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V for Vendetta

Date: Mar 29 2006

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Which is more important, freedom or security? How do you maintain justice under a government of the unjust?

Set in a time of extreme fear and oppression, V for Vendetta is about a man called “V” who is trying to take down his corrupt and hostile government.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Dave

Taylor

Dave: V for Vendetta opened up this weekend. Did you see it?

Taylor: Yes, I did. I had to.

Dave: And, your thoughts?

Taylor: And my thoughts is that it was exactly perfect for what it was. I enjoyed the costumes a great deal, I enjoyed the preaching to the choir message of it. I think the majority of people, though, who are going to see that movie aren’t going to get any new political ideas from it, really.

Dave: Maybe because I spend so much time thinking about that kind of topic, that the movie just seemed to not really push the envelope for me.

Taylor: Right.

Dave: It just seemed, well, duh!, you know. This has been the debate for the past five years, since September 11th, right, when, like, the question of security versus freedom – what’s more important?

Taylor: Right. Like I said, I don’t think the movie is presenting anything new. But hopefully it will get people to keep thinking about the current situation.

Dave: So, the movie follows a guy called “V” as he tries to, like, debunk a dictatorship in Britain, right?

Taylor: Right. It parallels the story of Guy Fawkes, the guy who tried to blow up Parliament four hundred years ago.

Dave: Ah, interesting.

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Discussion

V for Vendetta makes a number of references to a man named Guy Fawkes and the famous “Gunpowder Plot” of 1605.

Angered about being oppressed by King James, a group of Catholics decided to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. The conspirators filled an empty room beneath Parliament with barrels of gunpowder, and a man named Guy Fawkes was left behind to ignite the explosives.

Just before he could light the gunpowder, he was captured and the Houses of Parliament were saved. Later, Guy Fawkes was tortured and sentenced to a terrible death – he was hanged, drawn and quartered.