Who Watches the Watcher: Media and Violence in THE WATCHMEN and Beyond

It is often seen as a negative for films to use TV programs to fill in exposition. It's thought of as lazy and not very creative. But WATCHMEN (and DC movies in general) utilizes this trope effectively. It is a device often used in the comic books these pictures are based on, and a visual one that carries over well between mediums.

Part of the reason it works so well is that - whether intended or not when employed - there is a subtextual commentary regarding mass media's role in communication and how we learn and share information. In a way this is a commentary on the human condition and a consistent thread throughout DC movies (one of the few consistencies they share).

Both THE BATMAN and WATCHMEN open with a scene wherein a character watches a news program for an extended length. It is fantastic world-building that draws you in and establishes a status quo, but is made even more effective when the scene performs several functions at once. For in both sequences the person watching television is the one whose death also incites the events about to commence.

Perhaps there is a subtle suggestion here that being passive and simply watching TV is dangerous to one' s health...?

In the case of WATCHMEN, it is an almost panel-for-panel recreation of the graphic novel. Using Dave Gibbons' art as a storyboard is kind of brilliant. The story is already there but there is still room for Zack Snyder to expand a bit and infuse his own visual flair, an opportunity never missed by the director.

In regards to violence, I feel that the nature of the media commentary runs parallel to the commentary on violence. The film opens with a brutal, desperate fist-fight, yet climaxes with a self-sacrifice (of sorts) instead of a bombastic finale. Media plays a significant role in all of this, from a TV program playing in the background during the prologue's fisticuffs, to a comic book being read throughout the movie's run by a kid hanging out at a newsstand the main characters frequent, to the bank of televisions Ozymandias has in his Antarctic hideaway.

When watching or reading media, we are voyeurs, in a sense. We are glancing into the lives of others and seeing how their struggles and conflicts affect one another. In the world of WATCHMEN, violence is almost always seen as an acceptable response, whether it is The Comedian blasting American protestors with gas grenades or Dr. Manhattan exploding perpetrators from within during a routine bust.

And why should they worry about repercussions when war is so frequently and easily used by the power structure in this alternate reality where Nixon was elected for four terms instead of caught at Watergate?

I have said before that I feel Snyder's use of violence is not to be cool and dynamic (although it is often seen as such). Instead there is a meta level at play in how Snyder presents violent images, whether it's the uber-pumped action of a young girl's fantasy life in SUCKER PUNCH or the world-shaking powers on display in MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V SUPERMAN.

The action and violence in these films is almost always accompanied by an unsettling, gut-churning feeling, as well it should be.

Sure, it's cool as fuck to see Night Owl hit a man's arm so hard that splinters of bone poke through the skin, bringing with it a spray of blood. Or for a thug to cut through his compatriot's arms with an electric handsaw in order to get to Rorschach during a prison riot.

But what does it really mean when we cheer these things on? Have we really progressed that far since early man first struck an enemy down using a bone as an improvised weapon? Or do we use violent images in movies and video games to sublimate those primitave urges and thus keep up a veneer that society deems we must?

In interviews Zack Snyder often appears to be exuberant about the action and violence of his films, insisting that it's part of what the audience comes to see. But when you look at these sequences in any of his movies, there is quite often a balance of long, quiet stretches preceding the moment of action. Characters interact, discuss, learn and share things about and with each other.

As we should do with each other. Violence erupts in Snyder movies when there is a lack of communication and understanding, or as a ruse to obscure the truth. Media is supposedly a tool that can be used to bring the world together and help us understand and communicate with each other. Quite frequently, mass media only makes the message muddier, obscures the truth behind what they think the audience wants to hear, or what the purveyors of said media think is good for the masses.

The main characters of WATCHMEN use media in a variety of ways to promote their "version" of the truth or to convince people what is right.

And, in the end, the masses become reliant on the media to show them what to think, how to feel, and when to become violent and outraged.

WATCHMEN was written in 1985, and the film made in 2009 years before Trump, "fake news," and Covid. In 1985 it predicted a 9/11-type situation and in 2009 warned about the surveillance state we were becoming. And just like the question of, "Who watches The Watchmen" is one that looms over both the comic book and celluloid-bound stories, "Who controls the media?" is one we should be asking every day.