I caught Watchmen again on telly last night. I saw the first hour before I had to retire. There were another 2 hours after that - till 2am!
With Rorschach's grim narrative it always reminds me of a noir movie with a hard-boiled private eye. Its a great film and I had to look up some of the actors.
The chap who plays the Comedian has such a huge smile, I knew I'd seen him before this year and there he was. He's the swashbuckling CIA cowboy in the Rock's monster flick Rampage. I know he's been in many other things but I haven't seen them.
Molock is Max Headroom I think. Is that right?
The Watchmen is a slice of eighties paranoia when the cold war was part of our little lives. The idea of retired and weary super heroes is fascinating and the film takes it further by killing them off. I don't pretend to know the background to this flick at all. I haven't read the famous comic but I do appreciate how it might sit well in DC. I find DC's own roster of older heroes really alluring and I'm drawn to the old DC universe in general. So the reboot of the Minutemen into another band of heroes in the Watchmen - the Watchmen? - is very appealing to me.
I liked Bird Man for the same reasons. Michael Keaton/ Batman is fabulous as the tired old Bird Man of the title.
Retirement for super heroes is hard.
So to borrow a phrase from the movie, who has been watching the Watchmen?
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American Postscript:
In reply to watching the Watchmen....I was unaware that there were movies made of a comic I had paid no attention to.I recently bought this book for $8 rather than $40 not for the subject matter but rather to read/enjoy art by Dave Gibbons whose work I enjoyed when he was a fanzine artist in the early 70's.
A little light summer reading, when I get to it.
Cheers from America's Birthday!
Terranova47
Watchmen is an absolute must, it's history askew is utterly believable, and it's message "can you live with what you've done?" is grimly hammered home through out, it's a tough read and tough viewing too! Highly recommended!!
ReplyDeleteI've watched the Watchmen! A few times. Love it. Been a fan of Alan Moore for a while - 'The Ballad of Halo Jones' , with the sublime art of Ian Gibson, is truly awesome ans certainly deserves a film version. Back to Watchmen, and I find the character Dr. Manhattan very interesting. Here we have a human turned into a god-like being. Why should he bother with, or try to hold onto some of his own, humanity any more? Go watch it if you havn't, go watch it again if you have.
ReplyDeleteThe Watchmen comic series changed the nature of adult comic reading almost overnight. The release of the graphic novel put comics firmly on the table for adult readers and ushered in a new generation of comics. The comic story is different from the film, for a number of reasons, but where Zack Snyder follows the story, the film almost mirrors the comic panels exactly. Its a great film, but very much more grisly and bloodthirsty than the comic, especially the directors cut. I feel that the excess gore detracts from the narrative, as a super hero film turns into a slasher movie very quickly. The comic is very cleverly intercut with a second narrative, told through another comic,'Tales of the Black Freighter' - a pirate themed comic which is read by the boy at the newstand and reflects humanitys descent into chaos. The film was recently followed by an excellent miniseries on HBO, which takes place some time after the events in the comic, but well worth a watch.
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ReplyDeleteIt is a wonderful film. I really should read the graphic novel too!
ReplyDeleteIdeally, you should read the colour graphic novel first. The Noir version is just a gimmick. As Alan Moore took his ball home over the movie adaptations of his work, Dave Gibbons has really milked the Watchmen cash cow. There are dozens of iterations of the graphic novel and a range of supplementary books about the comic, all penned by him. Much as I adore Gibbons work - his Rogue Trooper and Dan Dare in 2000ad were classics, I think its a bit of a marketing manouvre with the b/w edition. No wonder it sold for $8. Get a standard copy of the colour work, for the full effect, especially the last issue with the big reveal! Fans of Dave Gibbons work will enjoy his 'Give Me Liberty' series too. A wonderfully talented artist and paired with Alan Moore, you cant go wrong. moore's V for Vendetta is another knock down dragout fantastic read and something worth going through before watching the film, which is again, fundamentally different.
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