An Analysis of the Color Usage in ‘V for Vendetta’ (2)

During the film, heroin Evey also often dressed in blue, and the color of her blue items were steadily getting darker and darker, finally appeared to be pure blue. It was a reflection of her inward maturity from weak and sentimental to tough and rational.

Blue can also on behalf of anger, depression and resentful. In English, there are usage of ‘blue in the face’ and ‘he looks blue’. At the end of the film, when the High Chancellor sent out the ultimatum of killing V, he stood right in front of a dark blue silk.

Red: Red, ‘… strikes a chord with more cultures than many other colors because of its intensity, passion and invocation of an inherent physiological response’ (Keskar 2010:p62), on one hand, can be easily connected in mind with the devil’s horns, which stands for invasion, anger and sin. The film started with the figures of the secret ‘Fingermen’, who always wore badges with red Lorraine crosses on them, symbolized as strong arm rule and ideology. On the other hand, red also stands for revolution, associated with the communism revolution of Soviet Russia. When V delivered his first speech through the TV tower, his background was a huge red velvet curtain, which could be understood as the ambition and decision to rebel.

Also, in this film, red was representing revenge and love at the same time. There was a scene that V was practicing fighting in his house and then threw himself into his red sofa. Here red can be perceived as anger and the desire of revenge. Another red sofa appeared later when Evey was wearing a read streak t-shirt, lying in it and watching The Count of Monte Cristo. Here red was a symbol of love and admiration.

Furthermore, the scarlet carsons rose was not only a significant but highlighted image with a sharp contrast of meaning in this film. Originally, the red rose is stand for love and romance, while in the film, it was the signature of V for his revenge killings. To a great extend, it was regarded as a concreted image of burning hatred, however, it also contained V’s gratitude to those political criminals for creating his tough and power, as well as leading him to the great revolution. The double meaning of scarlet carsons built a super hero in a more humanistic and romantic way, which made the film more impressive and thought-provoking.

Black: Keskar (2010) suggests that black is the color of myth, power, drama and humor which can both mean classic or new. It also associates with nobility and elegance. It is a reflection of independence and tenacity. In this film, V was a great hero with all these characters that black conveyed, as a result, he always covered himself in black items (cape, hat, gloves, wig…...)