Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
-Juvenile

I have been watching The Watchmen and I thought it was very well done. The movie kept pretty close to the comics story line although it did have some major deviations in details of the story the essential parts of the plot stayed intact. I am super excited about seeing the animated  version of the Dark Freighter when it is released! Spoilers and some hero story digression after the jump…

All in all I thought the movie was pretty true to the book, but there were differences that did not majorly effect the plot. As the story goes Earth is on the brink of utter destruction at the hands of the worlds super powers ramping up to nuclear holocaust. This is perceived by Ozymandias who decides to unite the world against a common enemy; in the book this is a alien squid like monster and in the movie it is Dr. Manhattan. I thought that the change from the Alien squid monsters to incriminating Dr. Manhattan was a smart move. I think this was a smart move to make a tighter movie without drastically altering the plot. The populace of The Watchmen universe are already jaded and suspicious of Dr. Manhattan. He has near godlike abilities, becoming increasingly disconnected with his humanity,  and in the story line Ozymandias already made people suspicious of him causing cancer. This made Dr. Manhattan the perfect target as a catalyst to unifying the world. As the old phrase goes “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and this was the angle that Alan Moore wrote Ozymandias to use.

I was disappointed that the director decided to cut out the changes in the psychiatrist because of his time spent working with Rorschach. The writer of The Watchmen, Alan Moore, draws influences from Nietzsche which are generally very pervasive in his writings. In The Watchmen one such influence from Nietzsche that permeates the entire story is:

Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you.
-Nietzsche

The psychiatrist who is a honest man who genuinely feels that he can help Rorschach willingly stares into the abyss that is Rorschach and that abyss stares back into him. After dealing with Rorschach for days the psychiatrist finds his world view altering, becoming darker and more suspicious of the humanity of the world. I feel this part of the story is essential to understanding the world that Alan Moore created and also key in understanding Rorschach, The Comedian, and Ozymandias. Each character stares into the abyss and the effects that the abyss has them manifests itself in different ways. This is the trial that Alan Moore made our heroes endure and the devastating effects it had upon them.

Rorschach’s view of the world and how he perceives humanity within it is utterly twisted by having to stare into the abyss. Rorschach by far is the grittiest hero who deals with perhaps the worst scum and most sadistic side of humanity in the story. Dealing with this effects him greatly, which can be seen when he is telling the psychiatrist about the first time he killed someone. Rorschach was investigated a missing child case when he discovered that the girl was butchered and fed to a couple of ravenous dogs. This is when Rorschach admits that he has been to soft and then brutally murders the killer. The effect the abyss has on Rorschach is to make him a monster like those that he most despises and hunts, but one that is acceptible to himself becuase he only hunts those who his moral compass says are guilty or wrong (just like other comic book heroes such as The Punisher). Rorschach is a character who is essentially a perverted version of a Superman archetype character, who will follow his sense of right or wrong with indifference. Rorschach has his own sense of a moral compass that he adheres to absolutely regardless of the outcome. This demented moral code that Rorschach has allows him to feel that he is dispensing justice even though he is performing acts as monsterous as the monsters he hunts. The final culmination of Rorschach’s moral indiffernce can be seen in the end of the book/movie where Rorschach decides he is going to tell the world what Ozymandias has done, even though this would utterly shatter the peace that Ozymandias had just created. Rorschach then does not try to dissuade Dr. Manhattan from destroying him but instead incites Dr. Manhattan to do it. I believe Rorschach does this because his moral rigidity renders him unable to idly sit by and accept what Ozymandias has done. Rorschach realizing this reaches for the only way out of this moral dilemma, which is death at the hands of Dr. Manhattan.

The Comedian realizes how dark humanity can be and instead of fighting this, he willingly joins. This gives the Comedian the distinction of being the only character in The Watchmen who willingly becomes a monster. The Comedian knows earliest what the true nature of humanity is in Alan Moore’s universe and instead of opposing it he accepts this nature. I believe he chose not to fight this side of human nature because he thought it was a fight that could never be won. So, he willing becomes dark and almost evil and is aptly named because he says that the only way to make sense of it all is just to look into the abyss and laugh as can be seen when he says, “it’s all just a joke.” In the end however, The Comedian discovers that Ozymandias has discovered a solution to this which shatters The Comedian’s understanding of the world. This can be seen when The Comedian breaks into Morlok’s house crying and when it is said that “The Comedian was cracking.”

Ozymandias also stared into the abyss and took it a new direction. Instead of being a victim of it like Rorschach or a willing participant like The Comedian, Ozymandias decided to try and abolish it. He attempted to do so by uniting humanity against a common enemy and thus redirecting it’s animosity against itself onto an external source. In order to do this Ozymandias had to murder millions of innocent people, his friends, and even his pet. The toll that the abyss had on Ozymandias was that it made him capable of becoming a villain and following through with such a villainous plot, even though he had noble intentions. Ozymandias saw the world as The Comedian did and realized that drastic measures had to be taken to change it, far more drastic measures than anyone else had ever tried to conceive.

The heroes of this story are constantly battling the worst of humanity and it takes a toll upon them. Rorschach becomes essentially psychotic, The Comedian becomes a socio-path, and Ozymandias finds no other way to save the world other than turning to villainy in an attempt to correct the world. All of our heroes in this story are faced with having to stare into the abyss and they each have to deal with what it does to them. Alan Moore then goes on to add another layer of elegance to his story by using what the abyss has done to his characters. First he takes traditional hero archetypes such as Rorschach who sticks to his morals absolute like other heroes such as Superman but makes Rorschach something of a psychotic. Secondly, he creates a dynamic where the villain of the story, Ozymandias, actually succeeds and makes the world a better place but at a tremedous cost. It is left to the reader to judge if Ozymandias made the right choice or if the means never justify the end and Ozymandias was wrong. Thus turning what is right and wrong upside down and leaving the reader with no clear direction to orient their morality.