For this piece I will be analysing the performance of Hugo Weaving in James McTigue's 2006 revolutionary thriller V For Vendetta. I have chosen to study this actor because I believe he gives a fantastic performance as a masked avenger and gives the best delivery of lines I have ever seen in a film. He stars as a masked avenger called V who wants to blow up the houses of parliament for retribution and also a change of power in the government. This 5 minute sequence is at the beginning of the film where he intervenes when finger men attempt to rape Natalie Portman and until the scene where he blows up the Old Bailey. This image is from the 5 minute sequence that I chose to study.First of all when we first see him you straight away think that hes an evil man because of the Guy Fawkes mask showing some kind of revenge or retribution but however his body language shows hes not evil as he intervenes when finger men attempt to rape Natalie Portman. Straight away his body language shows that he is not letting them get away as he has his head down and speaking in complex and religious vocabulary to mainly get their attention. When they tell him to bugger off his body language becomes more aggressive and pulls out a knife and now shows that he is going to harm them. When they try to confront him he attacks them and knocks two unconscious before killing one. Then his body shows a sort of leader role as he is stood up and she is on the floor showing now he's in control and he shows this throughout the film especially until he blows up the Old Bailey. Also it is quite surprising because even though he is wearing a mask that constantly has a smile you can still tell what his facial expressions are under the mask. For example when he is talking to Natalie at first he will have a normal tone face but when he begins to become aggressive you can tell his eyebrows will have dropped and also his whole face won't be relaxed anymore which I like because James McTigue's shows that you can still tell facial expressions under a mask. Then when he is giving a speech to the old bailey his body language again shows that he is mysterious and people have no idea what he is doing then when he explodes the Old Bailey his body language changes and suddenly is active moving around in a happy tone.
What I think he performs best though is his delivery of lines. He begins his delivery of lines at first in a simple, calm tone when he is describing himself, however when he makes a whole alliterative delivery of lines with the letter V it is really good how he doesn't make mistakes and has now changed from simple to aggressive and violent. However after he has vandalised the sheet of paper he calms down his delivery of lines again addressing them simply and again becoming human because he is expressed as crazy by Natalie Portman which shows his delivery of lines were perfectly executed because she was supposed to think he was crazy. He has no particular accent which shows that he is delivering normally rather than a rehearsed accent which I like cause I think if he had put on an accent his delivery of lines wouldn't be as incredible as they are. The pace of which he delivers them is fantastic and great to watch because he does it without hesitating you lose what he is saying which obviously is the purpose because V is portrayed mysteriously throughout the film. He uses complex vocabulary all beginning with the letter V and does that continually for about 1 minute of this sequence. His delivery of lines then becomes a sarcastic tone as he begins to mock Natalie's 'powers of observation' which he does for some part of this 5 minute sequence.
His costume/image is the most important part in this film because he is playing as a masked man. They dress him like Guy Fawkes with the mask, hat and the long coat because this is how they portray him as an evil man bent on retribution. Also his image also wants to portray him as evil because he carries 6 knives and also the Guy Fawkes mask. His costume also shows some kind of revolution plot as they are old clothes it shows that they want to have things as they were before rather than beginning a new era which is deliberately used by Hugo to show straight away, revenge plot.
This shows simply why Hugo Weaving is a fantastic performer in V For Vendetta and is one of the main reasons I like the film because of him.
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