Dear Doctor Obstinate,



I cannot express enough just how much i enjoyed Watchmen, but i have to admit i could not agree more with the second to last comment against it. The films only, and most significant, downfall through my eyes was the feeble use of the epic sounds of Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass and the god-awful including of My Chemical Romance with the films soundtrack. Ironically this song is pulverized into my ears at the very end of the film, so through what seems to be a brilliant experience (for me anyway) just had to have the most abysmal ending. I confess i sprinted from the screening as that song blared out of the sound-system at me.

But still, the film was excellent and no matter how absolutely right you may be about the almost unnecessary use of gore; it simply came across to me as just another little addition to how visually pleasing the film was-as i am such a loyal splatter fan.



I have to say too, there was a cheese-factor behind your use of Philip Glass' pieces. It is one thing having a head slightly too big for its epidermis; but don't go chasing the Doctor Manhattan level of egoism. I await you in your blue warpaint for the next video blog entry though.

dr. kermode, you complain about people having difficult to pronounce names, where mine is really easy and you NEVER respond to my comments. if this carries on i'm gonna start calling you 'mr. kermode' in every post i made.

As much as anyone would've liked Watchmen, you would've HAD to have left the cinema in a hurry to avoid My Chemical Romance.

Rest of the film was ... rather good.

I am honoured by the Good Doctor to of found my comment pithy, I’m also pleased to see I’m not the only one with a low opinion of the said cover version

My Chemical Romance - obviously rubbish. There is a wider point about Watchmen's use of music: I was infuriated by the laziness of some of the sub-Tarantino selections - Unforgettable, The Sound of Silence, Hallelujah, All Along the Watchtower - had Snyder been listening to Classic Gold FM a lot during production? In contrast, I was mightily impressed with Paolo Sorrentino's use of music in Il Divo - at least he has been paying attention to what the likes of Scorsese, Altman, Wenders and (dare I say it!) Cameron Crowe have shown can be done with the use of popular music in film.

i've always been a big fan of how david lynch uses pop music in his films. linking 'in dreams' by roy orbison to frank booth in blue velvet is just a stroke of genius.

I enjoyed the film very much. Having not read the book, you said I would find it boring and long. However what the film did for me was to make me want to read the book. I'm sure your right that the film didnt havre the depth of the book, but this is the reason I now want to seek out the comic. I feel the film gave me enough and I'm sure that the book will give me much more.

Absolutely! (or should that be apsolutely?) Greil Marcus writes on the subject of Lynch's music very well in his book The Shape of Things to Come, with particular reference to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. "Music can make a utopia that shames life with its beauty" wonderfully sums up the frequent juxtaposition of the divine and the grotesque that clearly permeates his oeuvre.

I do have a small issue with "Watchmen", and it is with the soundtrack, it's lot of 60s music which is fine, all the Dylan stuff is in the comic so that's ok but why isn't their more 80s music, 99 Luftballons is perfect for the film but the use of it in the film was pointless (why not the part with all the destruction of New York?). Have Joy Division, have some Clash etc.

well yeah, i mean a soundtrack that didn't read like the kind of compilation you'd buy your dad when your out of ideas for father's day would have been nice.



i've gotta say that i hate my chemical romance, and i love desolation row, and i really really wish it wasn't the case, but i kinda like their butchering of the track. i think it's just one of those things where the audacity of such a thing is just so intense that i find it kinda funny, and therefore, fun.

oh, and it bugs me that now the koyaanisqatsi music is gonna be associated with watchmen, it's like all that ennio morricone music now being associated with kill bill 2.

eep - three posts in a row, i need a life or something. anyhoo, re: lynch, i just watched fire walk with me for the first time ever and it's criminal that this was panned by critics. not sure i like it as much as blue velvet, but wow, lynch never fails to amaze me.

I know the meaning behind 99 Luftballons but I still don’t think it’d be quite right to have a scene of the mass destruction of New York set to perky pop music

Also is there anyway to stop this thing from putting in question marks instead of apostrophes?

even considering the meaning behind the song, the choice of 99 luftballoons was completely jarring, it was just terrible



as for leonard cohen's hallelujah, mother of jesus, that was one of the worst moments in cinema history!

He kept looking at his watchmen? What the hell is a 'watchmen'?

I guess Watchmen is old news now, but I couldn't help but reflect on it and fill in a few gaps in the good Dr's analysis in reference to it's effectiveness as an adaptation. I read watchmen for a second time shortly before going to see it, and would like to point out the following general points of separation between one of Time magazine's 100 best novels of all time (perhaps they exaggerated a little) and the spoilt exploitative pre-sold product bastard child which it spawned.

Firstly I will admit straight out that visually the film is stunningly accurate, and the attention to detail is nothing to be sniffed at. However, to have an adaptation LOOK so faithful, only to tinker about with the narrative in such a frustrating manner, should never be described as "making it it's own animal". Rather than produce a list of said changed plot points to the boredom of everyone involved (myself included), I will simply say the following:

Firstly, not only is the ending altered significantly, rendering the original story's central themes redundant, but the denoument running up to said ending misses the point entirely, with similar effect.

Secondly (and I should think finally), either Zak Snyder or the films producers literally pepper in points of sensational interest, whether it be an overemphasis of characters' love lives here or some graphic leg-breaking there ('there' I might add is exactly where it doesn't need to be).

Long story short, all these changes merely reflect a lack of faith in the source material and/or the audiences' ability to understand it. Most non fans I talk to who managed to watch The Watchmen describe it most often as 'confusing', so no joy there.

Ultimately, and forgive me if this sounds arrogant, but it's a little distressing to think that one has a deeper understanding of a film's source material than the film's director.