Watchmen: My Thoughts and Takeaways

This is not a summary of the 2009 Watchmen action/ adventure picture. This is merely my thoughts and feelings on the violent but profound piece of cinema which tackles a lot of burning questions like what is evil and what would you be willing to sacrifice for the greater good? Can sacrifice be built on a lie?

My boyfriend introduced me to this movie. He’s a big fan of superheroes but this is no ordinary superhero flick. It’s not some feel-good Marvel movie. It’s incredibly graphic with murder, torture, and an attempted rape scene that is burned in my mind (trigger warning: there will be some discussion on sexual assault in this blog post as well as spoilers). It’s not pretty but you can’t look away. It’s gritty but I like to think it’s not quite reality.

There are several major superheroes: Laurie (Miss Jupiter), Dan (Nite Owl 2), Eddie Blake (the Comedian), Rorshach, Adrian (Ozymandias), and Dr. Manhattan. Laurie is Dr. Manhattan’s girl but she leaves him for Dan when Dr. Manhattan becomes emotionally unavailable. And he is the definition of unavailable. His superpowers were the product of an accident involving radiation and now he can bend matter to his will. He is practically a God, but he emphatically denies this. Dan is the definition of a “nice guy”, if not a little awkward (but in an endearing way). He sometimes seems to be the only one in the movie with any compassion. My boyfriend says the superhero life corrupts you. Isn’t it ironic?

So who is the villain of this film? Is it Eddie Blake, who bitterly complains that everything is just a big joke while doing heinous acts? He gets a local girl pregnant during the Vietnamese war then guns her down in cold blood at a bar. He tries to rape Laurie’s mother in a brutal and savage attack. He laughs while setting people on fire. Carnage amuses him. Is it Rorshach, a stone cold sociopath who dishes out justice on his own terms? He pinpoints the moment he lost his humanity as the day when he found a criminal had raped and murdered a six year old girl, feeding her to his two dogs. Rorshach kills the dogs, then lies in wait for the murderer to get home. When he gets there, the murderer begs for help (clinical help I’m assuming) and pleads to be arrested. Instead, Rorshach puts a cleaver through his head. Rorshach has a very defined sense of right and wrong. When someone violates this, he takes action. Is the villain Ozymandias, the smartest man on Earth, who kills millions of people for the greater good and then frames Dr. Manhattan? Talk about a God complex. Or could Dr. Manhattan be seen as a villain? Sure he isn’t murdering people with a flick of his wrist but he left his first wife because she was getting old and Laurie winked at him. Even Laurie isn’t absolved of guilt. She knew Dr. Manhattan was married/ in a long-term partnership with someone who stuck with him through his accident. Janey was there for him at his worst moments. Laurie is very much a homewrecker. But if there is one thing the movie shows, it's that the world isn’t just “heroes” and “villains”. (Almost) everyone is more complex and nuanced than that.

Another thing I wanted to address was the rape/ affair between Laurie’s mother (Sally) and Eddie Blake. He tries to rape her, then later on she engages in an affair with him (the product of which is Laurie). It sounds unbelievable but such things really do happen. A close friend of mine (who gave me permission to share this story) was sexually assaulted when she was fourteen. It was completely non-consensual. A month later, the guy approached her again. She let him kiss her and even called him her boyfriend briefly because she couldn’t face the painful reality of what had happened to her. She couldn’t face the fact that she had been the victim of sexual assault. It is an incredibly difficult thing to come to terms with. It’s not uncommon for women to go back to someone who hurt them.

In conclusion, I’ll say Watchmen can be a tough watch. But it is so good. Very rewarding watch with twists and turns, compelling acting, a fast-paced plot, and never a dull moment (although there are one or two awkward sex scenes). It really felt like it was intruding on my feelings. And it’s weird but I love that in a movie.