What Makes Watchmen So Great | The Art Of Film
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HBO’s new series "Watchmen" is inspired by one of the most prolific comic series of the same name. From Alan Moore’s writing to Dave Gibbons’ art, here is how "Watchmen" elevated the comic medium to another level.
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What Makes Watchmen So Great | The Art Of Film
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The color choice actually reflects how these characters are morally corrupted and how normally those colors would be used for villains in more traditional comics
@Woombi
2 ай бұрын
That might be the intention, but I think more so that watchmen was a complete exploration of the medium of super hero comics and instead of picking color to show a characters morality I think the intention is to show a highlight in the story with the primary colors standing out of place of the normal secondary ones.
I'm actually reading this comic for my college class.
@ajisenramen888
4 жыл бұрын
Original Gamer Cool. Enjoy your first reading. 👍
@colonelstarsandstripes5379
4 жыл бұрын
Cool. What college class?
@paulamederjulia8354
4 жыл бұрын
So cool!
@HALF_DAY
4 жыл бұрын
i need know your college immediately
@jackofalltrades6210
4 жыл бұрын
Lucky you.
Every person have their own "best comic of all time", although I have to agree that Watchmen is one masterpiece of a graphic novel.
Not gonna lie, the misleading title made me believe this was gonna be another review disguised as an essay, but it actually covered a good subject.
You forgot to mention how the 9 panel creates what I call an x color. The middle panel draws your attention while pointing you to the panels diagonally across. It's a brillant part of the color scheme contrasting warm and cool colors.
Zack really adapted the unadaptable. No matter what anyone says but to cover a comic of whole 12 issues and getting almost most of the content in a movie of 2 and a half hours is itself a great accomplishment.
@DARILARYON
2 жыл бұрын
JUST ADAPTING DOESN'T WORK, HE JUST PROVED THE POINT THAT WATCHMEN IS UNFILMABLE
@reprobite
Жыл бұрын
@@DARILARYON explain
@josawesome1
Жыл бұрын
@@reprobite Just recreating the panels on film fundamentally misunderstands what Moore & Gibbons were trying to do. It is meant to be a satire on comics of that time, from the art style to the storytelling devices to the pacing to the characters, etc. It uses the tools of the medium, be ding and breaking the rules, to send its message and tell the story. A recreation in another medium like film lacks the original context and tropes it’s responding to. A way to adapt that idea/theme is to find the film equivalent. Using the film language of modern superhero movies wouldn’t be shot for shot or word for word, sure. But it would read better to a film going audience and more effectively translate the themes. Think about it this way: you can play a violin solo on a tuba, sure. You can play the same notes exactly. But it’s not going to sound or feel the same because it wasn’t transposed to a form that would work for the instrument.
@emperorpalpatine6239
Жыл бұрын
Zack completely misinterpreted the main message of the comic book
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
@@emperorpalpatine6239 perhaps, but after reading the source material and watching the Director's Cut, I realized Zack had indeed made Watchmen better. Btw I think Alan Moore is an accomplished writer, but is a bit full of himself and kinda insufferable and pretentious at times.
Love the comic and love your detailed summary. You did not mention unique way each chapter titled either. So many wonderful things about it
It's funny how Watchmen is considered an American classic when it was written and drawn by Brits.
If y’all think Alan Moore isn’t behind the 9-panel grid and color scheme too, you’re mad.
@donkeyparadise9276
5 ай бұрын
Y
Alan Moore would be really happy to see his comic book covered in "The Art of Film"
@DARILARYON
2 жыл бұрын
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN
@PyroNexus22
2 жыл бұрын
@@DARILARYON Alan Moore hates movie adaptations of his work
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
Impossible. Alan Moore is NEVER happy.
@PyroNexus22
Жыл бұрын
@@dogewood5499 jokes aside, he actually is. He seems like one of the most mentally stable and wholesome famous people.
Great video. Watchmen is fantastic. I think the artist of the comic said the very first idea about Watchmen came from the Bob Dylan's song: Desolation Row.
Ur love for the comic book really shines through.
Watchman is such a great comic book and amazing video man :]
Loved the Zack Snyder film so much that I decided to read the comic
Comic and the movie both were great 🔥🔥
I remember a couple of interviews over a decade ago of Dave Gibbons giving his blessing to and praising Zack Snyder's film. Btw Dave was a creative consultant and designed the film's promotional material and posters. I agree with him 100%.
I got lucky and selected this from a RedBox machine because it was the only thing in it I hadn't seen. Now I own the multiple cuts, the moving comics edition and the full series!
The original 12 issues are groundbreaking and should be taught in all colleges. The movie did its best and still managed to look lush and beautiful. And the show is doing something awesome and innovative with the source material. Great video!
@ericmotta1
2 жыл бұрын
I agree, it's practically classic literature at this point
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
Yeah, but the film's ending, among other changes, made the film's story superior imho
This is well adapted by Zack Snyder because he has a very unique and a graphic approach to his filmmaking. A very engaging film and true to the comics.
@brycebirkinbine4119
3 жыл бұрын
Mostly true lmao
@AaronAbernethy
Жыл бұрын
Not true to the intelligence of the comics.
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
Especially the Director's Cut. Pure cinematic platinum.
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
@@AaronAbernethy the source material was an excellent and cerebral basis which was improved upon and streamlined by Zack Snyder. An adamant cluster of fans have tried to get me to prefer the source material and after reading and digesting its philosophy and message, etc. I still prefer Snyder's Director's Cut. To me, the graphic novel became too preachy and pretentious, even too outrageous and a little mediocre for my sensibilities towards the Superhero medium. But hey, whatever. To each their own.
@Skanda1111
Жыл бұрын
@@dogewood5499 - couldn't agree more.
It's a fun watch by that's part of the issue
With the current Witcher controversy, I wanted to revisit videos talking about Watchmen. People said it was TOO faithful to the comic giving them nothing new ( other that changing the squid, which I think works). The nine panel thing was a byproduct of the artists wife and kid helping him by drawing the grids on pages, so he could just do the art to save time. In one of the documentaries/ commentaries, the artist remarks that he wouldnt have minded doing something different for some of the panels.
Wish y’all didn’t stop your after show Easter egg videos
0:23 - color palette mind delve
thos moody looks man i freaking love, gibbons did his thing of course too.
I agree with everything in this video, except for the part that says, "....it resulted in a movie that looked like Watchmen but didn't really feel like it." I beg to differ. The film certainly felt like Watchmen. Did it capture the full philosophical weight of the Graphic-Novel? Of course not. But did it capture the essence? I certainly think it did. And till date, I find the film by Snyder to be one of the best Book-Screen adaptations ever done.
@kayleighnotsomanny4008
4 жыл бұрын
I love the film so much, It changed me after whatching it
@fandydiadline
4 жыл бұрын
Yeah it is hard to adapt into big screen. But, Snyder is doing pretty good job.
@cha5
4 жыл бұрын
For me it chopped out whole chunks of Moore & Gibbons’s story with a cleaver, As far as a comic book film that actually sticks to it’s source material as a book-screen adaptation and that actually has creator input I’ll take Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis film over Zack Snyder’s attempted Watchmen film anytime.
@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive
4 жыл бұрын
I have to disagree. At first I thought I had to examine whether it was due to my own purist bias because I had read the book first and it was a fundamental aspect of my adolescence and helped form my personal philosophy. But when I walked out of the theater with friends who had never read the comic and listened to their reactions and questions they asked, it became clear the movie failed to convey basic ideas, facts, and principles. The film’s violence was so over the top and stylized that my friends thought that every Watchmen had super powers. They came out of the movie asking questions like _"Aside from super intelligence does Ozymandias have super speed like the Flash? I mean that scene where there was the attempted assasination he just strolled through those executives before the gunman could even pull the trigger and calmly knocked him out. He had to have super speed right?_ (One also tapped me on the arm and asked _"He's the bad guy right?"_ The MOMENT Adrian appeared and spoke with that psuedo Transatlantic-British-German accent and mustache twirling demeanor instead of the sad guilt ridden and troubled man bearing the weight of the world from the comics.) _Did every Watchmen have super strength? Rorschach is coming back right? He must has Wolverine healing abilities since he got up from those vicious beatings? Does his magic mask grant him those abilities? What's the origin behind his magic mask?"_ Alan Moore specifically instructed Dave Gibbons to do the opposite of what _How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way_ suggested artists do (Still one of the most popular textbooks art teachers use and my first instructional art book.) That book is the industry standard and it recommended that action be exaggerated and every dialogue and monologue look like a Shakespearean scene. Moore and Gibbons decided that they wanted a gritty realistic story and wanted the violence to look brutal but boring instead of the choreographed hyper action from other works. They wanted their superheroes to look plain and ugly. For the costumes to look a bit goofy and not like they were designed by professionals. Watchmen was a story about humans but Snyder's version was a story about superhumans. (This also ties into a Randian theme prevalent in all of Snyder's pictures where only some people in the world matter and all others are irrelevant.)
@MildMisanthropeMaybeMassive
4 жыл бұрын
cha5 I liked your analogy. Snyder’s use of the meat cleaver on Gerald Grice chopped out the point that Rorschach was trying to make. He wanted the child butcher to suffer and also to give him a choice (“Don’t say they didn’t have a choice.”)
I can't believe that I had another Disney commercial on a Warner Bros related series.
But like there is beauty in the comic, there is beauty in the movie.
Will always be my favorite comic
i feel like to succeed it would need to be an animated show like invisible or be live action but in the hands of the people behind the boys
Video is good but misses one crucial aspect Moore took from the work of William S Burroughs and applied repeatedly throughout.
What about Miraculous? Are you gonna make video about Miraculous? They are kinda Nightwing & Spider-Gwen version of Paris
Hello there
People often get confused about adopting material for cinema. Just because you recreate scene from source doesn’t add up to much. I recently was trying to rewatch Snyder’s film and couldn’t get past 30 minute mark. He just didn’t understand it beyond ‘look how cool this is’.
I think Zack Znyder adapted it fairly good, but the only reason for this is recreation panel by panel. Yet there are bits like the first fighting scene going longer that it should be, heroes basically with superpowers, exciting violence and apathetic Ozymandias that show that he doesn't really get what the Watchmen about. Still I wouldn't call it a bad adaptation
WOW
Rorschach fans dotn understand the comic
@samsaraslight8377
4 жыл бұрын
Is this bait or do you actually have something to say? Lol
@giuseppepapaleo3030
3 жыл бұрын
No.
@lucifermorningstar1478
2 жыл бұрын
Agreed
Why'd they stop making the popculture decodes episode reviews?
We need another watchmen!
@forgetfulstranger
4 жыл бұрын
Isn't there a new HBO Watchmen series?
@imperfect_dan7519
3 жыл бұрын
@@forgetfulstranger yes
@giuseppepapaleo3030
3 жыл бұрын
Well, we have a lot of incredible graphic novels. Watchmen's the best one, but still...
Why do all these you tube analysis sound the same?
Dramatics aside, it's really what's on the page (duh). Also I watch the watchmen.
I always struggled with the Watchmen being such a masterpiece. Somehow I just didn't get it (I guess). This video sure helped understanding better though, so thank you. However, while growing up in the Netherlands, (~ 80-90s), I remember comics and graphics novels that I consider far better than Watchmen. In fact, if Watchmen is indeed this groundbreaking, then I believe mostly for US market/audience. Maybe I'm just spoiled. Belgium, France, Holland (and I believe Spain also) have a very rich history of comics and graphic novels of their own. Watchmen always failed to really impress me. If it's really that great, maybe because of mediocre quality of all other works across the pond? I can't say that I'm any more convinced after seeing this video. Sure, sounds like a great artwork... of which I believe there are many more. However, maybe not so much in the US. I would not know (nor really care). Either way, this whole thing sounds rather US-centric to me.
@anibalberrey338
4 жыл бұрын
Well, watchmen was made to say something about the superhero genre, and some people even readers of decades of the genre doesn't get it. For that market, Watchmen was remarkable in that way. France or Belgium always had very good comics, they're not so superhero centered. It was a game changing, at least in that genre.
@elmo2you
4 жыл бұрын
@@anibalberrey338 Thank you for your insightful reply. I never thought about it that way. But now that you've mentioned it, it might very well be that I didn't get Watchmen mostly because I never got the whole super hero genre either. Probably because I never was much (culturally) exposed to it. In fact, while I never lacked an appetite for fantasy and imagination, I never quite understood the whole point of the super hero genre/cult. I guess the US culture just had more of need for a hero or champion, just as they appear to have a need that fairytale which they like to call the "American Dream".
@anibalberrey338
4 жыл бұрын
It is something very of the US culture as you said. I'm from Argentina, and we don't have a lot of that, we are more like europe, a graphic novel market (I mean, a lot of books with a stnad alone stories). You know Marc-Antoine Mathieu? he has a book called Le Decalage which is very mind blowing. Is a french author, and I don't know where you are, to buy or look out for comics.
@elmo2you
4 жыл бұрын
@@anibalberrey338 I didn't know Marc-Antoine Mathieu (by name), nor did I read Le Decalage. But I believe I may have read one of the first parts from that series (Julius Corentin Acquefacques), because it looks very familiar. Considering how the series is (apparently) inspired/themed by the work of Kafka, it being mind blowing comes hardly as a surprise. Might be a bit harder to find it in English or Dutch (French and Spanish I understand only very little), but the artwork sure looks nice/intriguing. So, I'll put some effort in finding it. Thank you for the suggestion.
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
Watchmen wasn't an easy read for me, I even struggled to finish reading it; I wouldn't have if a friend had not insisted me to do so. While I don't hold it in such high regard (neither do I think is bad -just not as great), I think Watchmen was definitely groundbreaking work for both the time it was published and the mostly superhero-centric US comics industry.
The fact that nobody can top this book after all this time is just sad. This should be the normal, getting literature like this book.
@dogewood5499
Жыл бұрын
Uh... You've obviously never read AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo. THE GREATEST graphic novel ever drawn and written.
What you don't understand about cartooning could fill a library.
Watchmen movie is criminally underrated and hated.
@cha5
4 жыл бұрын
I’ll take the Moore & Gibbons Watchmen comic over it anytime.
@CrissAssasin7
4 жыл бұрын
Not really, no.
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
As mentioned in the video, Zack Snyder somewhat pulled it off in the aesthetics, but when it comes to the themes, not that much. In the source material, these characters are pretty much far from cool (something that I have to admit didn't make it a particularly easy read), whilst in the movie adaptation, the cool factor has been sprinkled over the characters.
@miteshtari786
4 жыл бұрын
the new watchmen series is way more overhated just for portraying white supremacist as villains
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
@@miteshtari786 Zack Snyder and Damon Lindelof are not that much different from each other. While Zack Snyder thinks himself a "great filmmaker" (when he's clearly not), Damon Lindelof thinks himself a "master storyteller" (when he's definitely not). The movie at least did improve something by ditching the giant squid.
Where's Watchmen ep 5 review??
I can never finish the movie it's weird coz I like it but it drags soo much I get annoyed.
Batman the dark knight returns our watchman ?
Ever again! cause u don't read manga
Bruh in the book it says John Higgins and thats the name for the creator my band book
Bruh
thats why kishibe rohan, did changed colour when he refuse.
There us no way to properly talk about comics is there. I mean we dont study it enough we never did i wonder.
You can’t just make the claim that the film adaptation doesn’t feel like Watchmen and then move on without expanding on your reasons as to why. And if the only reason is that Watchmen was “written to be a comic book and nothing else,” as you say directly after, that is an extremely weak argument. The name of the video is “The Art of Film” and the only film reference mentioned in the actual video is one sentence that makes a claim without providing any evidence for it. Very poor.
@imperfect_dan7519
3 жыл бұрын
He spent most of the video analyzing the detail and layers of the comic, that should be self-explanatory why that wont be the same as the film (besides Snyder not understanding the spirit of the source material)
I just don't think the story is very good (especially the final act) ... :( I might have to read it again
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
Not a fan of the ending either. Probably the only thing (thematically) that the movie adaptation did better.
@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786
4 жыл бұрын
@@jordel2010 Nah, the movie's ending worked for the movie, but it was in no way superior to the comic's. There is just no way Dr. Manhattan decimating major cities through the world will make the Cold War cease. There's no feasible incentive for America and the Soviets to unite against a completely invincible being. The comic's ending was more nihilistic and ambiguous, too. Was Ozymandias' plan worth the blood on his hands or was it all for nothing? Was Rorschach truly fighting for truth or only doing so to satisfy his sick self-righteousness? The movie completely does away with the ambiguity; Ozymandias is bad and Rorschach's the hero. It's a neat adaptation but in no way superior to the original.
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
@@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786 I'm not a fan of the giant squid.
@UltimateKyuubiFox
4 жыл бұрын
jordel2010 The giant squid is essentially Alan Moore’s way of showing the ridiculousness of comic book superheroes. How they’re unfit for reality and not suited to its problems. The solution proposed by a fictionalistic symbolic character is something out of a pulpy sci-fi novel. But its effect, placed into the real world, is a horrific atrocity. Watchmen doesn’t do anything on accident. The parts that feel ridiculous or kitschy, like the costumes the heroes wear, are like that on purpose. It all works towards the theme: “The real world and the concept of The Superhero are not compatible. In fact, they are a danger to one another.”
@jordel2010
4 жыл бұрын
@@UltimateKyuubiFox That's interrsting. Thanks for pointing me into that direction; the way you put it, it makes a bit more sense.
👎 for calling the film adaptation bad. In my opinion, the film was as good as it could get and it does justice to the essence of Watchmen.
@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786
4 жыл бұрын
He doesn't say that it's _bad,_ just that it didn't get the essence of the comic right, which is a valid enough opinion.
Can't wait for the day when the Snyder film gets its due. Great film, although flawed, a really great film.
Ah ha ha BOIII IM FIRST LOL
Narrator does a poor man’s impression of Alt Shift X .. good content , terrible delivery
The movie was rubbish..the series was amazing.
@nathandsouza7104
2 жыл бұрын
It’s the opposite
HBO's Watchmen is Nothing special, not interested.. The graphic novel comic was cooL tho - A Long Time Watchmen Fan before all this fake ass news..
I'm glad you said comic, if it was the show, I would instantly dislike
@spiderjerusalem4009
3 жыл бұрын
and 'd you still have disliked it if it were the movie which is the worst compared to any watchmen's adaptations & takes?
This is not the best comic is the ONLY comic
@CrissAssasin7
4 жыл бұрын
Not even close
@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786
4 жыл бұрын
@@CrissAssasin7 excellent choice in profile picture, good sir.
*WATCHMEN (2009) WAS THE GREATEST MOVIE I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE .*
I disagree. The film adaptation was great and it does feel like the book.
It’s not all that. It’s not groundbreaking. It’s 2 lonely writers versions of Captain Atom, The Question, Batman, & Wonderwoman. It’s actually basic af. Nothing new it’s actually copying horror & pulp comics from before the comics code. People need to read more. & Btw Star Wars is The Wizard Of Oz. Everything’s Bullshit.
@cha5
4 жыл бұрын
Mister Sauvage The Tales from The Black Freighter bits are a homage to the EC Comics line, although Watchmen’s deconstruction of the superhero genre is unlike anything else apart from Harvey Kurtzman’s superhero satires in MAD. Also Star Wars is Akira Kurosawa’s Hidden Fortress.
@mistersauvage3553
4 жыл бұрын
cha5 Read more comics from the golden age. Watchmen was nothing new event at its time. Uncensored silver age & golden age pulp noir comics had these tropes. It’s unimpressive. It’s written by two limited creators. It’s basic. Read more. It’s stolen from every film noir film & tv show from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s. It’s not the first to deconstruct the superhero. It’s all a joke. Fr fr. You’ve all been hoodwinked. Everything is stolen. Everything has been taken from earlier work. & the art is 80’s basic. Not special at all. Bad dialogue. & blue dick. Watchmen is more homoerotic than a gay snuff film.
@cha5
4 жыл бұрын
Mister Sauvage I’ve read plenty of Golden Age comics, Nobody has said Watchmen was the first comic to deconstruct the superhero least of all Moore, see C.C. Beck’s Captain Marvel Stories or Jack Cole’s Plastic Man or Simon & Kirby’s Fighting American among others, However no comic except for Harvey Kurtzman’s Superduperman story from MAD #4 took a scalpel to the concept of the superhero quite like Watchmen did, one main thing being that Kurtzman satirized the tropes of the superhero, Watchmen on the other hand was a drama, but they both dissected the concept of the superhero in the same way. Moore himself has stated that if not for Kurtzman’s MAD and Will Eisner’s The Spirit there would never have been a Watchmen comic and I certainly consider Watchmen as groundbreaking as both of those works. Also Dave Gibbons’s art and John Higgins’s color scheme is far from “80’s basic” especially with the way Watchmen was taken from Moore’s layouts and locked into a nine panel grid, ‘Fearful Symmetry’ is like nothing else that was being done in mainstream superhero comics at that time.
@UltimateKyuubiFox
4 жыл бұрын
Mister Sauvage Gotta Love sneaking in the latent homophobia to really grease up those engines.
Any Tintin book is better. Perfect blend of plot, character, humor, suspense, visual pun and art. And no pretentious Alan Moore greasy Gnosticism ego-stroking its way into every panel.
@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786
4 жыл бұрын
Trying to compare a lighthearted adventure series to a gritty deconstruction of the superhero genre is like comparing an apple to a shoe. You technically could, but... Why?
@CharlesDickens111
4 жыл бұрын
@@fulldisclosureiamamonster2786 There's little lightheartedness in Tintin. Wolff commits suicide to ensure the rocket passengers have enough oxygen to make it back to earth, Captain threatens to kill himself on the cliff edge in Tibet to save his friend, South American politics and crooked American capitalists are satirized (Picaros, Broken Ear), modern slavery addressed (Red Sharks). And no one captures dreams/nightmares in art better than Herge other than perhaps Salvador Dali.
HBO has ruined the Watchman story with its' take on the story. HBO shows are at best disappointing and at worst boring.
@jessenagapen8292
4 жыл бұрын
It didn't change the original at all you can still read it