All you need to know about the Watchmen
AS COSTUMED superheroes who are part of every-day society, their mission is to watch over things.
But the film questions who is watching over them to decide what is right and wrong, who is good, who is bad, why would anybody want to be a crimefighter and what would happen if you didn’t care about having super-powers?
Like the universe, the questions could go on to infinity.
Walter Kovacs aka Rorschach
(actor: Jackie Earle Haley)
Outfit: A simple trench coat and mask of shifting mirror-image inkblots.
He is a vigilante who sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes.
Rorschach is the only one to openly defy the Keene Act, which outlawed costumed heroes, and, because he only sees things as either being right or wrong, his mask has constantly changing patterns of black and white. Jackie says: “I was a child actor (The Bad News Bears) who struggled to make the transition.
“It wasn’t like anyone said I couldn’t act, but my Oscar nomination for Little Children (2006) threw gasoline on my career and it was like I’d been let back in, tick by tick.
“I wasn’t really a comics fan, but, when I read this, I was blown away.
“Rorschach can boil things down to black and white. You don’t have to agree with his morality and most things I disagree with.
“But there’s something interesting about his sense of integrity which this world lacks.”
Jackie says he did what will become the classic “you’re in prison with me” scene about six times to perfect it, but co-star Jeffrey Dean Morgan adds: “The difference between him and me is that he nailed it every time.”
Laurie Jupiter aka Silk Spectre II (actress: Malin Akerman).
Outfit: A form-fitting yellow and black latex suit.
She fell in love with Manhattan as a teenager. The more he drifts away, the more she loses her identity until her relationship with Dan Dreiberg reignites her femininity – and pushes him towards putting his suit back on.
Malin says: “During Laurie’s sex scene, I had two other men in bed with me wearing white pyjamas and blue lights, which is not something I would normally do! It was hard work at the time, but it looks great on the screen.”
Jon Osterman aka Dr Manhattan (actor: Billy Crudup)
Outift: He’s naked, glows blue and can grow to be very tall.
The only hero with superpowers, he is the son of a watchmaker whose body turned blue after an accident in a nuclear lab. Experiencing past, present and future at once, he also has the power to control matter. Just like the nuclear deterrent/bomb, he’s someone who can either save, or destroy. But his inability to truly connect on a human level makes him care less about his powers.
Billy says: “I was covered in 140 dots and filmed with two HD cameras. Everything you see is not me, but it’s entirely my performance.”
Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias (actor: Matthew Goode)
Outfit: Gimp mask.
The world’s smartest man retired before the Keene Act ready to make a fortune selling action figures, cartoons, perfumes, books and movies which exploited the masked vigilante era. He believes that no price is too high to unite the world.
Former Birmingham University student turned Match Point star Matthew says: “I’m the opposite of a method actor – I just try to go in there and wing it. I might not have got the part if I’d been a fan of the comic books because I’d probably have been too nervous at the audition.”
Sally Jupiter aka Silk Spectre (actress: Carla Gugino)
Outfit: Shades of Wonder Woman.
Looking like a faded, golden age movie star, she was in the old school of superheroes like The Comedian. But what is her dark secret?
Carla, who sports a butterfly tattoo just above her inside left ankle, says: “The violent attack Sally suffers is the crux for so many things in the movie.
“Zack told me he wanted it to look brutal and not be titillating, and that it wasn’t going to be about simplifying but adding complexity.”
Edward Blake aka The Comedian (actor: Jeffrey Dean Morgan)
A disenchanted killer who had worked for the government in times of war and peace. His murder sets off Rorschach.
Jeffrey says: “I don’t think you could meet a bigger group of fan boys than we all were. It felt like we were making a $1 million movie in which we’d all invested. There’s nothing heroic about The Comedian – he’s fascist, nihilistic, amoral, but I still wanted to find the humanity within.”
Dan Dreiberg aka Nite Owl II (actor: Patrick Wilson)
Outfit: A Batmanesque owl costume to mimic his knowledge of birds.
He used to have a fantasy of saving and getting the girl. Having gone to seed somewhat, he only rediscovers his sense of purpose by getting his costume back on.
Patrick says: “The film is all about war, politics and religion, so any film which can discuss all of those things without ramming any of them down your throat has to be a good thing.”
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