“Imagine filming "Harry Potter," but having no time for the Sorting Hat. Putting "The Giving Tree" on celluloid, but having to change the ending. Those are the types of quandaries director Zack Snyder navigated while adapting "Watchmen," the beloved graphic novel deemed "unfilmable" by many — including Alan Moore, its creator.” (Carroll, 2008)
I think we all have experienced the feeling of having read a great book, and then the movie comes out. Do we go and watch, running the risk of having our favourite book destroyed on the big screen? Or do we go and hope that the director cared as much about the story as we have and done their best to be true to its source? Or do we not watch the film, knowing that no one could have done the book justice?
Some people may have felt this way towards Watchmen. Having been acclaimed as one of the best graphic novels of all time, how could a movie compare. After having read the book twice and watched the movie once, I am not an expert but I thought they did the book justice in this movie. It mostly stayed true to the story. Some things were left out, but overall it was well done.
Here is an overview of those differences found between the book and the film that I think are worth mentioning.
Tales of the Black Freighter
Tales of the Black Freighter is a comic within a comic. A young kid comes and hangs around the newspaper stand and rather than buys the comic, he sits there and reads it. Speech bubbles tell this horror story while the main story is going on. At first this tale seems pointless, and it is not until the very end where there is a connection between this story and Veidt’s comment about how he “feels every death” (Chapter 12, p. 27, panel 1 & 2) that it comes together. However due to time restraints (this movie already runs 162 minutes), this part has been left out.
Under the Hood
Between each chapter there are excerpts from different places, one of these being from Hollis Mason’s autiobiography. Hollis Mason was one of the original Minutemen and the original Nite Owl. From these excerpts we are given additional information about the Minutemen and how the first masked crime fighters came to be. There are other articles as well that gives more insight into characters like Doctor Manhattan, Veidt and Rorschach. The movie tries to give this background information at the onset of the movie. There are flashes of scenes while the song Times They Are A Changin by Bob Dylan plays but they are unable to tell the whole story. These do not replace lengthy pieces of background information.
Characters
Although the characters mostly seemed true to how we found them in the book, there were two that stood out for me simply in how they were cast. I found both the actor who played Veidt and Dreiberg way too young. Veidt looks to be about 25 and way too thin to be as fast and strong as they portray them. In the graphic novel, Dreiberg is portrayed as an aging, retired superhero. In the movie, Dreiberg appears to be still fairly young.
In the graphic novel, with the exception of Doctor Manhattan, the characters do not have super powers. They are regular people who have decided to stop crime and disguise themselves by wearing a mask and costume. Although it is not stated in the movie that the masked superheroes have speical powers, they fight they like they do. They get beat up over and over and keep coming back for more. Near the end where Nite Owl and Rorschach attack Veidt, Veidt defends himself like only a superhero can.
Violence
I found the violence of the movie to be harsh compared to what was presented in the book. There were parts of the movie that I chose not to watch as they broke people’s arms in two and blood squirted out everywhere. At times it was truly gruesome. I never felt that way with the graphic novel. Rorschach is rather intense at times but never so graphic. The scene where Dreiberg and Juspeczyk get caught in the alleyway with all those thugs was extreme. The book contained five panels where they fought the hoodlums in the alley before they were defeated. (Chapter 3, pp. 14-15) There was some blood but nothing too crazy. In the movie I had to look away because of all the horrible beatings and breaking of bones.
Other Alterations
Here are noticeable changes that may have little or no impact on the story.
- Laurie is a heavy smoker in the novel; she is a nonsmoker in the film
- it is Rorschach that warns Veidt about the possible assassination in the book but it is Dreiberg in the film
- in the book, Janey Slater is interviewed and tells her tale of woe to a journalist; in the movie she shows up at the TV station where Doctor Manhattan is being interviewed
- the book gives more time to the pschoanalyst and Rorschach in prison; through this we get to know more about both characters
- when Jon goes back to retrieve the watch in the “intrinsic field generator”, in the book, it is Janey Slater’s watch he goes to get and in the movie, it is his own
- when Doctor Manhattan gets upset after being interviewed on television, in the book he teleports everyone out of the building; in the film he teleports himself to Mars
- with the ongoing story of Tales of the Black Freighter, we get to know a little more of the newspaper man and some of the people he sees on a regular basis. It is many of these people who die in the end when Veidt attacks New York so you have more connection with these characters in the book than in the movie
I enjoyed watching the movie right after the reading of the book. I was able to make connections with different scenes and dialogues which made it easier to make the comparisons. I thought the director stayed fairly true to the novel and with the exception of some of the more extreme violence, I enjoyed the movie very much.
References
A.V.Club. (2009). Book vs film: watchmen. Retrieved from http://www.avclub.com/articles/book-vs-film-watchmen,24746/
Carroll, L. (2008). 'Watchmen' director reveals key differences between graphic novel, film. Retrieved from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1605765/20090224/story.jhtml
Moore, A. (1986). Watchmen. New York, NY: DC Comics.
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