Welcome to the first in a new series of monthly blogs titled Shot-by-Shot! In this series I will be picking a film based around a theme for the month, and if you haven’t guessed it yet the theme this month is DC Films!
In terms of visual quality, Watchmen stands out above the rest of the pantheon of superhero films from DC Comics. Zack Snyder, the director of Watchmen, has such a unique visual palette that even though the majority of the film is set at night he makes colour splash out of the screen left, right, and centre. So let’s have a look at some of the shots from the film that I love, and why I love them.
At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to one of the Watchmen named the Comedian. In this scene, an unknown assassin has come to kill him and what ensues is a fight between the Comedian and the unknown assassin set to the song Unforgettable by Nat King Cole.
Zack Snyder loves his slow-motion work which shows here as the fight has moments of pause and effect. Then we get to this beautiful shot (shown above). The glass breaks, in slow-motion again, but it fully encapsulates the whole scene and then there’s the imagery with the blood-stained badge which highlights the graphic nature of the film. It also sets into motion the cinematic nature of the film.
The religious imagery here is obvious, the characters of Silk Spectre and Night Owl resemble Adam and Eve. This is strongly enforced at the start of the scene where they’re both fully naked, further reinforcing the religious allegory. In the film there is the subplot between Silk Spectre and Night Owl with a shared romance with each other, this is despite her relationship with Doctor Manhattan.
During the film Doctor Manhattan exiles to Mars in order to start a new form of life, but where there’s life there’s death. The balance between life and death is a common theme throughout the film, and this shot perfectly embraces this message. The shot is part of a dream sequence that explains the context of the image, and it also perfectly echoes the visual identity of the film too.
The birth of Doctor Manhattan starts with the end of Jon, his human alter-ego. The music in the film is almost operatic and the theme for Doctor Manhattan sounds and feels just as epic. This scene in the film is part of a montage of shots that shows his evolution into Doctor Manhattan while also highlighting the power of cinema.
The colours and images reflect a powerful symbolism of America, and there’s even a line that states, “We repeat the Superman exists, and he is American” which sums up Doctor Manhattan and his image perfectly. The colour, lighting, and pathos of the character is what makes this shot beautiful and is just another reason why Zack Snyder is a true cinematic artist.
And that concludes our first blog post in the Shot-by-Shot series, I hope you enjoyed it and learnt something in the process. Stay tuned to find out what film we will be looking at next month!
Thanks for reading today's blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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