From a declared terrorist to a spontaneous
anti-hero!
From a declared religious militant to a symbol of
anti-establishment protests!
The imagery that lasted for centuries, some 370
years –long enough for system and people to go routine and indifferent to the
reason with which it had started – after all, time wears off reasons,
interpretations and relevance of any incident to customize it in the context of
‘now’ – has been made irrelevant in three decades.
The imagery that started taking birth in early
1980s with a character of a fictional world, has become the most adopted
placard of anti-government and anti-system protests the world over in just
three decades.
That tells us the power of communication and the
media it rides.
Before the movie ‘V for Vendetta’ which had a
wide release in 2006, Guy Fawkes was not known worldwide. Same thing can be
said about his mask, or the mask designed in his name.
Even in Britain, the country of the Gunpowder
Plot of 1605 and the country of Guy Fawkes, he was being forgotten, even if the
plot had become synonymous with his name. People preferred Halloween over it
and people preferred calling November 5 as Bonfire Night and not ‘Guy Fawkes
Night’.
He was resurrected as an anarchist and an anti-hero
in a comic book series, ‘V for Vendetta’ on a fictional dystopian Britain. The
main protagonist of the fictional world, ‘V’, was dressed like Guy Fawkes
wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. The series continued for several years. ‘V for
Vendetta’ was also released as a graphical novel.
The 2006 movie epitomized the written work behind
it. Though it had many changes from the source material, it can be said it took
out Guy Fawkes and his mask out of Britain.
With the launch of the movie, the Guy Fawkes’
journey, from a terrorist to an anti-hero, was prepared for a global outreach.
And it came in 2008 when the ‘hacktivist collective Anonymous’ adopted Guy
Fawkes mask in its protests against the Church of Scientology. Since then, it
is all over. Since then, the mask has been adopted as the protest symbol the
world over. Its outreach is clear from the fact that it is banned in Middle
East countries like Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia. And it is also banned in
Canada in ‘extreme circumstances’.
Films are a powerful medium to take an image to
the global audience to change and build perceptions. The US has been doing it
for years. And Guy Fawkes’ metamorphosis though the Guy Fawkes Mask once again
reiterates it.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
Image courtesy: Guy Fawkes Mask –
Wikimedia Commons
