I Watched The Watchmen

Just saw “The Watchmen” which I think was great by the way and noticed in a few of the preceding film previews the following categories: Gangster Violence and Pervasive Language. I couldn't imagine for the life of me what these categories meant. What happened to just plain old Violence or Swearing? I mean are there people who are not offended by all violence in particular and need to know exactly what kind of violence they will be viewing? MPAA is such a fucking crock of shit organization. I don’t even know where to begin. They really bug me. Maybe these categories have been around for a while and I just haven’t noticed them. If that’s the case then I apologize for my lateness it expressing how ridiculous I think it is.

As for the Watchmen, I will try to be simple in my review. I never did finish the graphic novel but I did read enough of it to see that that the movie followed it almost to the letter and I am really proud of that. I have to admit that while reading it I was hyper aware of the total lack of any Watchmen of color but what can you expect from characters who outwardly admit to having virtually Nazi like mentalities? I find that the movie dodged these issues way more overtly than the novel did. The novel, I am told, included a larger narrative of one of the only characters of color in the story, the shrink who sees Rorschach as a patient. But naturally that story was completely omitted from the movie. That pisses me off but rather than go on a tangent I will stick to what I really loved about the movie. Mostly that I felt it did not compromise (until the end of course) the novel’s sense of ironic darkness and pervasive global doom for easy, fluffy resolutions. Again I did not finish the novel and understand as an avid reader that a book, graphic novel or more traditional literature has a life of it’s own which cannot be replicated cinematically at least not often.

What you get from books, the ability to imagine, re-imagine and live within a story is almost always compromised when adapted for the screen. The part of your brain used to simulate actions, feeling, emotions and intellectual and emotional struggle is given over to what a director and cinematographer install for the viewer. The studio replaces your imagination with their own vision, which is fine, as long you still have your own imagination in tact. That takes a daily exercising of your own imagination though. I fear new generations may not be encouraged to do this very often if at all. But more on that later.

Let talk about Dr. Manhattan’s penis. No really, I’m gonna go there and say that I am really proud at how well they pulled that off. I mean I watched the movie in my favorite theater in Chelsea, Manhattan’s great gay Mecca and not one oooh or awe whenever the blue phallus was exposed. Dr. Manhattan was that well rounded, that classy, and with a character so grounded in intellect and logic that he drew virtually no attention to his dick when he was naked which was about 80% of the movie. Was that Billy Cruddup's actual penis? One may never know. Maybe it's entirely CGI. Technology has come so far. No pun intended. Okay lemme get off the dick.

The opening credits alone were amazing, disturbing and beautiful. The fact that they opened with Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a Changing” didn’t hurt at all. I was delighted to hear, Simon & Garfunkel, Jimi Hendrix and Leonard Cohen as well although the use of “Hallelujah” during the obligatory sex scene was the least subtle segue of all the musical score use throughout the movie. Listening to “Unforgettable” sung by Nat King Cole while watching “The Comedian” get his ass handed to him was in a word, unforgettable. I will save the rest for those who wish to see the movie themselves. The moral and political discussions were satisfyingly handled although I don’t wish to discuss at length here what I feel might have been glossed over, simplified or omitted entirely.

It is unfortunate that we have come to accept the usual pattern in movies over the years that require exceptional scripts to wrap themselves up in the last thirty or so minutes like some 80’s episode of a “Murder She Wrote” mystery and “The Watchmen” is no exception to that. But I think there is more to “The Watchmen” to see than can be gathered in one viewing. And I will say this, and I haven’t it about a movie in a long time: I can’t wait to watch it again and again. The writing, the cinematography and the performance were compelling and held me really tightly. It was poetically brutal. That’s hard to pull off.