Watching the Watchmen

The Warner Bros. movie Watchmen will be released on 6 March.

The movie is based on a 1986-7 Graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons which was 'revolutionary' for the superhero genre. It was was recently named one of the 100 greatest novels of the past century.

One blogger commented, "These types of stories turned the comic book genre on its head because of how human it makes its characters. As it turns out, none of these people really do what they do for truth, justice, and the American way...or at least not in the boy scout manner that Superman does. They aren't so noble and clean-cut. Their motives aren't so pure. Their actions aren't always so heroic. Watchmen was considered revolutionary because of all of this - it deconstructed the genre and explored a much darker, more conflicted side of 'masked adventuring.'"



'Watchmen is set in an alternate reality which closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The primary point of divergence is the presence of superheroes. Their existence in this iteration of America is shown to have dramatically affected and altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In keeping with the realism of the series, although the costumed crime fighters of Watchmen are commonly called "superheroes", the only character who possesses obvious superhuman powers is Doctor Manhattan. The existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations. Additionally, superheroes have become unpopular among the public, which has led to the passage of legislation in 1977 to outlaw them. While many of the heroes retired, Doctor Manhattan and the Comedian operate as government-sanctioned agents, and Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.'



The title references a line by Roman poet Juvenal, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" – "who watches the watchmen?" – a question which occupies the regular folk in the film's world.

I think it will be worth a look and a good vehicle to spark discussion at least about the nature of man.