YOU'RE The Watchmen. We Never Got That.
- Views
- 52,453
- Likes
- 2,363
- Length
- 14:14
- Published
- Category
- Film & Animation
For forty years we've heralded Watchmen as the first comic (not graphic novel) for adults. The clever deconstruction of the superhero. And, of course, a milestone for us nerds. It allowed us to come out as comic book readers.
However, we - and especially I - were reading it backwards.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons built a book that turns the reader into the joke.
The clue is sitting in the title. It's been there the whole time.
Zack Snyder's 2009 film duplicated every panel of the comic and missed the joke completely.
I love this comic. And I really like this film.
They tell the same story.
But they are doing completely different things.
And here's why.
#Watchmen #AlanMoore #filmessay
Oh, and if you want the t-shirt I'm wearing, you can find it here;
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Watchmen-Who-Watches-…
However, we - and especially I - were reading it backwards.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons built a book that turns the reader into the joke.
The clue is sitting in the title. It's been there the whole time.
Zack Snyder's 2009 film duplicated every panel of the comic and missed the joke completely.
I love this comic. And I really like this film.
They tell the same story.
But they are doing completely different things.
And here's why.
#Watchmen #AlanMoore #filmessay
Oh, and if you want the t-shirt I'm wearing, you can find it here;
https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Watchmen-Who-Watches-…
@lastsonofthewest2444
Phenomenal review. Perfect, insightful, subbed.
78 likes
@Vermillion-Sands
I very much enjoyed your analysis. I've read the comic, watched the movie, but never ''got'' the point. I'm an old dude at 64 but never consider myself too old to learn. Thank you!
87 likes
@amikkelsen
"We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it." From JFk’s last speech given that morning.
26 likes
@glennchartrand5411
What I walked away from the comic with is how two well meaning superhumans screwed everything up.
(Ozymandias had superhuman intellect. For some reason people keep overlooking that.)
Between Manhattan easily winning the Vietnam War and Ozymandias destroying the Soviet Unions petroleum based economy by inventing cold fusion they had backed the USSR into a corner and basically made nuclear war inevitable because the Soviets knew that between Ozymandias's technology and Dr.Manhattan , America could easily defeat the USSR in a conventional war so they were relying solely on nuclear weapons to counter the US.
The two "Real Superheroes" fucked everything up.
The only solution Ozymandias could come up with was to get Dr.Manhattan to leave Earth and fake an alien invasion (killing 3 million people) to give the Soviet Union and the USA a common enemy.
31 likes
@MarjorieCromwell
"WANK" was a sublime cut 👍
9 likes
@mikethompson601
I bought the watchmen button set back in the 80s. One of them has the slogan ' I watch the Watchmen ' in Latin.
25 likes
@W_James_B
Wait, did everyone else know that the blood on the Smiley Face symbolised 5 to Midnight? What else has been hidden from me?
23 likes
@williamdixon-gk2sk
The Watchmen is actually hard to put down when you're reading it, because it feels like turning off the radio halfway thru a good song.
1 likes
@anormanpearson
Well, for one, Snyder appears to have missed the fact that Dr. Manhattan's plight is that he lives every moment of his life at the same time, which is what leads to his depressive fatalism. He played the flashback sequence straight, without realising that the panels tell you exactly that he's witnessing every single moment of his life at once all the time. That wasn't a minor aspect of the character, and I believe that Snyder simply didn't understand the sequence.
3 likes
@bryanstephens4800
Companies hate having employees and they hate customers
44 likes
@papershark
The form of the story was a 'country house' murder mystery. someone is killed... and we are going to learn that every one has history and motive. The fight scene showed instantly that the film did not understand the source, destroying any mystery for those encountering the story for the first time.
3 likes
@Samura1gamer
this was absolutely phenomenal, thanks for making this
4 likes
@Rajidahae
It is also legitimately a great evocation of the perennial dilemma entailed by trusting your security to a more powerful entity (the "Who watches the watchmen?" reference). The work and the title function on many different levels.
2 likes
@marcjohnson5991
Thank you for explaining how books (graphic or prose) and film are fundamentally different in how we interpret the information
15 likes
@budzeppelin3768
I'm stoked, I'm going to dust off my DVD for a re-WATCH
2 likes
@CJOwen
I really loved the movie, but I had already read the comics multiple times and internalized them, so I didn't need the movie to do the work. I can understand how the film fails on its own. I'm still glad I can watch it and fill in all the real important stuff on top of the pretty spectacle.
4 likes
@Blurns
Twin Peaks did a similar nod to non-linearity of the audience a few years later as a TV series, because VHS had been a thing since the 70's.
1 likes
@Patrick-t4n3l
Thank you for this. Alan Moore has been popping up in my life a lot these past few days.
4 likes
@theericbarnett
Well done. Something actually worth watching on this app. Thank you. Please continue.
1 likes
@PervyK
I loved the audio comic greatly. The movie i felt it became a music video for licensed music. Rorschach on the screen was awesome though.
3 likes