The Serial Vigilante Blog

This direct to DVD tie-in to the Watchmen movie takes some of the unused parts of the graphic novel and brings them to life.
Tales of the Black Freighter takes the comic story within the story and offers us animated version of the story of a sailor desperate to get home to stop an attack by the pirate ship The Black Freighter . Gerard Butler gave a great vocal performance, we hear the torture as he thinks about what depraved things the crew of the Freighter will do to his family and town. We follow his tortured logic as he races home to save his family and Butler’s sad resignation to his final fate seen in a twist at the end.
The director’s cut of Watchmen inserts these back into the movie.
The separation of The Black Freighter from the plot of the movie made me wonder more about the purpose of this sub plot in the original graphic novel. If it could be cut with no ill effect to the plot (and according to the making of documentary was always the first thing cut from any attempt to make the film version of Watchmen) then why was it in the graphic novel in the first place?
Is it intended as a commentary of the actions of various characters? We follow the thoughts and logic of Rorschach just as we follow that of the captain, the long range plans and actions of Veidt are intended to have the same outcome as that of the Captain will he share the same fate? Or should it apply to Nite Owl II or Doctor Manhattan?
All of these could be valid interpretations or is it as simple as pointing out that the more complex and adult comics seen in The Black Freighter as told by (fictional) Max Shea are an indication of Watchmen’s complexity as told by Alan Moore.
Another interpretation is that The Black Freighter is just highlighting another difference between the world of Watchmen and our world.
Perhaps all are valid and Snyder’s decision to offer the Black Freighter as a separate animated movie offers us the opportunity to examine The Black Freighter away from the main text of Watchmen and explore what it means to Watchmen both in the movie and graphic novel.
Under the Hood takes the addendum text pieces from Watchmen as explores them in a magazine style show, it makes perfect sense that Hollis Mason would have promoted his book on such shows like the fictional Culpepper Minute.
The episode comes complete with 1985 era advertisements, in rewatching the DVD for this review I kept trying to fast forward the ads.
The production on both pieces is equal to the theatrical film and worth getting.