Written by Charlie Johnson
“Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?” Translated from Latin, it means “Who watches the watchers?” It is also the quintessential tagline for Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece, Watchmen. This is where people start getting really excited and talk about Zack Snyder and the 2009 film by the same name. While many people know that Watchmen was originally a comic book, very few realise how big it actually was. Since it’s 1986 release, the graphic novel has been recognised as a coming-of-age story for the comic genre. Having won an Eisner Award and a Hugo Award, clearly this is an important piece of literature. So how does the much-awarded graphic novel stand up to modern film making? Is it possible to compare the two? Did Zack Snyder create one of the most polarising films of the decade? Let’s find out!
The Graphic Novel
I should probably preface this section by saying that I was a fan of the film before I found the novel. When I heard recently that HBO had acquired the rights to produce a TV show, I was really excited. I did some research and found out that the show would a completely different story to the 2009 film. So, I thought I had better start reading some back issues and get a better grasp on the world. It was in that moment that I realised I hadn’t read the original. Within the hour, I had the 2014 edition of the novel in my hand and was reading Rorshach’s disgusting monologue about how sick and broken the world is.
This leads me to my first point. Being able to put a novel down, take a break, and come back to it is one of the strengths of the medium. Because there is no limit on time, a novel has the ability to convey as little or as much detail as needed. While I churned through some chapters, others really slowed me down. By the time I finished the book, the peaks and troughs in action had more or less hit a nice average. The reason it took me longer in some parts was because of the intense characterisations. Everyone had their own arc. Each character went on their own voyage of discovery and we as the reader was allowed to tag along. We got to witness the slow decay of Jon Osterman into the dehumanised Dr. Manhattan. We got to peak behind the curtain of The Comedian’s mask and feel his sadness. We got to relive the traumatic upbringing of Laurie as her mother forces the mantle of Silk Spectre onto her.
What really hammers home the psychological profiling of these characters are the insights you find between chapters. I’m not sure if it’s true for all printed versions, but the one that I purchased had excerpts from newspaper articles, confidential medical reports, personal letters, and even an essay written to The American Ornithological Society. It is through these documents that we are able to glean more nuanced information about these bizarre costumed crusaders.
This is what you expect when you read a novel that’s been adapted to film. What I didn’t expect though, was the amount of colour on the pages. Huge amounts of red, blue and green dominated backgrounds with highlights of yellow and purple that almost assault your eyes.
This is where we need to congratulate and spread the name of John Higgins. He was the colourist for the novel and has enhanced what is an already striking visual. He adeptly uses these colours together in unusual ways to create shadow and create the illusion of light diffusion. In doing this he is able to match the mood of each pane to the characters state of mind. Many directors do this with TV and movies but they can have as much control as someone who gets to colour the page the way they want.
Finally, the novel has impeccable metaphors. While most of the emotional characterisation is portrayed through the actual panel colours, there is a lot of detail in the background that helps to tell the stories. There are these great segments that feature a news vendor who talks to passing people about the state of the world in order to sell his papers. Meanwhile there is a kid who sits next to him everyday and reads a comic called Tales of The Black Freighter. While the vendor is talking quite often in the same pane, there is a snippet of dialogue that reflects the fears and anxieties of the citizens who live in these trying times. Initially I thought that the pirate comic sounded cool and thought I’d buy a copy for myself. After researching, I found that Tales of The Black Freighter was written exclusively for the Watchmen novel. Moore and Gibbons really created a full feeling world with their attention to detail. Not only does it add credibility to their universe, but also provides an extra layer of depth.
Ultimately the Watchmen Novel is a deeply written labour of love, intricately produced by everyone involved in the project. It is a stunning read not for the faint of heart. If you go into it expecting some surface level eye candy, you’ll be disappointed. It is dense and heavily thematic and deserves to be read with your full attention. Even if you don’t like comics, I would recommend that you read this book. I thought it would be a fun, pulpy kind of read, but found myself thinking about my place in the world after I put it down each night.
A must read for everyone; Fans of comics, or otherwise. It redefined the genre. 9/10
The Zack Snyder Film
So, for whatever reason, over the course of my adult life, I have sat down to watch the 2009 film five or six times. I have only finished the film twice. The number one reason for this is that it is long. The theatrical cut is 162 minutes, the directors cut is 186 minutes, and the “Ultimate” cut is a whopping 215 minutes! That is time that most humans just don’t have to spend all at once. It was an ambitious project for Zack Snyder to undertake. The reason it ended up being so long is because of the amazing complexity of the source material. There is little you can cut out without making the story suffer. But he did it and made it work pretty well I might add. Of course, this is my opinion of the film and other opinions vary wildly from person to person. Many people consider this adaptation a travesty and a waste of celluloid. Others have hailed it as the superhero movie we have all been waiting for. How on earth can a film polarise its audience so completely?
I think the first thing that we need to discuss is the amazing intro sequence:
This montage by itself is one of my favourite things about the film. Over the space of four minutes, it establishes the setting of the story and catches us up on the alternate history of this universe. While all of this backstory is rationed out through the chapters of the novel, here they are bundled together for convenient digestion. The use of Bob Dylan also ties the story into the right timeframe, adding to the strong sense of time and place. The rest of the soundtrack is pretty hit and miss, though. While Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Nat King Cole, and Leonard Cohen create memorable within the story, Watchmen would have benefited from only using this kind of music. When the orchestra provided the backing track for most big fights, it lacked that comic book zip. Roundabout by Yes or maybe Supertramp could’ve added something. The standard movie music fell flat and left my mind to drift when it did play.
I came to a similar conclusion with some of the acting. Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach was brilliant. He was far and away one of the shining lights of the production. Haley’s interpretation of Rorschach was very close to the comic version. It was so eerily close, I thought that he had jumped straight out of the pages and onto the screen. Many people took issue with his growling voice, but I quite liked it. It helped hammer home his anti-humanist views, trying to be as inhuman as possible. Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian were also impressive. Crudup brought his own take on Dr. Manhattan’s disinterest in humanity. While the comic version was almost struggling with a superiority complex, Crudup played his Manhattan closer to someone who lacked empathy. He simply didn’t understand how people behaved anymore and that made him a bit more personable in a way. In contrast to this, Morgan’s Comedian was raw, emotional and prone to mood swings at the drop of a hat. On the other side of this coin are the performances of Matthew Goode and Malin Akerman who played Ozymandias and Laurie Jupiter respectively. Ozymandias was a bland super villain. He had none of the self-righteousness of your classic villain. This feeds into him not having enough depth as character and this in turn is because much of his characterisation in the novel, never made the final cut. As result, he was just another asshole trying to end the world. Similarly, Akerman didn’t get a huge chance to exhibit growth as Laurie. Her interactions with Jon (Dr. Manhattan) felt stiff. They lacked the chemistry together that was required to be truly absorbing.
Finally, Zack Snyder seems to have taken some notes from Christopher Nolan about the set. Much like the Batman films that were a huge success the year before, many of the sets in Watchmen were very dark. If they weren’t physically dark, they were often washed out and made to look grey. I’m sure this is a comment on how dark the themes of the story are, but one location blends into the next when it’s this dark. Surely these larger than life characters deserve some colourful landscapes to run around in? Like the when the orchestra took over from the soundtrack, my brain switched off and stopped paying attention to the backgrounds after a while.
I’m much more forgiving of this film than most people it would seem. There were parts that failed to keep my attention and some of the music bored me. Considering how long the movie is, there were enough bright sparks to keep me watching until the end. Jackie Haley should be recognised for his role in the film if he hasn’t been already. Some more licensed music could help to cut through the darkness of the film.
If you like hero movies, give it a look. If not, I wouldn’t recommend it to you. 7/10
With HBO announcing a TV series set in the same universe in 2019, there’s lots to discuss. Especially because Jeremy Irons is an official cast member. That’s for another article though. At any rate, whether you’re an old school comic fan, or a new age cinema buff, we all have to admit that Watchmen has left its mark in the industry.
