In preparing to see Watchmen, I read the graphic novel. I had a hard time relating to the characters, though. Obviously, it’s difficult to relate to those in an alternate history where we won in Vietnam due to superheroes, but I was hoping that I’d find something to relate to in the “Silk Spectre.” Usually I enjoy reading about superwomen, as they can kick ass, stay sexy, and break gender stereotypes, but these women are the exact opposite of the feminist superhero tradition.
The mother-daughter characters in Watchmen, who both acquired the crime-fighting moniker “Silk Spectre,” are completely defined by their sexual relationships with men. “The Comedian,” the man killed at the film’s opening, had attempted to rape the mother, Sally, but apparently Sally enjoyed it because he ends up being her daughter’s father. As a woman, reading about those events was completely disgusting to me—they feed into the rapist’s fantasy that his victim is actually aroused by him. At the end of this rape scene in the film, the camera focuses on Sally’s face and she seems to be smiling. What does that say about women?
Sally’s daughter, Laurie, is no better. She has no career or friends because she is the girlfriend of Jon, superhero “Dr. Manhattan,” that blue guy who has the powers of a god. Jon works for the government and lives on a military base, and Laurie lives with him. She breaks up with him after she realizes that he has doubled himself in order to have sex with her and work simultaneously.
After breaking it off with Jon, Laurie is forced to leave the base, and since she has no job and no friends, she decides to call on a fellow ex-superhero “Nite Owl” Dan Drieburg. Of course, these two end up attempting to have sex, but apparently Dan has some erectile dysfunction due to the apocalyptic times the world is facing. The two decide to go out and try to fight crime again, and after they save some people from a fire, they are able to have sex. Not only is this scene pretty graphic and overly long in the film, but it is also cheapened by the use of the song “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. Zack Snyder apparently loves his slo-mo humping, as he used that technique in 300’s sex scene as well. He also changed or cut many of Laurie’s lines to make her a less substantial character. The most memorable of these cuts was in a scene where she is trying to convince Jon to leave Mars to come back and save Earth, but he changes her intelligent arguments into “Do it for me, Jon.” Although she wasn’t a great character to begin with, she at least seemed intelligent in the graphic novel.
One of the most talked about changes to the film from the graphic novel is the cut of a squid-like creature that attacks NYC. This creature looks more like a giant, tentacled vagina. It is arguably the most powerful vagina in the graphic novel. Feminist critiques of the graphic novel have called the creature misogynistic as it a vagina causing destruction, but others have decided it’s the only symbol of female power in the entire text, so I believe it was a conscious decision by Zack Snyder in order to maintain the phallic dominance of the film.
With his presentation of this film, he is clearly assuming that his audience worships the penis. In the graphic novel, you can see that “Dr. Manhattan” is naked, but you don’t see his penis most of the time because he’ll often strategically stand behind a railing or other objects that hide it from view; however, the film doesn’t allow us this courtesy. Instead, in the scene where Jon first materializes from after his nuclear accident, the camera pans out from just a shot of his face to one of his entire naked blue body. While this may seem acceptable because it is his first appearance since his transformation, I think the choice to have the next shot be his girlfriend saying “Jon?” right after we see his dong, was not a very good one. It implies to the viewer that she only recognizes him because of what his penis looks like—yet another great portrayal of women. And that is not the last time you see his penis; you can even count on seeing it in every scene that he is in.
Despite its many problems, Watchmen did have a few rewarding qualities. The scenes with Rorschach were amazing due to his hyperviolence, and Snyder did a great job with these bloody scenes. Also, the visuals on Mars and those of the world ending were amazing. But had I known about all of Watchmen’s misogynistic problems, I would not have wasted my time and $10 sitting through that film just to see Rorschach throw dead dogs through windows at a child-murderer.
