| Best Christmas Movies Ever By: Hanna Inoue Occupy Wall Street began as a movement put on by Adbusters, a Canadian activist group, and has quickly spread as one of the biggest communal uprisings in American history. Tired of the incessant wealth being given to 1% of people in the United States, the protestors, who call themselves the 99%, want equality. Among those who hold picket signs and shout for freedom are those who wear the iconic and striking Guy Fawkes masks made famous from the 2006 movie V for Vendetta. Based off of the graphic novel by Alan Moore, the story is based around a corrupt London in the future, where things are under the careful eye of the Fingermen, who are the secret police of chancellor Adam Susan (Sutler in the movie). Determined to create a free London, V blows up the Old Bailey and Parliament in a call to anarchy. The movie differs from the graphic novel considerably. There are minor changes, such as Evey Hammond’s hair color, and Adam Susan being changed to Adam Sutler, but the biggest is probably how the movie portrayed V’s anarchist uprising. The movie itself seems to portray it more as a cry for freedom rather than anarchy, which displeased Alan Moore. He criticized the movie, saying that the graphic novel showed “anarchy vs. fascism”, while the movie showed “American neo-liberalism vs. American neo-conservatism”. Yet, before the movie V for Vendetta and even before the graphic novel was a man by the name of Guy Fawkes, who tried and failed to blow up Parliament. Called the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, the goal for the provincial English Catholics was to kill King James I of England and VI of Scotland. Guy Fawkes was one of the Catholics, and he was found by the King’s men on November 4, guarding barrels of gunpowder that were intended to blow up the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament. He was captured on the fifth of November, and hanged on January 31, 1606. In an interview with the Huffington Post, a history professor at the San Luis Obispo California Polytechnic University named Lewis Call, said, “Gradually over the centuries, the meaning of Guy Fawkes has dramatically changed. The reputation of Guy Fawkes has been recuperated. Before he was originally seen as a terrorist trying to destroy England. Now he’s seen more as a freedom fighter, a fighter for individual liberty against an oppressive regime. The political meaning of that figure has transformed.” Jason J. Cross, a 32-year-old man at the Occupy protests, had been selling the masks to people for five dollars apiece. “The origins of this mask comes from the idea of riding up against the government,” he told the Huffington Post. “Guy Fawkes represents the fact that the people have the real power.” Despite the movie V for Vendetta not fitting into the anarchist scenery in the graphic novel V for Vendetta, all it really stems from is the rebellious nature of the English Catholics that wanted King James gone. The message to those on Wall Street mostly appears to come from the movie, and encourages freedom to be fought for, in order for equality to be given to the 99%. Sarah Chaisson Warner |
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