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

Adapted from the comic book written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V for Vendetta was an action thriller about liberty revolution and totalitarianism, released in 2006. With its attractive plot and magnificent production, it received generally a great deal of positive critics in different dimension, especially in its classic, romantic movie sentences. However, interestingly, apart from its affecting scripts and brilliant acting, the color use in this movie was ingenious and can be seen as various symbols thoroughly illustrate the theme.

Color languages are widely used in mass media, as Leijonhielm had pointed out that: ‘…… colors are perceived in such a way that terms denoting emotions seem adequate to characterize them……’ (1967: p6). The characteristics and symbolism of color can be emotionally experienced and expressed. It requires not only the content by optic but also rational perceptions and sensitive meanings. In this film, the combination of the plot and the visually color usage contributed to a more effective result in expressing the theme.

According to the analysis of Keskar (2010), this essay aims at develop a detail analysis of the three major colors used in the film: blue, red and black, in order to comprehend the film in a deeper and more elaborate way.

Blue: Keskar (2010) indicated that blue was representing calm and peace. In the early part of the film, when V ---- our hero, first broke into the London TV tower, the whole scene was mainly blue, such as the wall, the delivery box, the broadcaster’s shirt el ac. Here, blue was for calming, because the TV tower was a major government tool for controlling publics and calm them down. Blue also have the meaning of cure, for instance, in this part, V’s infectivity to wake the public up was firstly spread through the TV tower, which conveyed a message of rescuer and help.

The inspector ---- the other important role in it, always wore blue shirts from beginning till end. Here blue stood for rational. On a contrary, when the bishop was wearing his dark blue robe and began his pedophiliac game, blue became a paradox symbol between truth and sham.