The Watchmen and Dune

Saturday night, I saw The Watchmen. It was the third time I saw the movie and I am sure most of you have seen it. If not, give it a look. It is a long movie and can be a nit confusing, with its flashbacks and flash forwards, but it is worth the effort.

Years before, I read Alan Moore's brilliant graphic novel  and really didn't think it could be made into a movie, but they did a very good job of it. The acting is just fine and the special effects work well, impressive and surprisingly restrained. But, that is not the important thing, the message is.

Without giving away too much of the plot, all I can say is that Moore seemed to set out to destroy the 'superhero' myth. The superhero is one of humanity's constant archetypes, usually taking the form of a religious figure, a redeemer, messiah or world teacher, who leads mankind from the dark of their current era into an new age, a golden age. It is easy to forget that when Jung wrote about archetypes, he was stressing the dangers of identifying with them. Turning to a superhero, in whatever form the present themselves is dangerous and The Watchmen makes that danger very clear.

This brings to mind another film, Dune, a much better film than many originally thought it to be. In that film there is a superhero, Paul Atreides, who finds super powers through a psychedelic experience and then leads a revolt against evil, ruling powers. The movie is based on Frank Herbert's incredible novel and stops where the novel does. At that point, Paul is a great hero. However, Herbert wrote a series of sequels and, as things turn out, Paul's seemingly heroic actions turn into a disaster of monumental proportions.

I find The Watchmen to be a disturbing movie because we are currently in a time of global turmoil. Many of the plot lines that have been woven for long, long years seem to be on the edge of either fruition or of unravelling. The time is ripe for a demagogue, a seeming superman, Hitler's Ubermensch, to make an appearance. So far, would be pretenders to this position, such as Donald Trump, are showing themselves to be sorely lacking but, somewhere, soon, someone will raise their head and begin shouting 'follow me.' Don't do it.