Biopolitics in “V for Vendetta”

The film "V for Vendetta" has a special meaning for me. My acquaintance with this film took
place at a time when I was just beginning to take an interest in politics and problems of
relations between society and the state. My political views were at the stage of active
formation, and I tried to find answers to the questions bothering me in literature and cinema.
There is an opinion that the greatest impression on us is made not by those works that reveal
something new to us, but those that clothe the thoughts already existing in our head in a more
harmonious form. If this is true, then it explains why the film about the freedom fighter
wearing a Guy Fawkes mask became so iconic for me. The point is that the ideas expressed in
"V for Vendetta" - about countering state violence, about the dangers of civil passivity and
indifference, and about the inadmissibility of concentration of power in one hand - from the
very beginning played a key role in the process of shaping my political outlook. Since the
first time I saw this film, it has consistently ranked first on the list of my favorite cinematic
works. The amazing feature of "V for Vendetta" is that it can be watched many times, and
with each new viewing new details of the plot and new semantic aspects are revealed. I was
convinced of this once again when I revisited this film after getting acquainted with the
works of Foucault and other authors on biopolitics: a well-known story opened for me from a
new, previously unknown side and turned out to be even deeper than I had expected before.

So, let's turn to the plot of the film. The film begins with a prologue that takes us back to
events in England at the very beginning of the seventeenth century. On November 5, 1605, an
unsuccessful attempt on the king's life was made in London: a young nobleman Guy Fax was
going to blow up the House of Lords, but was arrested and executed by hanging. The image
of this person runs like a red thread throughout the whole film, and therefore a short episode
telling his story is essential for understanding the subsequent plot.

Starting to describe the main plot of the film, first of all it is worth saying that "V for
Vendetta" is a synthesis of dystopia and alternative history. The action takes place today or in
the near future in England, but the country we see on the screen looks more like Nazi
Germany than the modern United Kingdom. The point is that the film takes us to an alternate
universe, where history took a different path of development. The viewer becomes aware of
what exactly happened from the background inscribed in the main plot: several decades
before the events of the film began, England was drawn into a bloody war with the United
States, which plunged it into a state of chaos and devastation. The country was ruled by a
conservative religious party led by an ambitious politician, Adam Sadler, whose main goal
was to concentrate power in his hands. The situation in the country escalated to the limit
when an unknown terrorist organization launched a biological attack on a school, subway and
water treatment complex in London, as a result of which an epidemic of an unknown virus
broke out, claiming many lives and spreading panic among the population. The ruling party
launched a pharmaceutical campaign and soon a life-saving vaccine was found. Success in
the fight against the virus and the subsequent arrest of biological terrorists raised Adam
Sadler's ratings to unprecedented heights, which allowed him not only to win the next
elections, but also to secure for himself the establishment of the post of Supreme Chancellor -
a special position that provides emergency powers. As a result, a totalitarian dictatorship was
established in England with all the characteristic attributes: widespread interference in the
private life of citizens, total surveillance, police abuse and political repression.

By the time the events of the film began, the Sadler regime had succeeded in subordinating
all spheres of society to its control. The oppressive atmosphere of totalitarian reality is felt
from the first frames in which a young worker of the central television, Evey Hamond, is
preparing herself for a date with her boss, TV host Gordon Dietrich, to the sound of
aggressive TV propaganda. The young woman does not have time to get to Dietrich's house
before curfew. She is stopped by security officers who are going to rape her, taking
advantage of their impunity. At this moment, an unknown masked man appears. He saves
Evey and asks her to name him V. V introduces himself as a musician and invites the girl to
attend his concert. Soon they find themselves on the roof opposite London's central criminal
court, the Old Bailey. The clock on the Big Ben tower strikes midnight, V informs his
companion that it is the fifth of November, Tchaikovsky's "1212" begins to play from all the
street loudspeakers, then a violent explosion occurs and the Old Bailey building is blown up.

The government is concerned about what happened and entrusts the investigation to London
Police Chief Inspector Eric Finch. He finds out that Evey’s parents were arrested for anti-
government activities, after which the girl was sent to a special re-education orphanage,
where she remained until her majority. At this time, V takes over the studio on the central
television where Evey works. He broadcasts his own recording, in which he congratulates
citizens on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, denounces the criminal nature of the
current government and calls on all those who are not indifferent to gather in a year (that is,
the next November 5th) at the entrance to Parliament to rise up against the Sadler regime.
The security forces block the TV center building, but Evey helps V escape and he takes her
with him to his underground hideout - the Gallery of Shadows. He demands that Evey spend
a year here until next November 5th, because otherwise she will be arrested for the
involvement in terrorism. Using her work pass, V infiltrates the apartment of propaganda TV
show host Lewis Prothero, also known as The Voice of London, kills him and flees the scene
of crime. During the investigation, Inspector Finch learns that “Voice of London” was
formerly the commandant of Larkhill Сoncentration Camp. This leads him to the idea that the
masked terrorist who killed Prothero might be related to this place.

Meanwhile, Evey is still in the Shadow Gallery. Hoping to escape, she tells V her family's
story and offers him help. Knowing about the love of Archbishop Anthony Lilleman for
sexual pleasures with young girls, V decides to use Evey to distract the priest's attention and
get into his chambers. Meanwhile, Finch gains access to the Larkhill archives and learns that
Archbishop Lilleman once worked there as a priest. V kills Lilleman on the same day, and
Evey manages to escape in the meantime. She takes refuge in the house of Gordon Dietrich.
TV host reveals to the girl the truth about his homosexual inclinations and demonstrates a
collection of forbidden works of art. At this time, V commits another murder. The victim is
Larkhill's former prison doctor, Diana Stanton. From her diaries, Finch learns that cruel
experiments were carried out on people in Larkhill with the aim of developing biological
weapons. In the course of these experiments, only one prisoner survived, in whose body
irreversible changes occurred. He subsequently escaped, setting up an explosion in Larkhill.
The viewer realizes that this person was none other than V.

Soon, Gordon Dietrich is arrested for a parody of Adam Sadler on a TV show. Evey tries to
escape, but to no avail: she is grabbed and thrown into prison. The girl is forcibly shaved and
brutally tortured in order to obtain information from her about where V is hiding. In the cell,
Evey finds a note with the autobiography of a young lesbian who was in this cell before her.
The story of this brave young woman gives Evey strength and convinces her never to give up.
When the girl, even under threat of death, refuses to Provide an information about V, she is
unexpectedly released. Evey discovers that she has been in the Gallery of Shadows all this
time, and that her tormentor was actually V. The masked man explains to the girl that he set it
all up so that she understands how steadfast she can be. He says that the same thing happened
once with him, and the story described in the note is true. At first, Evey is angry, but then
realizes that the experience of imprisonment helped her to free herself from fear and become
a different person. V lets Evey go, but takes a promise from the her that he can see her one
more time before November 5th.

Meanwhile, Finch is contacted by William Rockwood, a former secret agent in the service of
Creedy who is the head of security. Rockwood tells the inspector that the biological attack on
the school, subway and water treatment complex was carried out not by a terrorist
organization, but by the Sadler government, in order to gain absolute power. After a while,
Finch reveals that Rockwood died many years ago and guesses that in fact it was not he who
spoke to him, but V. At this time, V makes a deal with Creedy: he promises to surrender to
him in exchange for the extradition of Sadler. Creedy, who himself intended to eliminate
Sadler and take power into his own hands, agrees to the terms of the deal.

On the evening of November 4, Evey returns to V’s underground hideout. It turns out that the
Shadow Gallery is located in the London Underground, which was closed during the
epidemic and has not been reopened since. V shows the girl a mined train and gives her the
right to decide whether to send it to the Parliament building or not, while he himself goes to a
meeting with "his creator" - Adam Sadler. Creedy, his bodyguards, and a bound Supreme
Chancellor are already waiting for V in a subway tunnel. Creedy himself kills Sadler with a
shot to the head. After that, V kills Creedy and his guards, but is mortally wounded himself.
He returns to Evey, confesses his love for her and dies in her arms. The girl puts the
revolutionary's body in the mined train, which she then sends to the Houses of Parliament.
Parliament explodes in front of thousands of demonstrators who have taken to the streets.
Since the entire party leadership, including Sadler, is dead, this explosion symbolizes the fall
of the totalitarian regime.

In order to prove the existence of a link between Vendetta and Foucault's biopolitics, we must
first refer to the concept of biopolitics. In my opinion, the most accurate interpretation of this
concept is given by Giorgio Agamben in his work “Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare
Life”. According to Agamben, the ancient Greeks used the term “zoe” for biological life and
the term “bios” for political life (or for any other social form of life) (Agamben 1998, 7). For
a long time, these concepts were separate, but “at the dawn of the New Age, natural life
begins, on the contrary, to be incorporated into the mechanisms and calculations of state
power,” (Agamben 1998, 9) that is, there is a merger of “bois” and “zoe” (Agamben 1998,
11). Thus, the process of “transforming politics into biopolitics” is taking place, which is
expressed in the fact that the bodies of citizens acquire political significance and become the
subject of a special state interest. It is no longer the state's primary goal to control territory,
but to control the bodies of its citizens. Issues of demography and health care begin to
concern the government more and more because they become a new source of power for it.

It is biopolitical technology that is Adam Sadler's main tool for maintaining his dictatorial
power. In an effort to ensure his election victory, he first exposes the population of England
to a dangerous new virus and then stops the epidemic with a vaccine, declaring it an attack by
biological terrorists, whom he soon finds and executes. Thus, Sadler manages to inspire
citizens with the idea that his power is a necessary condition for their safety and biological
existence. Moreover, on the eve of November 5, when the Supreme Chancellor begins to feel
that his influence is waning, he launches a new propaganda campaign on television, the main
goal of which is to convince the population of the need to preserve the current regime. To do
this, Sadler uses all the same biopolitical technologies: in the next news release, citizens are
informed about the beginning of a new epidemic. Thus, in accordance with the plan of the
politician, the image of the new biological threat should become the mainstay of his power.
Another important argument for biopolitical nature of Sadler's regime is its concern with
gender relations: homosexuality is strictly forbidden in the country, and people found to have
sexual relations with members of their own sex are persecuted. The state's desire to dispose
of the bodies of its citizens, which it perceives as its own property, is clearly evident here.
Same-sex couples cannot have offspring, which means that this kind of relationship does not
contribute to population growth, that is, an increase in the "biological property" of the state.
This is the main reason for the persecution of representatives of sexual minorities by
Sendler's biopolitical regime.

Another important aspect of Foucault's biopolitics, which Agamben writes about, is the
biopower's interest in developing a network of disciplinary control that forms the "obedient
bodies" it needs (Agamben 1998, 10). According to Foucault, the integral elements of this
network are schools, barracks, hospitals and shelters which form a single "carceral
archipelago " whose main goal is to "normalize" and standardize the behavior of citizens in
accordance with the disciplinary requirements of biopower (Foucault 1999, 442). This aspect
of biopolitics also found its expression in "V for Vendetta": Evey Hamond, being the
daughter of dissidents, was sent to an orphanage specializing in the re-education of children
from unreliable families. The process of "normalization" that the heroine went through within
the walls of this institution did not pass without a trace for her: for many years Evey built her
behavior in accordance with the disciplinary requirements of the state. The situation changed
dramatically after the girl met V. But who is V in the framework of this "disciplinary control
network"? He is a delinquency, which, according to Foucault, the "punishment system" is
designed to eliminate, but which at the same time is produced by this system (Foucault 1999,
443).

The next aspect of biopolitics to look at is Foucault's idea that the state is not the only source
of power relations. As the philosopher wrote, "power is exercised from countless points" that
permeate the entire social organism and form a single "network of power" (Foucault
1976,129). For example, central television workers, Archbishop Anthony Lilleman, Doctor
Diana Stanton, Inspector Finch, and even V, when interacting with Evie as a jailer, act as a
kind of sources of power in the film. The same can be said about the centers of resistance.
According to Foucault, “Just as the network of power relations ends by forming a dense web
that passes through apparatuses and institutions, without being exactly localized in them, so
too the swarm of points of resistance traverses social stratifications and individual unities.
And it is doubtless the strategic codification of these points of resistance that makes a
revolution possible” (Foucault 1976, 131). This is exactly what V did: he carried out the
strategic codification of the scattered points of resistance that led to the fall of the regime of
Adam Sadler.

Thus, the study of sociology and acquaintance with the theory of Foucault’s biopolitics
allowed me to take a deeper look at my favorite film and find new meanings in it, the
existence of which I had not previously suspected.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. New Yourk: 1999

2. Foucault, Michel. The history of sexuality. Paris: 1976

3. Agamben, Giorgio. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Standford: 1998