Reviewed by Toby Weidmann
Tales Of The Black Freighter: Stars the voice of Gerard Butler | Directed by Daniel DelPurgatorio and Mike Smith
Under The Hood: Stars Stephen McHattie, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer and Jeffrey Dean Morgan | Directed by Eric Matthies
Both based on the Watchmen comic book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
DVD £9.99 | Blu-ray £14.99 | DVD region 2 | UK certification 15 | Runtime 109 minutes
First came the King Kong Production Diaries, then we had Get Smart’s Bruce And Lloyd Out Of Control and now we have the latest theatrical companion DVD release, Watchmen: Tales Of The Black Freighter. It’s easy to be cynical about this kind of title – after all, they only contain the kind of content you hope will be on a film’s bells-and-whistles collector’s edition – but when the source material is as detailed as the Watchmen comic book, where so many facets had to be dropped from the film, it does make a certain amount of sense to release this early to satisfy fan ardour.
Those who enjoyed Zack Snyder’s big budget movie but who are unfamiliar with the Watchmen comic are likely to find the content on this disc mind-bogglingly confusing, featuring as it does a 25-minute animated tale about pirates, which seemingly bears no relation to the film, and then a half-hour mock documentary, called Under The Hood, which focuses on the movie’s bit players. But for those who do know their Mothmen from their Molochs, this disc has much to enjoy.
For the uninitiated, Tales Of The Black Freighter and Under The Hood feature prominently in the graphic novel. The former is a comic about the damned pirate ship, the Black Freighter, which is read by one of the comic’s characters and interwoven into the main story. Essentially it tells the disturbing tale of a young mariner who is left shipwrecked by the Hell-spawn pirates and who must slowly strip away his moral sensibilities with the aim of stopping the buccaneers from plundering his hometown. Despite his desire to do good, ultimately he descends into madness and damnation. Tales Of The Black Freighter’s chief role, however, is to provide an effective allegory for the events affecting the Watchmen, and in particular Rorschach and Ozymandias.
Here it’s presented as a standalone animated tale, with 300’s Gerard Butler providing suitably salty narration to support the striking visuals. But, while The Black Freighter’s story is expertly reproduced, and fans of anime will admire the stark (and gory) animation, it seems oddly isolated and simplistic when removed from the context of the main Watchmen narrative. On its own, it is a satisfyingly dark tale (with a few neat nods to the film), but it is telling that the highlight is Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of Pirate Jenny, from the musical The Threepenny Opera (where the Black Freighter gets its name), that accompanies the closing credits.
Under The Hood is a lot more satisfying. The title of Hollis Mason’s autobiography in which he lifts the lid on his life as the original Nite Owl (active in the 1940s-50s), Under The Hood delivers plenty of juicy back-story about the first wave of masked vigilantes, known as the Minutemen. This alternate history is touched upon in Snyder’s Watchmen, particularly in the film’s impressive opening title sequence, but here it forms the basis of a fake South Bank Show-style TV documentary, The Culpeper Minute, which Mason (played by Stephen McHattie), the original Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino), The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Moloch The Mystic (Matt Frewer) and other talking heads discuss the early days of the costumed heroes, in-between “news footage” of them in action.
It’s wonderfully constructed, giving the peripheral characters of the Watchmen room to breathe while at the same time fleshing out the Watchmen world and grounding the film’s action. Like Snyder’s movie, there are lots of sly references for fans to catch – the more obvious ones coming in the form of ads for Nostalgia aftershave and Seiko digital watches – but Under The Hood’s most rewarding feature is that it captures the warmth and emotion instilled in these characters in the comic book that the film manages to miss. It’s not necessary to see either Tales Of The Black Freighter or Under The Hood to enjoy Snyder’s Watchmen but if you have a desire to immerse yourself in his fantasy world of masks, capes and Spandex then they do make a welcome complement.
EXTRAS Strictly speaking Under The Hood has been classed as a special feature but as that’s been covered above here’s what else is on the disc. Story Within A Story is a mini-feature about where Tales Of The Black Freighter and Under The Hood fit into the overarching story. Watchmen Motion Comics: Chapter 1 is a moving comic. And First Look: Green Lantern is a trail for the forthcoming animated film starring one of DC Comics’ best-loved heroes. It’s all good stuff and bulks out the release. but a few featurettes about Snyder’s film would have been welcome – no doubt these are being saved for the all-singing, all-dancing director’s DVD edition that will undoubtedly be released this coming autumn.