Balkinization: Watching the Watchmen

Watching the Watchmen

Stephen Griffin

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This question posed by the Latin satirist Juvenal is familiar to anyone who has read a basket of books on judicial review. I’ve seen it translated as “Who will guard those selfsame guardians” in the context of asking: if the Supreme Court is the guardian of the Constitution, who will ensure the Court follows that supreme law? In the next few weeks, you are more likely to see it translated as “Who will watch the Watchmen?” as we move toward the opening of the film based on Watchmen, a famous graphical novel. Fragments of this question appear throughout the story as the “superhero” vigilante characters (all but one lack superhuman abilities) grapple with various moral dilemmas.

Last week I tested my students’ awareness of the movie, which was quite high. I used it to discuss the meaning of the Latin phrase, but the novel’s story is not without constitutional interest. In the alternate reality 1980s of Watchmen, Richard Nixon is in his fourth term as president. The 22nd Amendment, barring more than two presidential terms was repealed when he won the Vietnam War and led the U.S. to a position of dominance over the Soviet Union with the help of “Dr. Manhattan,” the one person with superhuman abilities, the victim of a science experiment gone wrong. The other Watchmen are ordinary humans (albeit with some extraordinary talents) who have fought crime according to their varying codes of morality. One of the reasons the novel has enjoyed such success is that the moral choices the characters face seem real, despite an ultimately implausible (at least to me) plot. Here’s something else worth thinking about for those who remember the Cold War. In the novel, the dominant position of the U.S. has not promoted national security. Instead, by backing the Soviet Union into a corner, it has virtually guaranteed a nuclear war. Dr. Manhattan is a literal deus ex machina, but even with god-like abilities, he cannot stop every nuclear warhead. How this gets resolved I’ll let you discover. Or your students can tell you.

Posted 5:51 PM by Stephen Griffin [link]

Comments:

despite an ultimately implausible (at least to me) plot

Well, it's a comic book.

This may or may not be a staple of Watchmen commentary, but re: plausibility, bear in mind what Reagan said:

In our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some oustide, universal threat to make us recognize this common bond. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world.

-- Lou Cannon, President Reagan at 43 (Sept. 21, 1987 speech to UN General Assembly).

What's spooky is that, AFAIK, the series finished publication before that speech, which must've made Alan Moore perk up for days.

# posted by

Anderson : 6:14 PM

The Internet seems to agree that Issue 12 was released in October 1987, so perhaps that quote is less spooky than it seems.

# posted by

Benjamin : 6:47 PM

Wow, just wait 'till you use Spiderman as source material. With great power comes great responsibility of course is the standout moral axiom there. Shrub got great power; how did he or did he not take great responsibility? What we should hold him more responsible for than if he hadn't gotten that power?

# posted by

jpk : 7:44 PM

Oct. 1987 is still spooky; surely the storyline was plotted, and the book written and inked for that matter, before Reagan's speech.

Tho I don't know if that's the first time he said that publicly; as Cannon documents, Reagan was fond of musing upon The Day the Earth Stood Still as a guide to nuclear disarmament.

# posted by

Anderson : 8:23 PM

The Reagan quote is pretty fun. I was curious about the source. Speechwriter? Original Reagan? Oh wait, he was our acting President; a movie plot perhaps?

A search nails the movie (history courtesy of UNC professor Robert Toplin): it was The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). "Reagan, an avid fan of movies and sci-fi flicks in particular, liked the film’s suggestion that an outside threat could inspire leaders of the world’s nations to put aside their differences and band together in a common cause for security and peace."

So implausible plots with simple answers to complex questions turn up in Presidential speeches through accidents of history. Pulp fiction "Farewell to the Master" gets made into a movie seen by fan who ends up being President.

And that brings us back to Watchmen. Turns out Reagan had mentioned this movie and its lesson many times before the 1987 speech. Chances are pretty good Moore heard about it.

# posted by

jpk : 8:43 PM

Excellent find, JPK!

# posted by

Anderson : 9:07 PM

the Dysfunctional group of superheroes in the book were called the MINUTEMEN, not the watchmen, the term watchmen Occurs twice in the text itself(other than the title etc.), once in the translation of the quote at the end of a chapter, once in one of the extended text sections and repeatedly in background graffiti, esp. during the riots in the 70's

# posted by

Unknown : 4:56 AM

Also the ending had less to do with the day the earth stood still than Outer limits episode The architects of fear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Architects_of_Fear

# posted by

Unknown : 5:04 AM

The Reagan quote might also apply to clashing religions that unite when challenges are made by atheists, agnostics, etc (who are not aliens!). I read just today that liberals (including JB) are on the same side as the NRA on the 14th Amendment incorporation of Heller in a pending case.

# posted by

Shag from Brookline : 7:53 AM

jpk said:

And that brings us back to Watchmen. Turns out Reagan had mentioned this movie and its lesson many times before the 1987 speech. Chances are pretty good Moore heard about it.

Or perhaps he too saw “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Besides, the idea of Earth uniting against an alien threat is pretty common in science fiction.

I understand that Moore claims that he was unaware of the similarity of his ending to the Outer Limits episode mentioned until after writing it.

# posted by

Hank Gillette : 10:04 AM

the idea of Earth uniting against an alien threat is pretty common in science fiction

Agreed. The whole connection may be nothing more than everyone read the same pulps, saw the same flicks.

# posted by

jpk : 10:59 AM

The initial premise for the series was to examine what superheroes would be like "in a credible, real world". As the story became more complex, Moore said Watchmen became about "power and about the idea of the superman manifest within society." The writer stated in the introduction to the Graphitti hardcover that while writing Watchmen he was able to purge himself of his nostalgia for superheroes, and instead he found an interest in real human beings.

Bradford Wright described Watchmen as "Moore's obituary for the concept of heroes in general and superheroes in particular." Putting the story in a contemporary sociological context, Wright wrote that the characters of Watchmen were Moore's "admonition to those who trusted in 'heroes' and leaders to guard the world's fate." He added that to place faith in such icons was to give up personal responsibility to "the Reagans, Thatchers, and other 'Watchmen' of the world who supposed to 'rescue' us and perhaps lay waste to the planet in the process". Moore specifically stated in 1986 that he was writing Watchmen to be "not anti-Americanism, [but] anti-Reaganism," specifically believing that "at the moment a certain part of Reagan's America isn't scared. They think they're invulnerable." While Moore wanted to write about "power politics" and the "worrying" times he lived in, he stated the reason that the story was set in an alternate reality was because he was worried that readers would "switch off" if he attacked a leader they admired. Moore stated in 1986 that he "was consciously trying to do something that would make people feel uneasy." (footnotes omitted)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen

# posted by

Thomas : 3:08 AM