That said, Zach Sneijder cut out over 40 minutes of play. Below, I will list the deleted scenes one by one, and add to the previous review of Watchmen.
*CUTTING SCENE*:
1. Rorschach flees after injuring the police at the crime scene where Comedian was killed. Ye Xiaoyi and the second generation saw him on the TV news while drinking and chatting, and he was listed as the most wanted criminal. Dan said an impressive sentence - He'll quit when he is dead.
This paragraph was deleted with reason. Many passages that follow mention that Rorschach is a solo sociopath, never compromise—a phrase that also appears in his diary from time to time. Since there are repeated hints later, this scene that is not much related to the main line can be completely deleted.
2. Some fragments of Luo Sha's diary - after visiting the second generation of Ye Xiao.
The first person I visited on this fruitless night was a bit of a let down. War is about to break out soon, and millions of people will die in sickness and suffering. Why is the death of one person more important than that of millions? Because there are bad people and good people, and bad people have to be punished, even in the face of the end of the world...I will not compromise on this. But there are so many people who deserve to be rewarded... and so little time...
Personally, I think Rorschach's Diary is the most romantic and poetic passage in the whole film. The beautiful and profound words are recited by Rorschach's deep voice, which immediately makes the sharp The gloomy picture adds a bit of softness. Although the tone is dark and sad, it does not prevent the director from showing the romantic feelings of the end of the world.
3. The deleted main part, the black freighter, appeared for the first time after The Chronicles of Luosha (the details will be discussed later).
4. The end of the picture of the black cargo ship - it turned out to be a black boy reading cartoons by the newsstand. This boy was the one who was swept by the camera during the nuclear explosion in New York, and the owner of the newsstand was hugging him at that time. The two will appear with the black cargo ship and Rorschach many times in the deleted scene, and bring the latest news of the changes in the world pattern.
5. Rorschach appeared for the first time without a mask, waiting at the newsstand for The New Frontiersman—of course Rorschach is a "frontier"! Note the sign he's holding - the End is NIGH. In the theatrical version, Rorschach's first appearance seems to be at Comedian's funeral.
6. Rorschach went to see Dr. Manhattan, and only one sentence was deleted from the diary — Even Adrian Veidt, possible homosexual — referring to Ozymandias’ sexuality.
Why delete this? Do you want the audience to discover the secret for themselves in a later scene hint?
7. The second generation of silk ghosts Laurie and Dan were monitored by government agents when they were dating - the government wants to ensure that there is no problem with Dr. Manhattan's love life.
8. At Comedian's funeral, when Adrian recalled him, the camera swept across Manhattan and Laurie, who met for the first time, and the two smiled at each other, laying the groundwork for the subsequent tragedy.
Since this passage was so vividly depicted in Manhattan's own recollections, the scene had to be deleted in order to avoid repetition.
9. Night Owl II's memories of Comedian. In the theatrical version, we only see the airship come to a halt above the raucous crowd, Comedian jumps off, and shoots without hesitation in the face of the scolding. What's going on with all this? In the edited version, we know - because of the existence of the watchmen, the police officers went on strike, causing the dissatisfaction (or fear) of the citizens against the masked vigilantes. At the beginning, the joker and the second generation of Ye Xiao had been persuading the people to leave, but the angry people shouted, "You can't represent the law, we need normal police! No more vigilantes!" and started throwing debris. The Comedian fights back angrily after being hit, not like we saw in the theatrical version.
Is it a bit similar to the connotation of TDK? When people no longer need heroes, those who once protected them are ruthlessly viewed as the number one threat to society.
10. The newsstand scene, the night owl generation buys newspapers, and the black cargo ship comics appear for the second time.
11. After Dr. Manhattan disappeared, the black cargo ship appeared for the third time.
12. The agent asks Laurie - did you have a fight with Manhattan? The implication - did you make him sad so he abandoned the earth?
Laurie: None of your f**king business.
Agent: It's none of my business when you're getting paid by the government and not working. (The only connection between Manhattan and human beings is Laurie. Of course, the government doesn't want to see the doctor's relationship going wrong, and naturally regards Laurie as a comfort to the doctor...)
Laurie immediately knocked the agent's head on the table - what you said is equivalent to Just call me a whore!
The agent lit a cigarette and started smoking, reminding Laurie of the burning map of America—Manhattan was gone, the end was not far away.
...In the following scene, Laurie does a little trick to get rid of the agent's tracking entanglement - perhaps not related to the main line, the theatrical version has been deleted.
13. Continue the kiosk and the black cargo ship. We meet Seymour, the ketchup-eating staff member in the final scene.
14. After the end of this black cargo ship, a group of important people will be drawn out-the street gang, that is, the group that was stunned by Dan and Laurie as soon as they appeared... This time they appeared to harass the teenagers who read comics. The reason why these little people are important is because they... see 15.
15. Rorschach escapes. The gangsters next to the newsstand were particularly unhappy about this, thinking that Ye Xiao’s generation once cooperated with Rorschach, they planned to vent their anger against Ye Xiao. So... the heroic generation of Ye Xiao (who had been on the phone with the generation of silk ghosts before, as if it was the last goodbye) actually died in the hands of... a bunch of rabble!
This soundtrack comes from "Raging Bull" (Martin Scorsese), in the beautiful melody of "Country Knight", the night owl generation is brutally beaten to death. The heroic twilight, nowhere to rely on, and the tragic atmosphere that the good times are gone forever blows the face, making the film even more depressing and desperate.
16. Rorschach and Dan went to Antarctica to find Ozymandias to settle accounts. The newsstand scene appeared, and the headline "Soviet invasion of Afghanistan" in the newspaper marked the end of the day. In the penultimate act, the black cargo ship appears.
17. The final scene of the black cargo ship finally came when Adrian announced that he had detonated a nuclear bomb 35 minutes ago. The manga ends and the earth is destroyed. In front of the nuclear blast of blue light, the teenager and the newsstand owner are surprised to find that they have the same name.
Then there are no newsstand paragraphs—because New York is gone.
*Black Cargo*
Well, out of the 40 minutes that got deleted, the Black Cargo manga took up at least half an hour.
What is this comic about?
This is by no means a superhero comic, because his tone itself is darker than that of Watchmen, no matter from the weird and twisted style of painting or the tangled and terrifying plot - such as the setting sun of blood, the burning sea, the murderous black cargo ship approaching , the ship is covered with skeletons, and the protagonist struggles to survive dragging a nearly collapsed body and reason in this desperate scene.
——Even if it's an animation, it's really scary and definitely worth an R rating. For example, those corpses whose limbs were broken, swelled and exploded (with their intestines bursting out), the heads that were always brought by the protagonist but were tortured by natural forces, and the strange rafts built from corpses (the protagonist thinks that this can add enough to the raft) buoyancy)! The black sea, the greedy sharks, the seagulls pecking at the dead, plus the weather-beaten face of the protagonist and the twisted face of the dead - enough is enough, too scary.
Simply put, the protagonist decides to build a raft and go home to remind people of the invasion of the black cargo ship after experiencing the looting of the black cargo ship (he is the only one alive). It was almost his own monologue.
However, from the babbling lines and slightly crazy imagination, it is not difficult to see the omens of the male protagonist's physical and mental collapse, and it also makes people vaguely guess the ending.
No spoilers here, I suggest that you still watch this animation, although it is dark, it is closely related to the theme of Watchmen.
Personally, I think there are three sentences that best reflect the director's intentions:
1. Hope is horrible;
2. Riding on a corpse to realize dreams;
3. Noble intentions lead me to atrocities, in the name of love...I can't think of it anymore The world I want to save.
Listen, does it sound like you're describing Ozymandias? How similar his "sacrificing thousands of people to save the plan" is similar to the story of the black cargo ship! It's just that the latter narrows the rescue to the protagonist's wife and daughter, and to a city. But they are the same in nature and have the same consequences. This utopia built on lies will ultimately be a tragedy. The protagonist boarded the black cargo ship at the end, thinking that he was as evil as this ship; then, even if most of the earth was saved, would classmate O be innocent?
*details*
Carefully manipulated history, ubiquitous easter eggs, probably only Alan Moore and Zach have such wisdom.
1.Comedian's room number is 3001. When Adian fought with him, that 1 word was smashed, so that's left - 300! Zach, the "narcissist"~!
2. The channel that Comedian finally locks on, which broadcasts a perfume advertisement, produced by Werther Company, Nostalgia (nostalgia). This fragrance ad appears several times later.
3. Ozymandias - the king of kings, is actually a - GAY! Except for what Rorschach said bluntly, what Zach wants us to see is actually the "Boys" folder that Dan found when he hacked into his computer. Plus, in the opening credits, when Adian reveals himself, the bar behind him — the famous 54 Club in the 70s — is known for being gay-friendly and hints at his sexuality. Rotten girls want YY? Okay, let's yyyyyy, people are almost out of the closet.
4. The Retirement Dinner of the Silk Ghost Generation will be set up in a "Last Supper" style. The two masked vigilantes on the far right of the table... Please keep your eyes open and see what they are doing... The rotten girl will be excited again .
5. Remember the two people who died on the street at the beginning of the movie? In front of them is the Rorschach logo. These two were the reporters who were about to expose the Watergate scandal. However, in the parallel world, they were first killed by Rorschach, so Nixon began an unprecedented third term as president.
6. Nixon's conference room resembles the war room in Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove." Tribute + sarcasm.
7. The pile of screens Adrian watched at the Antarctic base. According to reliable information, the screen includes "First Blood 2", Apple's 1984 commercial shot by Ridley Scott, the 1980 sci-fi film "Soul Search", Addicted to Love, Mad Max 2, Tom and Jerry, Marvin the Martian, the Nixon campaign, the '80s hit TV series Jade Face, porn (Khan~), and the 300 in 1962 - Zach pays homage to the 300 again!
8. In August 1945, people in Times Square celebrated the end of World War II. The photo of the sailor and the nurse kissing affectionately became a "silhouette" kissing the nurse. The ending of these two women was tragic. They were killed by anti-gay people. "Lesbian Whores" is written on the wall;
9. The picture of the girl inserting flowers into the muzzle of the gun comes from "Flowers and the Muzzle" in 1967. Before Nixon took office, he promised to end the Vietnam War, but he broke his promise after he was elected, so students began to strike and demonstrate.
10. Other obvious insinuations and falsifications include - Khrushchev and Castro's military parade (the Cuban missile crisis is approaching), JFK was assassinated by a comedian, Andy Warhol's pop art exhibition The naked man (Andy is gay~), the famous joke of Armstrong when he landed on the moon...
11. The fate of the heroes mentioned in the title gave us detailed answers in Rorschach's diary, including getting involved in the cloak. The "Bill" who was killed in the revolving door, the Mothman who was arrested for alcoholism, and the Silk Ghost generation who had a terrible private life.
12. The cut refers to the "Keen Act" - the Keen Act - enacted after Nixon came to power, requiring masked vigilantes to either retire or work for the government.
*Soundtrack*
1. The opening lyrical vocals are from Bob Dylan's "The Times they are a-changing", slow and sad. The connotation is change, but it is full of memories of the past, both beautiful and painful, reflecting the changes and constants of the world.
2. When Dr. Manhattan appeared on the battlefield in Vietnam, the soundtrack was the majestic "Valkyrie" (Wagner~). The music also appears in Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," when the U.S. military is attacking by helicopter.
3.Comedian's funeral, the soundtrack is the famous "Sound of Silence". Ironically, the person who wrote the song expressed the pain of Americans after Kennedy's assassination in a world where Comedian was the real culprit.
4. As mentioned earlier, the background music of the tragic death of Ye Xiao’s generation came from “Angry Bull”, but what is staged here is not a boxing match, but the most tragic ending of a generation of heroes.
*comment*
Few can make an R-rated film so elegant and artistic.
The opening chapter of Bob Dylan's "The World Is Changing" opened the prelude to the violent chapter, with sad and slightly careless humming, accompanied by shocking social pictures - the bloodbath of the Vietnam War, the army's attack on the flower girl Shooting, the large number of nuclear bombs displayed by the Soviet military exercise... It seems to be slowly unveiling a dark corner of the world. The breath of despair is wrapped in the old film that seems to be old film. Romance for Dylan.
The world is changing.
At first, the ambitious heroes defended justice with the American dream, but finally lost to humanity after seeing the world. From the bank robber who was hit by the bank robber because the cloak rolled through the gate, to the arrest of Tian'er for drinking alcohol, and then to the silhouette on the tragic death bed, the climax was the cold and disdainful comedian who hid in the dark after Kennedy was shot. Looking back, the nonchalant expression tells the biggest cold joke in the parallel world. History and imagination are so perfectly integrated at this moment, and the mischievous adaptation makes such an unreal history ridiculous. It seems that such a fate is the original trajectory of the world - let a fallen hero who suddenly realizes that the world cannot be saved Assassinate the ruler who created the American Dream bubble. The bubble shatters at this moment, allowing the world to reveal the hideousness it hides beneath the pomp.
Masked vigilantes watch over the world, Watchmen were born before the doomsday clock, take over a crumbling society and become the only protector of people, but do not want to be eroded by the darker truth while facing the darkness. The first comedian to react, with a bit of self-deprecating self-deprecating self-deprecation, "Broken the jar." He shot demonstrators and pregnant women (he was still pregnant with his child), he was addicted to alcohol and tobacco, attempted to molest his teammates, and fell out with everyone. He lived in such a desperate decadence because he saw through the fate that he should have known a long time ago— -Superheroes have held on to that wrong belief from the very beginning. They are above the law and order, and they are obsessed with maintaining the ideal of the world, but no one has ever thought that if the world cannot be saved, who will save themselves?
Who watches the Watchmen?
When the heroes bowed their heads to human nature, the war between good and evil suddenly turned into a vain and lonely struggle of the barely good people under the shadows. Once Lingyun's ambition was shattered by the tragic reality, the messenger of justice who stumbled in his dream, faced the dark side of human nature that could not be eliminated, and chose to withdraw from the stage of history. To be precise, this is not their own choice - any hero faces almost the same fate - from being suspected to being admired, to being abandoned by the panicked people after the task is completed, those they try to protect with their lives. object.
Everything is as Joker said. All heroes are very similar to villains. Although they are saving the world, they cannot escape the fate of being swept out of the house by being "treated as a leper". What people need are heroes who show up to help in times of crisis. When the crisis is over, they naturally return to the right track. The worship of heroes has turned into fear of strength. Those heroic deeds in the past have become a declaration of potential threats in front of most people.
So the comedian laughed heartlessly, and sarcastically threw a sentence to the puzzled second generation of Ye Xiao - "Look, the American dream has come true."
Heroes are nowhere to be found. Ye Xiao and Si Gui are immersed in their memories, unable to extricate themselves, not so much as nostalgia, but as a condemnation of the times; their descendants return to normal life, evading their own fears, and being careful not to touch the past; Ozymandi Yas's ambitions are beyond the scope of ordinary people's understanding; Dr. Manhattan is no longer motivated to save the world in the face of the quietly approaching nuclear threat.
A sentence from a comedian a few years ago finally revealed the essence of the Doctor - you don't care about humans at all! Yes, when you become a god and have nothing to do with human beings, what is there to cherish on this earth full of ugly humanity? So when the innovative plan to "kill 15 million people and save the world" came to light, Dr. Manhattan co-operated as expected. This is simply the greatest prank in human history - when human beings unanimously point the finger at the heroes of the past, the world has never been more harmonious. The era of heroism disappeared with the dazzling blue light of the nuclear explosion. When 15 million innocent lives disappeared forever after the conspiracy, everything was cleared, and the utopia above the ruins seemed to rekindle hope.
People survived under the watchmen's protection, but were eventually destroyed by them. The only way to save the world turned out to be death.
Rorschach couldn't figure this out. This violent hero who is not pleasing to everyone, this "sociopath", traces the truth of the death of his old friend step by step, exposes the conspiracy of Ozymandias step by step, and at the same time implicates the tragedy of that dark age and Comedy, allowing viewers to witness the cruelty and romance of Sin City. Anger erupted the moment Dr. Manhattan decided to keep it a secret, and in the face of God's compromise, he bluntly said, "If you had cared in the first place, nothing would have happened". The uncompromising Rorschach became the last victim in this way. The funny thing is, this is also for the peace of the world.
But human beings ultimately need a new utopia, even if it is so fragile based on lies. The Earth is finally saved, and it all seems to be down to a plan devised by "the smartest man" and his impeccable bandit logic.
"King of Kings" Ozymandias, what was he thinking while standing on the ruins? The triumph of changing the course of history, or the despair of losing something? It doesn't matter anymore, because everyone alive gets what they want. The love between the second generation of night owl and the second generation of silk ghosts is logical, the doctor escaped to another "less complicated galaxy", and the world has also obtained the long-awaited peace, and the death of 15 million people not long ago has become a reality." "The Great Harmony of All Humans". Destruction brings salvation, and destruction achieves an ideal society that cannot be achieved by heroism.
But it never ends, and the appearance of Rorschach at the end of the credits hints at a more tragically chaotic future. Even the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan can’t do something—change humanity. It just so happens that human nature is the source of sin, and we are temporarily saved, but it does not mean future happiness. Perhaps this bad joke is the best satire of the conceited modern man.
Zack Sneijder's dark and romantic style makes the picture composed of night rain, ice and snow, and poor streets unique in the end of the world. The dark colors and the always cloudy sky set off the gloom of the film, making people feel heavy from beginning to end. Some glittering details are worthy of praise, such as the fascinating narration of Rorschach; the figure of Dr. Manhattan reflected in Armstrong's helmet during the moon landing; Let people sigh the ingenious welding of history and imagination.
The two most outstanding details are that when the nuclear explosion device is activated, the blue electric light in the instrument suddenly shrinks on the dial. At this time, the hour hand points to 1 minute to 12:00, which reminds of the doomsday clock that runs through the whole film. The implication is self-evident, and in the previous Watch screen, the minute hand has been dangerously approaching 12 o'clock. Writing here, it is better to translate Watchmen into "Watchman". The ink test chart scattered from the purse also symbolized the failure of Rorschach's personal resistance.
The second detail is the comedian's smiley face logo, which is a little red throughout, grinning at the world, as if to continue the sarcastic style of the host. This tragedy started with a smiley face dipped in blood and ended with a smiley face dipped in tomato juice. In other words, this is a new beginning, and the tragic fate of mankind has not ended.
Watchmen's action scenes are a continuation of Zach's "300" - fast and slow editing, which seems to be the new style of violent aesthetics he ushered in. But the action scenes are just the spice of this serious R-rated movie. In the final analysis, it is not a superhero movie like Black Knight, but more like an urban epic. After all, the original book won a Hugo Award, and the movie is certainly not tacky. Therefore, it is not so much an action film as it is a literary film with a bit of blood. It does not seem to leave much hope for human beings, but it makes people hopelessly obsessed with the darkness and the darkness that has the night. Group of people. This is probably what the world is like.
*Other*
In fact, the theatrical version has done a good job of expressing everything Zach wants the audience to see. This ultimate cut version is a gift to the fans - richer and richer, more angle of depiction, almost from every level the apocalyptic picture.
I'm glad to see such a work in this era of Twifan rampant. I'm glad that Hollywood has a talent like Zack Sneider (Khan~), and I'm glad that there is Alan Moore on the other side of the world. He contributed A comic that won a Hugo Award, he made mankind deeply introspect again.
So glad we have Watchmen to watch.
View more about Watchmen reviews
