I began writing this column in Mumbai with every intention of exploring some facets of cinema made in and about Indonesia, but this being Deepavali season, the war-like decibel levels proved to be hugely distracting. The noise took me years back to a November in London, where bereft of the explosions they had been used to for decades, my ears thrilled to familiar bangs and pops.
It turns out that the crackers were because of this rhyme: “Remember, remember! The fifth of November, The Gunpowder treason and plot; I know of no reason, Why the Gunpowder treason, Should ever be forgot”. There’s more to the rhyme, but essentially, it’s a reference to the Guy Fawkes Night, a commemoration of the night when he tried to blow up the House of Lords in 1605, but was foiled in his attempt. Fawkes was merely the front guy in what was a larger plot.
He became an integral part of British popular culture, and when cinema reared her head in the early 20th century, he became a popular subject. In Percy Stow’s 1904 comedy short, Guy Fawkes’ Day , a father poses as Guy, while his children set him alight. The 1907 short, Guy Fawkes , the director of which is unknown, explores the subject in a more serious manner, as does Ernest G. Batley’s 1913 short, Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot . The first feature-length look at the subject appears to be Maurice Elvey’s Guy Fawkes (1923).
Since then, the bomber seems to have taken a hiatus until Jeff Leahy’s television documentary in 2005, Quest for Guy Fawkes , unless you count the British sitcom, Barbara , whose 2003 episode set on a bonfire night was titled ‘Guy Fawkes’. There have been numerous other British television passing references, but let us turn our attention to the famous mask, the image by which we all reference Fawkes with. The iconic image comes from Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta graphic novel series that began in 1982, with illustrations by David Lloyd. If you are not a graphic novel fan, you are far more likely to remember the 2005 V for Vendetta film adaptation, where James McTeigue directed a screenplay by the Wachowski brothers (now Wachowski brother and sister, but that’s a different story) with graphic art by Lloyd.
In the film, we are in a dystopian future, where the United Kingdom is ruled by fascists, and the titular V (played by Wachowski regular, Hugo Weaving) plots to recreate Guy Fawkes’ explosive mission, helped by the comely Evey (Natalie Portman). Like most Moore adaptations, including From Hell (2001) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), the film failed to live up to the glories of the graphic novel. However, it did succeed in exposing the Fawkes mask to a new generation, and today, almost every protest against fascist regimes in the West sees people wearing these masks. Not bad for what began as a terrorist plot 410 years ago.