Superheroes: Liberal or Conservative?
Watchmen may be a tough fit on magazine's movie list
Mar 12, 2009
Conservatives routinely denounce Hollywood for its perceived liberal orientation, so it's not surprising a top conservative magazine would seek to compile such a list. Nor was it a surprise that the list became a topic of debate in the blogosphere, where the list's conclusions were subjected to scrutiny.
Unfortunately, the list predated the release of Watchmen, a wide-release superhero epic with political points to make. So until the magazine gets around to updating its article, movie fans and pundits will have to examine for themselves this film's place on such a list.
A superficial look at the plot might entice conservatives to embrace the film. Superheroes are individual actors, after all, and the conservative philosophy emphasizes individual responsibility. Old-line conservatives might well cheer when the iconic view of a flower child putting a flower in a soldier's rifle barrel leads to a hippie massacre, abetted by members of the Watchmen.
Watchmen come to Nixon's aid
The backstory of the movie has superheroes backstopping a conservative president - Richard Nixon - by swooping into Vietnam to turn that stalemated war into a clear American victory. And The Comedian intimates in a flashback scene that he had participated in some sort of black operation against Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, keeping the lid on the Watergate scandal.
Rorschach is a gruff vigilante, on first impression reminding viewers of the characters played by Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris - the latter a recent star of the conservative blog world. And Ozymandias, aka Adrian Veidt, becomes a captain of industry - a much loved archetype of conservatives - who is working on a clean energy project after hanging up the cape.
Indeed, the impression of an "ideal" conservative world persists through the first hour of the movie. But taking that view requires ignoring the movie's satirical outlook.
Alan Moore's story turns the whole suspension-of-disbelief premise of superhero stories on its head. Here, the viewer is asked to consider what costumed vigilantes would be like if they really existed. Watchmen posits that they would exhibit sociopathic tendencies rather than an unvarnished desire to serve mankind - an attitude that rules in conventional superhero stories.
As for the five-term conservative government, it is presiding over a dark, dystopian world that is on the verge of all-out nuclear war. The irony is rich when considering one character's assessment that it was a good thing the superheroes ended the Vietnam war because the public would "have gone crazy if we'd lost."
And don't forget it's the self-same conservative government that outlaws the costumed superheroes in the first place.
The evil plot succeeds
Meanwhile, Veidt's clean energy project is in reality a plot to destroy the world and lay the destruction at the feet of Dr. Manhattan, the only one of the Watchmen with supernatural powers. Veidt's premise is that a controlled destruction event would kill fewer people than a nuclear war and cause the Soviet and American governments to step back from the precipice.
And stunningly, after spending the entire movie revealing Veidt's plan, the remaining Watchmen fail to head it off. In terms of a political outcome, the result is more likely to remind viewers negatively of 9/11 and the Iraq war, from the terroristic act itself to the likelihood that Veidt's company would benefit from the reconstruction contracts.
The National Review's list makes for an interesting intellectual exercise. But some of the reaction to it around the blogs indicates there are quite a few folks who require movies to validate their entire worldview to be considered any good. Given that premise, it's clear that Watchmen won't provide much succor to either side of the political divide.
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