Compare and Contrast: Film vs. Book “V for Vendetta”

Increasingly impressive is nowadays’ films toward the great majority of audiences due to the moving plot and the skilled actors and greater and greater is the number of human beings that have felt that they do not have enjoyed enough about it just from the film, currently it seems to have formed a tendency that many films are adapted to be a book and vice versa. There is no doubt that people will have a preference to either the book or the film due to their personal feelings and their opinions toward different books or films will vary from one another. Also the opinions toward the same book or film will vary as well among different people in a way or another. Detailed speaking, some people may only have seen the film, others may only have read the book while there are few that have both seen the film and read the book at the same time, leading to their different view toward the book and the film. There is no doubt that when the adaptation is conducted between a book and a film, some differences either small or large will inevitable appear during that whole process owing to the different emphasis and understanding between the film maker and the book writer. Therefore the following will be the compare and contrast between the book and the film of “V for Vendetta” in that the film is highly compatible with the book in characters, plot and even themes, which will be elaborately discussed in the below.

Compare and Contrast: Film vs. Book “V for Vendetta”

First and foremost comes that the story in the film and in the book is based on different plots for several times. To put it more specifically, the political battle is different in the book and in the film in that the political war in the book is concerned with the Anarchy and Fascist government while the parties involved in the political war in the film are Liberalism and Neo Conservative government [2]. The engaged parties’ difference in this specific political battle will not matter much toward the whole plot development, resulting in the film maker’s paying no attention to the consistency with the book. Also, the representation of era in which the story took place is different as well with the book’s setting the background around the era of 1997 when it was confronted with the nuclear war event while the film’s backdrop being around 2020 when the main issues are environmental issues. In addition, massive destruction has been mentioned in the book and the fascist government has taken over the control as is built on the foundations of genocide. In the opposite, ultra-conservative government rule is seen in the film and human beings seem to have suffered more or less from it. The general idea in the film is based on the principles of ethically clean fascism while the book emphasizes more on the balance of terrorizing activities as have been identified among the characters.

As for the characters, the leader’s name in the book is Adam Susan and he regulates the whole kingdom England with the help of computer. However, the name of the leader in the film is Adam Sulter and he does not use any computer at all. The concrete name of the leader will make no sense toward the whole story as it is only an addressing as will not matter a lot toward the process of the whole story. As for V in the film, it is depicted as a passionate freedom rebel who will all the time pursue for freedom without taking any regard about what difficulties he is confronted with while V in the book is completely distinct and he is simply a revolutionary figure with uncertain tendencies [6]. Or maybe it can be put in another way that V in the film has been endowed with positive educational meaning while the one in the book is a neutral one or even worse a negative one. Moreover, the death of the character Prothero is different in the book and in the film and the difference is that in the book V kidnaps Prothero and then burns him while V kills him by lethal injection in the film. When focusing on the character Evey, in the book she is kept by the finger man to hideout after being saved by him while the finger man did not abducted her at all in the film, let alone taking her to hideout afterwards.

Apart from the above, in the book, Gordon, killed by Gangster, belongs to the criminal community and he has sex with Evey. But in the film, Gordon is not a criminal man but instead he is Evey’s boss. But he has no sexual relationship with Evey and he is a gay. His death in the film is that he is executed by the government for keeping Quran with him. Furthermore, death of V in the book is instant and he dies in the arms of Evey quite soon after he is shot by a character named Finch. The condition of the death of V in the film tends to be rather heroic and he was one who contains changing perceptions of people towards the government. It can be easy to understand in that just as what has been explained in the above, the character V is endowed with a more positive sense in the film when compared with that one in the book.

With the story in the film and in the book basing on different plots being stated at length in the above, what comes second at the list is that the difference of the main idea in the book and in the film has in the meantime exerted impacts on the portrayal of character in the book and in the film. Detailed speaking, Evey is a fifteen-year-old girl who is simple in the book while in the film Evey has already been a grown-up girl who is not simple at all. She has stepped into the society for a long time and has gradually become experienced step by step as time goes by. What is more, Evey’s profession is differently illustrated between in the book and in the film. That is her profession in the book is not clearly stated but it can be figured that she was considering the option of becoming a prostitute on a part-time basis. While the case is totally the way round that her profession has been minutely described and she worked in British Cable Network Company.

So we can have a fair knowledge that Evey in the book is poor and she is confronted with financial constraints while Evey in the film is self-sufficient and comparatively prosperous than she in the book. The formal profession of Evey in the film can to a certain degree help her supply her own daily expenses and she can live a self-sufficient life quite easily. But what is a pity to say is that she in the book is without a formal profession and it is hard for her to make a living in the society so that she will appear the idea of becoming a prostitute so that she can smoothly cover all her daily expenses within quite a short time period. However, what has been ignored by her is that she does not have realized that being a prostitute is actually a career that is in the bottom of the society as will make other people look down upon her and she has actually sacrificed her own body in order to be able to feed herself. What is more, the representation of the characters is different between in the book and in the film. In the book, V took off his own mask and had shown his face to other people so that other ordinary people can clearly know his appearance and can correctly identify him later on. While in the film, no one has ever seen his face and he seems to be just a mystery for other people [7]. We can easily imagine that other people may keep a curious attitude toward how he looks like and what on earth he is and what in his mind is.

Last but not the least comes that the sequence of events and facts in the book and in the film is completely different and they vary from one another in a way or another. The first appearance of Evey in the book and in the film tends to be different in that Evey is introduced as nicely dressed in a soft peach silken dress in the book while in the film she is unveiled in the lynching scene dressed in black color, from which we can predict that she in the book will raise the thought of becoming a prostitute in order to make a living [1]. In the screenplay, she is being shown as daring and strong while in the book she does not give human beings such impression at all.

What must be mentioned is the depiction of mutual relationship between Evey and V is different in the book and in the film. Evey feels comfortable and secure in the presence of V as is just the reason why she would like to spend lots of time with him. While in the graphic novel series, Evey felt protective with him and felt comfortable in his presence. Furthermore, in the film when the finger man turns up, she does not react at once as the finger man does not harass Evey immediately but instead she tolerates them until they become unbearable in the end. Moreover, in the movie, Evey is disturbed with the presence of V and his colleagues while in the book V abducted Evey but she ran away in the film.

To sum up, there really exist many differences between the film and the book of “V in Vendetta”, which have been described in detail in the above. The major differences between the aforementioned two lie in the following three aspects: the setting up of different plots; the portrayal of characters as well as the sequence of events and facts. The idea of adaptation between a film and a book is really a good idea while the adaptation can not fully make the original idea of the text into visual presentation. What I would like to emphasize is that while adapting, significant changes can not be made so as not to influence the original beauty of the story in text. I have to admit that what has been included in this paper are with defects of some kind due to my being inexperienced, which calls for your precious suggestions and careful attention to it.