Gunpowder, Treason and Plot

Bonfire Night…
George: What’s Guy Fawkes all about?
Bruce: He was part of a group that tried to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in 1605. They wanted to overthrow the government.
George: Was Grandpa named after Guy Fawkes?
Bruce: No. But my brothers and I used to chant this rhyme: “Guy, Guy, Guy, stick him up high, hang him on a lamp post til he die…”
George: Really? How did Grandpa Guy feel about that?
Bruce: He didn’t like it. He’d say “That’s not nice.”  We just thought it was funny.
George: Funny? Sounds a bit disrespectful to me.
Bruce: Yeah, it was. We didn’t realize how much it bothered him. But we were kids. And kids sometimes don’t think too much.
George: So, was Grandpa Guy sympathetic to Guy Fawkes’ cause?
Bruce: I don’t think so. Even though he was a bit anti-government, he didn’t condone violence. He just didn’t appreciate us making fun of his name.
George: Well, having your name chanted in a rhyme about hanging isn’t fun. Did you ever stop chanting it and apologize?
Bruce: Eventually, yes. We realized it upset him. But we never got around to apologizing. Just one of those things that slid by.
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Voice-over
Respecting people’s feelings is important. Shame that Bruce and his brothers couldn’t have apologized. Now more obedient souls see Bonfire Night as celebrating the triumph of plots being foiled and order over chaos.

Guido jumped from the scaffold

Guy V Fawkes

V talks about himself in the third person…

V: Gunpowder, treason and plot.

W: Was “V”, the graphic novel, a remake of Guy Fawkes?

V: It was the inspiration. But it was more. Alan Moore, my creator, said my world was about fascism and anarchism.

W: Not just about religion?

V: More again. Themes included xenophobia, force and fear, identity, moral ambiguity, and sanity.

W: And the film?

V: Moore claimed it was less. Said it was a face-off between liberalism and neo-conservatism. But the film was more in different ways. Take V’s mask: it covers his scars and it conceals his identity. Take corruption: that includes government and corporations. Take religion: persecution is transferred from the Jews to Muslims. And the film borrows from other stories: Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera and Orwell’s 1984.

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Voice-over

A creator finding it hard to give up his creation is an old theme. Alan Moore must have found it as hard to see McTeigue and the Wachowskis create a different “V” as Geppetto found that Pinocchio slipped from his creative control after he left home.

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