The Watchmen as a Neo-Noir

Shannon Swingley

Noir, Film and Novel

Professor Sinowitz

December 15, 2017. 1300

The Watchmen as a Neo-Noir

Watchmen is a superhero film adapted by Zack Snyder based on the DC comics written in the 1980’s. The Watchmen, made up of the Comedian, Ozymandius, Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl II, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre II, are a band of masked hero’s modeled after the minutemen of their parent’s generation. All of the minutemen are lost to time except for the Comedian, and the Watchmen are left to look after the wellbeing of the world, despite their success in helping the west win the Vietnam war and keep Nixon in the Whitehouse, the multiterm president outlaws masked heroes, disbanding the team. The Comedian and Dr. Manhattan are coerced to work with the government. The doctor keeping an eye on nuclear dangers in the world, and despite his efforts soviet posturing for nuclear attack during the cold war is coming to a head. Ozymandius, now Adrian Veidt capitalizes on his identity as a wealthy businessman and his claim to better the world becomes suspect when the vigilante Rorschach looks into the murder of the Comedian. Many of the former team members dismiss these concerns, as the comedian was a greatly abhorred individual. Rorschach believes the suspect murder of the former watchmen has to do with the impending nuclear strike and has to convince the now retired heroes that there is imminent danger for themselves and all lives on the planet. The story is told through Rorschachs journal and culminates with a confrontation where Veidt admits to murdering the comedian and manipulating Manhattan into leaving earth, his plan being to unify the United States and the Soviet Union by killing millions to save billions while framing Dr. Manhattan. In the end, Veidts plan comes to fruition, and the majority of the watchmen along with millions in New York and soviet Russia are dead. Peace permeates the world, but the film ends with an editor finding the now deceased Rorschach’s journal, promising worldwide revelation and chaos.

I think this story is a fantastic example of a neo-noir for many reasons. The first similarity clearly being the complex mode of story telling that relies on a journal’s account of events and narration. Neo-noir mimics that classic era in its complex plot lines and unconventional methods for conveying that message. For example, Gone Girl was also partially told through journal entries, and Memento was told in broken pieces that played with the viewer’s perception of time.

A complex story line is not the only similarity between other neo-noirs and The Watchmen. The screen adaptation has a contradictory visual aesthetic that evokes a sense of nostalgia and reminiscence of the 1940’s while also being very modern with present day new york and Nite Owls strange technology. The camera tricks, costume design, black and white, and overall 40’s aesthetic became a staple in classic noir that almost all neo-noirs emulate in some way. Throughout the film the camera has several classic long shots and especially during some of Rorschach’s confrontations we see some camera movements that became commonplace in directing the audience’s attention and sense of power. For example, after he maims a man in prison with hot oil and he is being drug away by guards the camera is placed at his waistline and angled up to give a foreboding sense of strength. When it comes to costume design, Rorschach is also a poster child of the neo-noir design with his long trench coats, fedoras, and roughed up look. I also think that the costume design for the heroes, particularly Nite Owl, match some of the corny, artistic tendencies that were staples in 1940’s superhero design (think very early batman costumes). As for the film being in black and white, obviously that is not the case, however, as the trend seems to be, many scenes with Rorschach were almost sepia toned or so dark that they felt as if they were in black or white, mimicking some of the sense of foreboding that we see in film noir and postmodern neo-noir.

Even in the assessment of the film’s aesthetic neo-noir qualities we can see that Rorschach is a stand out part of the film as a neo-noir. He is as hardboiled as they come. He works alone for most of the film, society and even his peers see him as a criminal, and he takes the law into his own hands with violence being a practical application of his existentialist mantra in life. He’s cynical, obsessive, and above all self-assured that his actions are moral and necessary.

The Story of Rorschach’s creation gives the best look into his hard-boiled personality. Walter Kovaks (Rorschach unmasked) had taken a case concerning a kidnapped 6-year-old girl. He visited seedy bars and put 14 people in the hospital before the 15^th victim of interrogation gave up the address to the girl’s location. Upon arrival he found two attack dogs fighting over some bone, and some burnt clothing in the fireplace. The kitchen was filled with meat and cleavers and realized the bone the dogs were fighting over was a human femur. He killed the dogs and claimed that when he opened his eyes, Walter Kovaks was dead and only Rorschach remained. He went on to torment and murder the killer. Walter started off as a troubled adolescent, and found that even when he took justice into his own hands it was still clumsy and corrupted by the indifference of god and man. In an interview after his arrest much later in the film he says,

“Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. I was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world.”

The very fact that Rorschach acts as a vigilante after Nixon outlawed masked heroes shows that he believes justice can only be served outside of the law, but conversation with the lawyers and doctors goes to show that he also embodies the deeply existential mentality that is prominent in neo-noir.

                  Existentialism is founded on the idea that existentialists themselves are set apart from society in large part of their own volition. Though the masked heroes are now outlawed they also chose to become Watchmen, putting themselves outside society in the first place. Rorschach goes further than the majority of the cast as he continues to maintain his masked identity after the legal complications Nixon imposes. Rorschach specifically is incredibly authentic in his embrace of chaos in the world. He maintains that everyone has a choice, and the majority of people have fetid souls that allow them to make the choices that devalue human life and steal freedom from others. When it comes to the big confrontation with Veidt, a very existential ideal is addressed. Veidt claims he will sacrifice millions to save billions, while Rorschach insists that this choice is the wrong way, “Never compromise, not even in the face of Armageddon.” After the incident with the kidnap victim Rorschach is so disillusioned with humanities ability to ignore justice by his definition of the word he becomes fascinated by choice. Criminals choose to do wrong, and he will choose to eliminate them, as he was reborn into a morally blank world where anyone can play with the fabric of existence as long as they are willing to pay the price for it.

                  As a neo-noir The Watchmen is arguably unparalleled in its existential references to justice and morality. The most similar film in that light is Memento. In the end of the film it is revealed that Leonard lies to himself to be happy over and over again because he has become so consumed with the idea of getting justice for his wife that any John G. will do. This is reminiscent of Rorschach’s own obsession with finding justice, only as it turns out Leonard is killing innocent men named John G. and Rorschach is killing child murderers and gangbangers in prison. Both films call to light to morality of such actions and an individual’s ability to kill for their own gratification and sense of justice.

                  I think The Watchmen would be a very valuable addition to this seminars exploration of neo-noir. It checks the boxes for the great majority of criteria that our class has constructed to be noir, or at least neo-noir. The films emphasis on existential questions in morality and justice follow the themes that we have been looking for in Noirs since before the course even officially began. Along with that we have the classic sense of impending doom, the hardboiled vigilante and detective character, and a plethora of other things that simply check the boxes. However, there are plenty of films that can do that, I believe that The Watchmen would be a valuable addition to the second half of the seminar because it brings our discussion of existentialism full circle while exploring the common neo-noir themes in new ways, we saw the classic noir story with the perfect crime or the detective on the outside of the law over and over, but this film takes those ideas and puts them in a familiar context to most students. Everyone has seen a superhero film, but a superhero neo-noir seems natural in the progression of noir as a genre because it follows the trends and pop culture that is evolving within cinematography and media right now rather than being a pastiche imitation of what has already been done and what has been seen in our overview of the genre this semester.