Watchmen, A Faithful Translation
Went to see the opening showing of Watchmen at 12:01 this morning, and loved it. Like most other fans, I went in wondering what they would have to leave out to fit it into two and a half hours. The answer: the pages and pages of dense backstory in text rather than comic form. The stuff actually contained in illustrated comic panels was hardly cut at all, except for the Pirate comic books, which were also supplemental material. Almost every minor character who had most of their scenes cut at least made a cameo.
The casting was a pitch-perfect imitation of the drawn characters in every single instance; the set design was perfectly lifted from the artist. It was like watching the panels of the comic. What works in comics does not always work on the big screen, but I felt it worked.
The downside was that I felt they could have cut away the camera more often and left things to the imagination. Gore warning. This film depicts physical mutilation on the level of Sin City and 300. There were people in the theater crying over the three or four instances of begging, merciless depravity, and torturous pain they were seeing. I'm not a very queasy person, but I felt sick to my stomach. It added nothing. I really could have done without it, and would appreciate an edited version.
I suppose most of those on my friends list do not care about full frontal nudity, both female and male, but that's another factor to consider before seeing this film. There are 233,000 Google hits for the phrase "Watchmen penis". You'll stop staring at Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue schlong if you have a maturity level past junior high. Unfortunately that's more than I can say for the guys who sat behind us.
Comments
rikhei on Mar. 6, 2009 5:22 PM
I am going to see it tonight, so I'm glad to be warned about the gore. Thanks.
matt-arnold on Mar. 6, 2009 5:47 PM
It will help to avert your eyes, but it would also help to avert your ears, if you somehow can.
rikhei on Mar. 6, 2009 5:52 PM
Eyes closed, ears covered/plugged. Gotcha. Again, thank you.
sheryl67 on Mar. 6, 2009 6:53 PM
Thanks for this post, Matt. I can handle a lot of gore, but torture really bothers me. I hated "Pan's Labyrinth" because of it and can't watch the episode of "Firefly" that Mal and Wash are tortured. Is it like that? Cause if so, I'll have to skip it.
matt-arnold on Mar. 6, 2009 6:57 PM
It's not intended as interrogation. It's just vividly-depicted blood-spurting horrific disfiguring mutilation deliberately committed on a begging, screaming, usually dying victim, over in between five to fifteen seconds. Many different occasions, many different attackers and victims.
sheryl67 on Mar. 6, 2009 7:05 PM
Thanks. That was really helpful. I'll have to think about it. I would hate to get there and have to leave.
moatn on Mar. 12, 2009 11:48 AM
This is pretty funny for someone whose title is "Secretary of Violence."
sheryl67 on Mar. 12, 2009 12:51 PM
Tis trure, but I have yet to see someone tortured with a Nerf gun.
willtypeforfood.blogspot.com on Mar. 9, 2009 9:14 PM
I thought you were going to say after 'Gore Warning' that 'this film contains aggravated levels of Al Gore.' Now that would have been scary.
TimT
moatn on Mar. 12, 2009 11:45 AM
I actually stared *more* at Manhattan's "schlong" because I read this post before I went to see the movie.
I agree about the casting, except for Veidt. Veidt sucked.
Leave a Comment