Looking Through a Gilded Glass at Alan Moore

I was happily munching away at dinner my roommate made for me when we discovered there was nothing on television, seeing as I really don’t watch TV anymore outside of the primetime lineups that haven’t started again, and she couldn’t find anything in the mess of reality shows that were on. I suggested a little movie I thought she’d like, given she has a wide array of films that she enjoys, among them the X-men titles and Van Helsing.

She put in my copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, yet another one of those movies that my mother suggested, she knowing my tastes before I even did, and I outright refused to watch it when I was younger. I constantly mocked it, frequently calling it “The League of Men in Colored Undies” because I thought it was about superheroes.

I knew it was a comic book movie, but I didn’t realize until this time around that it was based off the works of—guess who—Alan Moore. This is the third film inspired by his works that I just really, really love. The other two include V for Vendetta and of course as I’ve stated before, Watchmen. I will say that Extraordinary Gents is probably the weakest and cheesiest of the three, but it’s still got a place in my heart.

Now I will tell you, of these three movies, I only own two of the books and I’ve only read one. (This has something to do with me scoffing at the previews for Watchmen where it was said that the graphic novel was one of the best and most critically hailed of all time, and I hadn’t heard a lick about it before the movie trailer. The trailer was perfectly true.) So really, since I’ve not read but Watchmen of Moore’s actual works, perhaps I have no right to make this post about him. According to Wiki (because the internet is always true), there’s been a lot of hell in Moore’s life over his comics being made into movies. He claims he was doing all he could to make his comics a unique medium, to portray so much information in the panels that it couldn’t be replicated in any other media. I agree with him to an extent. I certainly get what he’s saying by trying to cram the huge stories into 2-1/2 hour film segments. Watchmen was pushing it. But between directors changing the story, falsifying statements of Moore’s endorsements and what have you, he wants nothing to do with any movie adaptations.

So, not to disrespect the author, I won’t insinuate that he approves the movies made after his work, nor will I say that the films come from solely his ideas, though I do believe the core of each of the movies did come from Moore. Of course, you say, because they share titles and major characters and entire story lines from their comic counterparts. There’s a difference. Maybe they’re not major differences, but there are going to be differences when someone outside of the author’s personal literary sphere comes in to make their own rendition of the work. They can’t possibly know what all is going on in the author’s head, especially not in the case of Alan Moore who has really stood at arms length (if not more) from these things.

However, I still love these movies. I love the stories they’re trying to tell. I’ve said before that Watchmen is just one of my favorite stories...well, ever. It’s a recent history tale of the deconstruction of the superhero and the minimalization of the human being. V for Vendetta is the story of a hyper-survelliance, hyper-political future in England and a man’s attempt to go against the common grind. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen takes beloved characters out of classic literature and pits them against a great force of evil for the sake of humanity’s longevity—much like Watchmen or perhaps, I noticed this time, Marvel’s Avengers?

Based on the movies, Moore’s stories are, for the most part, historical fiction. Even in V for Vendetta, set in the future, there are references to November 5, 1605. The story itself is an attempt to make a huge change in society and write the history of the time. Watchmen is set through the 1940’s to the 80’s and the story is promoted as the telling of an alternate history of America. Extraordinary Gents is most definitely historical fiction, taking characters out of classics like Dracula, the Picture of Dorian Gray and so on and so forth, and writing a future for them and rewriting a history for Europe (that is set in the late 18^th to early 19^th centuries).

I really like historical fiction. It’s something I’ve grown into, but I feel like it’s almost second to my like of science fiction. Probably has to do a lot with the fact I just like history. I, though you may find it strange and repulsive, have a great deal of interest in the WWII era and the Holocaust, because I find it incredibly appalling/curious/unbelievable that people that evil truly existed in real life. It’s always fun to watch historical fiction and just think about if these people had really existed…well then perhaps the movie would have been true! For better or for worse, I suppose…

So, given I’m labeling Moore as a historical writer, I just really appreciate him. It sparks my curiosity to think about these characters existing in our world. And to the girl that though for the longest time that vampires could have existed, ghosts probably walk our halls and somewhere out in space other life exists, its just nice to know that other people enjoy this kind of stuff too. Its even more incredible the time and effort people put into historical writing, what with the research and precision of dates and all.

Three Quotes for Thursday

Ahh. Busy busy. I’ve got about 5 chapters to read and then umpteenth documents on top of that for class. I think I’ve finally decided what my story will be for the black and white photos…most likely the adoption of my dog (because there’s this big backstory about how I was allergic to beings of the canine persuasion and then we got this sweet, quiet dog from the shelter and she turned out to be a defensive, loud beast that I still love). Need to start my short essay for this project and then another paper for the other film class.

Lost yet? Good.

Aw. Lost. I want to rewatch the seasons so bad…I think I’m doing that thing again where I’m putting something on a pedestal because I think that some how it’s either better or gotten better than it was the last time I saw it…

THIS IS BESIDES THE POINT!

Since I am so busy and I did want to do a post so it didn’t feel like I’d just abandoned the blog… I’ve been collecting quotes. My favorite quotes from all over. There aren’t that many, but I thought I’d share a few and maybe make it a weekly thing. Tah-dah: Three Quotes for Thursday. For now.

“I must not tell lies, Professor.” –Harry Potter (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

I don’t remember if the quote’s in or if it’s even that simple in the book. All I know is that I watched so many Harry Potter movies so many times this summer that I’ve rememorized them. Professor Umbridge is just a horrible person, you want something bad to happen to her. I love it when evil people have their words backfire on them—not because I like seeing people fall, but because I like seeing justice served. Dun dun dun.

"The world isn’t perfect, and the law is incomplete. Equivalent Exchange doesn’t encompass everything that goes on here. But I still choose to believe in its principle: that all things do come at a price. That there’s an ebb, and a flow, a cycle. That the pain we went through did have a reward and that anyone who’s determined and perseveres will get something of value in return, even if it’s not what they expected." –Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist)

I think this one can just apply to life. Though it does hang on the negative side, it provides us with hope that things can take a turn for the better.

“Please! Don't all leave... Somebody has to do it, don’t you see? Somebody has to save the world…” –Captain Metropolis (Watchmen)

Strictly from the graphic novel, the quote brings up the uneasy feelings. Someone, some superhero or perhaps some government head needs to save the world. Are mere humans incapable of saving the very world we live in? The Watchmen think they need to do it themselves? What hope is there for humanity as a whole, then?

Ah. I need to get back to the laundry. Happy almost-weekend!

Secret Villains! Shhhh. Don’t tell.

Who else likes secret villains? Ones you never expected, or ones you honestly thought were gunning for the good side? They’re probably my most favorite versus the all-out evil dudes because they really punch the audience and the heroes in the gut. A couple nights back I was really stressing over…really everything, as this is what neurotic college students do when they start thinking of their futures. So in an attempt to think of something, anything else, I was left channel surfing and this is what I settled on.

I saw this movie I believe on opening day, since my birthday is on the 4^th, several friends and some family went to the theater to see this as my “birthday party.” I thought it was great. Those of them who hadn’t read the comic or were expecting a regular action flick might have thought otherwise. But let me clarify “I thought it was great.” I don’t think that this is a favorite film of mine, despite the fact that I love the stylistic elements, the costumes done just right, the effects…etc, etc. (I love sci-fi insanity and GOOD special effects. My appreciation of these elements is why I think I am a bad film student. The rest of them tend to look down on these things that I hold so near and dear. I think film should be more of an escape, something in which you tell a fantasy story rather than focus on the seriousness of life, which is something you have to deal with in real life as it is.)

I love the story behind Watchmen. When reading the comic, you have the ability to skip over the bits you don’t want to read, or rather skip over the images you don’t want to see. Watchmen both the book and movie, are horrifically graphic. At least the book allows you some methods of escape, you can skip the page, skip the image, or put the book down and walk away, taking your mind off of whatever atrocity. The movie, any movie for that matter, does not allow the same escape. Most violence does not bother me, although the film Watchmen had me squirming a bit.

Story. Right. (There will be some spoilers if you’ve not seen/read it, beware.)

Humanity as a collective force that’s being shoved towards something beyond their control and almost inevitable. “Superheroes” turning their backs on us: ‘They will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll whisper "no.”’ The fate of many being determined by a few. Huge moral consequences to face left and right in this story. Is what they’re doing right? Is he truly evil? Whose side are we really supposed to stand on?

Watchmen is in a lot of ways a medium meant to tear the superheroes from the pedestals we’ve put them on. The main focus is almost always on the six hero characters, and if not the book is showing us blips of humanity before some ultimate destruction falls on them. Humanity is always at the disadvantage, not really knowing what’s going on or what to do, just aware that times aren’t good and don’t seem to show promise of looking up. Since the readers know the book is set in an alternate world of the 1940’s-1985, as one goes through the story and sees the helplessness of humanity and the heroes struggling to straighten out their demons, the reader knows that something awful is brewing, something inevitable and irreparable, leaving us with a sour feeling in the gut and just a general feeling of “this is wrong.”

This is a common theme in many stories, humanity being left helpless or what have you, as in many alien movies, Terminator, Jurassic Park, and many others I can’t think of. I appreciate that in Watchmen it’s not about some alien race or dinosaurs taking over. The “villain” of the story is purely human. Even the superheroes in this book all started as human beings. It is humanity fighting itself, which is a delightfully tragic concept in fiction. (Just tragic and frightening in real life.) But really, Watchmen takes it a step further—one of the former heroes has taken it upon himself to actually save humanity by doing damage so horrific that in the end it will surely unite mankind to stand together against a misdirected force of evil. Hence the ‘secret villain.’ This likely would have never happened if these heroes hadn’t been worshiped by mankind. The guy wouldn’t have a hero complex if humanity hadn’t been so willing to take the Minutemen/Watchmen in to solve all of the problems humans were too lazy to face.

And Watchmen just has this moral ambiguity that leaves its audience on edge. Anyone with any sense of a moral compass would say that Ozymandias’ actions were wrong. He sets off multiple nuclear explosions that the world believes are Dr. Manhattan’s doing. Instead of going to war with Russia, all of mankind is united against the superhero that they believe did them wrong. WWIII is avoided, but at the cost of millions of lives, as Ozymandias puts it, “A world united in peace, there had to be sacrifice.” The man who betrayed his own teammates and then put the blame on another essentially gets away with it all, because exposing the truth behind the explosions would mean all was for naught and WWIII would still be upon them. Is this right? The death of so many people at the hands of one man, a former hero at that, is not. It’s not. Murder is wrong according to our laws. But think about it—15 million lives versus the whole world at war again, 15 million would be a fraction of the costs of a third world war. But we still say that this is wrong. We want to hang on to that glimmer of hope that says ‘but what if the world came to its senses and didn’t go to war at all?’

Oy, this is heavy stuff. It gives me chills when I think on it. Just thinking about someone with so much power bestowed upon him, so loved and worshipped whom then turns around and decides that this is best for the world.

“I did the right thing, didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.”

“’In the end?’ Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”

Another thing I find very interesting in the world of comics is the idea of humanity abandoning their superheroes or making efforts to stop their escapades. Since it has been ingrained in our minds for years that “superheroes” are forces of good (Superman’s been in print since 1938) that always fight for the right thing and that they are supposed to stand as role models for all ages, the concept of finding fault with superheroes seems just…inherently wrong. I love these stories though. When mankind rages against their former heroes in these stories, it is we, the readers, who really know the truth. Our heroes are still our heroes, it’s just usually that they were forced into a bad situation, tricked, or lied to. Marvel’s Civil War arc I think does a good job of this when heroes are pitted against each other over the morality of whether or not to make “superhero registration” mandatory, and consequently the losers are sneered at and are kicked down to the same level as criminals. Similar stuff goes down in the animated movie Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, in which they are accused of crimes they did not commit. How easily humanity can be swayed…although the fictional humans are right to question superheroes, for once suspicion is thrown out there, it would be hard to look at someone with arms the size of tree trunks and laser vision in the same way. Now let’s tie this back to Watchmen…if I could take you back to the beginning…Rorschach believes that the Comedian is offed by some government-backed program to eliminate all costumed heroes. Once again, the minds behind Watchmen are trying to irk us. It’s not as if these government officials would know how these people carry themselves on a day to day basis (the Comedian was a pretty awful guy and that makes it seem like he deserved his death)…or would they? Regardless, Watchmen opens with this theme of ‘don’t trust these people, despite all the good they’ve done for us while wearing masks,’ which just completely contrasts with everything we’ve come to expect out of comic books.

It’s all about making the heroes more human… They’ve got problems just like us, between holding down a job, dealing with what may very well be mental illness, infidelity, backstabbing former coworkers, what have you. I love this about Watchmen, the fact that it’s main focus really is on the lives of the heroes, versus their actual…heroics. I love it when comics do an about face and show their heroes at their high points, where the characters think they’re gods, and then let them fall—its usually only when the heroes crash and burn that we see they are just human after all. That, dear goodness, is one of my favorite things because it proves that these people have feeeelings and you feel for them too.