Studio: Warner Home Video
Release Date: March 24th 2009
Tales of the Black Freighter is an animated adaptation to a story thread that occurs within the pages of Watchmen. If you saw the recent Zack Snyder film, you would not have seen it, as it the decided that it would not serve well in the actual live action version, but Snyder seems to have been insistent that the tale was one that needed to be presented in some form. Tales of the Black Freighter is actually a comic in the world of the Watchmen. In such a world – where super heroes and villains existed – Moore and Gibbons felt that comics would have perhaps maintained its pulp roots, where tales of adventures would be told via genre stories that were very popular (think EC) during their time. In almost any world, either real or fictional, the idea of pirates seems to always illustrate adventure and freedom, about choice. On the surface, Black Freighter tells the tale of a mariner – a survivor- who desperately attempts to get home to warn them of the coming of the ‘Black Freighter’. The means of doing so and becomes something more, an examination or realization of self in the end that is relatable to circumstances of the main text.
In the text, for some readers the Black Freighter portions seems to exist in the same manner as Tom Bombadil does in the The Lord of the Rings– as an oddity, an unnecessary, and bewildering dalliance that some would aim whispers claiming pretension, but it really is none of those. Tolkien uses Bombadil as a quite intentional enigma, purposeless accept to be just that, where Black Freighter serves to (even the DVD gets this) reflect and mirror – mis en abyme –the central story. It is the same in this adaptation as the mariner, voiced by Gerard Butler (of 300), as we him make decisions most easily seen in parallel with Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias), but also resonates with other characters. Knowing the story, it was still harrowing seeing the animated mariner build a raft with the bodies of his dead comrades – a choice we see occurring in the central plot. In this way, this 26-minute piece serves as a very nice horror vignette on its own, a nice little, atmospheric animated short story. It’s not the most mind-blowing animation you are going to see this year (or last year), but it certainly is effective and it tells the story it’s supposed to adapt rather well.
The Under the Hood feature was the best part of this package. A faux investigative reporting/interview show based on the autobiography of Hollis Mason (Nite Owl) that features quite a bit of Steve McHattie (Nite Owl I) and Carla Gugino (Sally Jupiter/the original Silk Spectre). In the text version, Moore used Under the Hood to give Watchmen a history, a legacy. While neither the questions nor the conclusions discussed are going to come off as revolutionary now, it is well enacted and very much so feels perfectly in place. This feature is very well done here, commercials and all, and is the type of addition that if accompanying an actual film would rate as an absolute optimal special feature.
While enjoying what I watched, I’m not sure the sheer amount offered here is a good value. The content found in this package could simply be viewed as excellent additions to a Watchmen film DVD release. They were made as ancillary products, and as such they are exquisite. However, this is packaged on its own, and because of that it feels trapped in being a product that has too little value to any but the most intransigent and completist-minded of existing fans. I happen to be one of those, but even mindful of the quality of the craft, I still can’t escape the feeling that it simply (at this point) feels misplaced.
Special Features:
“Story with a story – Exploring the comic-within-a-comic concept in Watchmen,” is a featurette on Black Freighter, that’s well worth a look that discusses why the tale needed to be included and what it adds to the main body (be it the film or text).
Chapter 1 of the Watchmen Motion Comic.
There is also a first look at the Green Lantern DVD, which looks really good – another Timm production, and bringing Hal Jordan and the corps to the forefront.
