessful French invasion into Russia and the subsequent devastating withdrawal of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. The actual composition has no connection with the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom but is commonly used as patriotic music in pop culture.

If I remember correctly, this 1812 event as the major turning point of the Napoleonic Wars.

I recall from my high school days learning that there the portion of the Overture we hear in the movie is the representing marching armies and the victories of the French army that is 15:00 minutes into the actual orchestral work. Noticably, the movie repeats this theme rather than the following diminuendo that represents a retreat. We hear the full orchestra’s cannon and the marching theme and if you listen, God Save the Tsar. This was edited out of a lot of the versions of the Overture due to political differences.

I have always enjoyed proper pop culture usage of this beautiful orchestral work. I recall firstly it’s usage in Risk 2 for the computer (HUGE Risk fan here). Caddyshack using it in the ending scene, Farscape’s John whistling it in a 4th season ep, John Keating whistling it in the Dead Poet’s Society (a personal favorite).

Needless to say, upon release, this DVD will hold a special spot on my shelf.

Is it cheating to look up references in pursuit of this goal? We’re just listing them, hopefully to further the pursuit of knowledge, so any information is good, right?

This website has a wealth of information on the topic: http://madelyn.utahgoth.net/vendetta/vendetta1.html

The picture is taken from the site, and is titled “Europe After the Rains.”

I think the Matrix connections are very deep, as many of you have pointed out. Another one is the use of rain in both films.

Perhaps this is stretching, but it seems quite possible that Evey is representing the original Eve of Adam and Eve. In thinking through this connection, it struck me that you could look at the overbearing government in the role of God before the Fall—keeping the relatively innocent population in line through controlling information sources (tree of knowledge of good and evil) and of course life and death. Evey takes the forbidden fruit that V offers, and the course of history is changed.

Also, I don’t know about the history of fireworks, but as an American fireworks strongly associate with Independance Day. So there’s an obvious connection between V’s use of fireworks and the struggle for independance.