The Watchman

On a scale of: 10-high, 0=low,
I rate it a 7.

At times, I was stunned and moved at the same time.
Like the opening sequence when the classic Bob Dylan song played.
The exploratory movement of the frame, the chock-full layers
of staging within the shots, and the flow of the whole sequence,
— was delightfully staggering to me.

As a visual director, he’s doing things that are at
the level of guys like Terry Gilliam
and Tim Burton
But he’s got a down and dirty sensibility that’s more
like John Milius
Very intriguing.

But while the shot making was at times, astounding,
the over-all story was WAY too long for me.
I would have preferred it to be 50% shorter. Plus, it seemed
mistakenly beholden to the graphic novel’s plot lines
which I know was likely a deliberate choice to
play to the die hard fans of that classic book.
But the sprawl of story threads just confused
and bored me, and I would have much preferred
a stream-lined re-visioned adaption of the story.
I think that would have had a BETTER chance at
delivering the spirit of the book, which is what matters more.

In terms of storytelling craft, I think it was awesome
that they set up The Comedian to have empathy
right from the jump (by him getting whacked).
And yet the rest of the movie goes on to reveal
what a rat-bastard he was, which is a lovely twist!
I was personally thrilled to see that shot of him
supposedly being the one that killed JFK.
It was such a sad and creepy and inventive idea!

Last two things: I got to see the movie in a theater by myself!!
I was the only one in the place.
In the thousands of times I’ve been to the movies,
I think I’ve only had that experience one other time,
and that was during a matinee, this was at night.
But that doesn’t speak well for the revenue flow
for these filmmakers. I think the movie is too dense
for most and that’s why it’s having trouble crossing-over.
Here are the numbers…

And the last thing is that I have a real sweet spot
for Billy Crudup because I used to, sort of, know him
back at NYU. He was in the Grad Acting Dept then
and we played pick-up basketball together a few times.
Really nice guy. I actually invited him and several of his classmates
to audition for my senior thesis film. I never heard back
from him, but did make it with two of his classmates
and it won me the Best Screenplay Award at the NYU Film Fest.