Film 'Watchmen' is treasure trove for philosophers

[Paul Mackin]

Might as well let the Washington Post get its two cents worth in too . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/04/AR2009030403970.html


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Mackin" <mackin.paul at gmail.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: Film 'Watchmen' is treasure trove for philosophers


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> To: "Dave Monroe" <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 1:05 PM
> Subject: Re: Film 'Watchmen' is treasure trove for philosophers
>
>
>> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/03/09/090309crci_cinema_lane
>>
>> The bad news about “Watchmen” is that it grinds and squelches on for
>> two and a half hours, like a major operation. The good news is that
>> you don’t have to stay past the opening credit sequence—easily the
>> highlight of the film.
>
> Heh, heh. The critics seem to be as divided on Watchmen (both the comic 
> and film) as they are on The Kindly Ones.
>
> Like the culture wars divide in America.  The same, only different.
>
> Barack Obama vs Rush Limbaugh . . . .
>
> More satisfying vs less filling.
>
> How's one to make up his mind?
>
> P
>
>> [...]
>> “Watchmen,” like “V for Vendetta,” harbors ambitions of political
>> satire, and, to be fair, it should meet the needs of any leering
>> nineteen-year-old who believes that America is ruled by the
>> military-industrial complex, and whose deepest fear—deeper even than
>> that of meeting a woman who requests intelligent conversation—is that
>> the Warren Commission may have been right all along. The problem is
>> that Snyder, following Moore, is so insanely aroused by the look of
>> vengeance, and by the stylized application of physical power, that the
>> film ends up twice as fascistic as the forces it wishes to lampoon.
>> The result is perfectly calibrated for its target group: nobody over
>> twenty-five could take any joy from the savagery that is fleshed out
>> onscreen, just as nobody under eighteen should be allowed to witness
>> it.
>>
>>
>> 2009/3/5 Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>:
>>> http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0242217420090305
>>>
>>
>