|
A while back I wrote an article for a film called ‘Good Film - Preferred the Book Though’ about Perfume (2006) and its adaptation from page to screen. In that article I discussed the difficulties of adapting ‘unfilmable’ novels, citing Lord of the Rings and Glamorama as opposing case studies. Perhaps I should have also mentioned Watchmen, since this must surely be one of the trickiest adaptations Hollywood has ever attempted.
Temporally sprawling, resolutely complex, forthrightly postmodern, and set partly on Mars, by any standards Watchmen is a weighty and complicated novel. Alan Moore’s deconstruction of the superhero myth has been seen by many as ‘unfilmable’, even the attempt seeming redundant and doomed to failure. Many filmmakers have tried to adapt it, all failing - until now.
When Zach Snyder signed on to direct Watchmen many raised an eyebrow. Snyder, a relatively young filmmaker, first came to public consciousness with the stylish, witty and actually rather effective Dawn of the Dead remake (2004). He followed this with his first comic book adaptation, Frank Miller’s 300 (2006), a slick, bland, shallow historical action picture about the Spartans. 300 nevertheless made a lot of money, causing studio heads to start to take note of the up-and-coming Snyder as one to watch. This in itself goes some way towards explaining how he got the Watchmen job, and perhaps also why he would have had the confidence to take it on.
Adaptation is an extremely important part of the American cinema. Not exactly its own genre, it is at least its own category, and certainly an issue worth much debate. Films have been adapted from literature since the beginnings of cinema, and this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Whenever a particularly critically respected, or - equally - deeply loved, novel gets adapted to film, this fact once again becomes a prominent issue. Watchmen is one such novel on both counts. Considered one of the most influential comics of all time, in its twenty odd years since publication it has continually been revered and appropriated.
The question becomes: how does one even attempt to adapt such a grand novel? There seem to be three options. (1) Follow the novel extremely closely, following the plot/structure/style, (2) use it as a broad aid or guide, creating a word that is ‘faithful’ enough for critics and fans to latch onto, or (3) simply use it as a the loosest jumping-off point for a more ‘original’ film. Watchmen opts for the first strategy, and it’s probably a good thing it does. Financially speaking, if anything else had been attempted, one feels the all-important ‘fan-boys’ would have been incensed. Aesthetically too, however, it feels the right thing to do, since precise detail and depth is so central to the Watchmen novel. As well as this, it is essential to follow the source material closely in order that the themes of the novel (more than many other books, this is one about themes) to be comparably treated. This must hold true even if it finally creates flaws for the film as a film, which, in small ways, it does.
|
Of course, since the Watchmen comics were first released their influence has been felt widely. From films as diverse as The Incredibles (2004), X-Men (2000), Mystery Men (1999), and the most recent Batman films, to popular television (most notably Heroes), the broad legacy of Watchmen may have actually made it more difficult to adapt. However, what Snyder and his screenwriters have done is create a film heavily indebted to the novel, and hugely faithful to it, but with enough detailed ‘background’ to guarantee it is not impenetrable to an audience unfamiliar with the book. The precision of the translation is astounding, from minor characters to particular camera angles; characters even wear ‘Veidt’ trainers. But more than that, Snyder has managed to get the look and the feel of the novel onto the screen. His film faithfully shows the grimy, ‘realist’ vision of a country on the edge of nuclear war, but also - importantly - enough of the sense that this is all a fantasy - a comic book live on screen. This latter point is never more noticeable than in the un-faithfully violent action scenes: bones snap, the action slows down, and it becomes clear that we are watching a superhero movie. Yet because it takes its subject seriously, and respects its source material, the film ultimately keeps just about the right balance.
However, it is surely fair to say that the movie greatly privileges those who have read and are familiar with the novel. This is due partly to the entire premise being somewhat challenging to get one’s head around - even in its novelistic treatment. It seems likely that a significant percentage of the audience going in fresh may wonder what is going on, and why, for long stretches of the running time. This raises the question: what exactly can you get out of the film if you haven’t read the book?
Of course, this is almost impossible to answer from the position of one who has read the novel. However, it does raise an important issue: if it is possible (or even likely) that audiences who haven’t read the book will become lost, and will thus lose the entire meaning of the narrative, surely the film becomes redundant for them? In which case, this then means that it serves purely as a visual stimulus for the fans, who are already familiar with the material and thus likely to gain little from so precise an adaption (beyond a fetishistic thrill of recognition). Whilst this may in some sense be felt acceptable for the legions of fans, it will mean that the film, ultimately, passes by many people who want to watch a ‘superhero film’ at the cinema, and therefore miss out on introducing new audiences to the work’s content. It’s a fine balance, and one that isn’t finally resolvable since everyone will take something different away from their experience of Watchmen. While this is always the case with any film, it becomes particularly overt when dealing with one that adapts source material that comes with so much cultural baggage.
|
Special FX
- Print friendly format
- Email article to a friend
More from this writer
- The Dark Knight: Alternate Take
- The Dark Knight
- Cashback: Alternate Take
- Cashback
- Juno: Alternate Take
|
