The biggest laugh Watchmen got at the sold-out, 9 a.m., IMAXsuburban-theater show I went to on Saturday occurred [SOMETHING OF ASPOILER ALERT HERE -- LOOK AWAY IF YOU MUST!] when the LeeIacocca-businessman-figure said, "Free is just another word forsocialist." It was the happily derisive laugh of a crowd that wastotally into the movie, and which also seemed well aware of the recenteffort to label the Obama stimulus package as "socialist" — and theaudience clearly thought the use of that supposedly-inflammatory wordwas a joke.
Of course, director Zack Snyder couldn’t have known that line would have that context when he was filming Watchmenhowever many months ago, but movies have a way of capturing what’s inthe air at the moment of their release-date in uncanny ways.
In general, no matter what you may think are the flaws in directorSnyder’s version of Alan Moore’s book, it does one thing consistentlyand assiduously: It seizes upon Moore’s long-standing sympathy for’60s-style politics, strips away much of Moore’s bluster (that’s one ofthe advantages of having to pare down the novel), and hammers at theidea that Nixonian politics don’t work. Even the libertariansentiments spouted by the movie’s Rorschach, positioned in the movie asits most interesting figure (thanks to a combo of his CGI mask andJackie Earle Haley’s terrific performance) are viewed by Moore/Snyderas Walter Kovacs’s one crucial character flaw.
Watchmen is the most "political" movie in theaters now, and will beseen by many people who’d never dream of going to a Michael Mooredocumentary or of Netflixing All The President’s Men (I caught at least two shout-outs to Woodward and Bernstein in Watchmen).Pretty soon if not already, those who disagree with Alan Moore maystart inveighing against the movie. They’ll argue about the cleansingpower of…what? Liberalism? (Let the "masks" coexist with ordinarycitizens!) Anarchy? The nihilism some people (not me) believe isinherent in the movie’s violence and sex? Pretty soon those people –mighty Rush Limbaugh, perhaps? explodin’ Bill O’Reilly? — may come tosee Watchmen as a ripe target. Me, I think it’s just moreevidence that pop culture works in mysterious ways that even itscreators cannot predict.
Not to mention the distinctly Nixonian logic driving the overall plot. Trying not to get too far into spoiler territory here: let’s just say that I kept remembering a Vietnam-era quote – “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”
Typical liberal bullshit.
Interesting article but one with a huge and major flaw…the guy who the Lee Iacoca business man is responding to, the person who spouted off the intent of something free (something socialist), is the villian of this story. In fact the most liberal characters are the weakest and sadest characters in Watchmen. Night Owl, Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre Two, at the drop of a hat they all agree with the villian because one he will kill them if they don’t but two they kind of see the value in his acts (killing millions to save billions) while Rorschach (with all his probably considered viloent and conservative view points) will have none of it and refuses to let the villian slide. So if the guy who wrote this article is correct then people who are liberal, the ones Alan Moore also liked, are thenthe villian and those who are cool with mass murder. If that is the case then I am not sure Watchman is the politcal thank you to sixties era politics somone like Rush Limbaugh would be against.
I always wondered what fat ass Eric Cartman would turn out when he got old. “Rush Limbaugh” that’s it.
You are missing a huge point. A global conspiracy to bring the Cold War to an end is based on a lie and a massive coverup to keep the people well-managed. It is about to be exposed by a right-wing newspaper via Rorschach’s Journal. Liberals always seem to “know what is best” for the Great Unwashed. The end of the graphic novel and the film show the veneer of the conspiracy is about to be peeled away by alternative (conservative) press.
That does not sound “liberal” to me! I think quite the opposite; that Rush and others will embrace this film as validation that the truth always “outs,” in spite of the attempts by the machine in power to subvert it (Change?). This is the real beauty of Watchmen: Everyone can claim it as their own. And the proof is in the pudding: Expect Rorschach to be admired by people who never knew him prior to the film. Rorschach is decicedly conservative and very black-and-white, as his mask indicates.
I think everyone missed the biggest point…Watchmen was a horribly boring, empty, ridiculously over hyped, terrible film.
Ken – Try to make sentences that make sense together. This is just a politically biased bunch of nonsense under the guise of a movie review. Try again.
Dumb movie – can’t pay me to see it again.
These cultural/political films are meaningless dribble and any supposed tie-in with the left or the right is absurd. And by the way, can any of you right-wingers out there name ONE single contribution Rush Limbaugh has made to the political landscape? He is the most irrelevant over-hyped right wing hate monger of the modern era.
i always get a laugh when i read juvenile pap like this ‘review’ posted on media/entertainment Web sites – quite telling that the headline trolls for clicks by using the name ‘Limbaugh’ without any real depth of analysis
I don’t get it.
What a bunch of crap – the movie and the review! Stick to simple movie reviewing Ken – you’re not that cheeky to be good.
OK This movie was great. It’s a comic book movie. The comic was very dark. Why can’t people just go to the movies just to see a movie. No nonsense involved. This was a great movie. Just because it didn’t have a happy ending, people are mad. Well you people can’t sit through a movie with out saying a work. Shut-up! If you don’t like it, Oh well. Its just a movie. For all the watchmen fans, exspecially to the watchmen fans of the comic, Finally the movie is here and in my opinion, they did a pretty good shop taking it from text to screen. -Brian
Nixon is a symbol of corruption and humanity’s willingness to embrace the comforts of corruption while turning a blind eye to the evil in it.
The lofty goal of destroying human life to preserve it is what I liken to Obamatopia. Obama like Ozy, is surely doing so with his cap and trade taxes which will hurt the poorest of the world in need of heat, cooling and energy to merely survive. Screw the tax hike on the “rich”, that won’t make a dent, it will only make lesser souls feel avenged. Obama will still be coking on his $100.00 a pound beef steaks when you and I are portioning out Spam sandwiches.
The stated goal of the Bilderberg Group is to create a sustainable world with no more than 500 million humans, a world government and no opposition. Hence the destruction of masses through promulgated circumstances of war, pandemics, economic upheaval.
In America your not allowed to make a joke about fat conservative blow hards or fat liberal blow hards Limbag or Moored. You must be a communist/nazi/hitler lover if you do.
PS: or skinny ones