We Need a Blue Guy to Keep an Eye on the Warheads
The Watchmen by Demon
It’s unsettling to think of a time when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war; when enough warheads were amassed to destroy the world 19 times over and countries were prepared to use them.
The cinema of those days was characterized by references to these weapons, both directly and indirectly. While movies like The Road Warrior and Def-Con 4 were set in landscapes already ravaged by nukes, movies like Rambo and Commando were symbolic love songs to extreme firepower.
Peacefully coexisting with the films of the nuclear 80s was the Watchmen, a 12-part comic drama that probed the outer limits of philosophical attitudes towards impending destruction through a handful of iconic masked vigilantes and one particularly large and blue superhuman. Decidedly nihilistic, the Watchmen seemed to carry the message that humankind was most likely doomed barring some miracle.
Twenty years later the Watchmen has been brought to the screen, raising questions about its relevance today. With the Cold War over, what is the point of putting out this movie in 2009, other than to simply strip geeks of their disposable income? Do its preoccupations with nuclear proliferation and the doomsday clock still capture our imagination – and should they?
Absolutely.
Referring to an era when mankind stood so precipitously on the brink should cause us to question how we managed to survive. Although the followers of Ronald Reagan would like us to think that Ronald himself parted the seas of difference and delivered the world to safety, the truth is certainly much more complicated and has as much to do with luck as political posturing.
Indeed, much has changed in the world since the Watchmen appeared on comic book carousels, from the microprocessor revolution to the popularization of the internet to the collapse of Communism. And while the idea of an all out nuclear war between the United States and Russia is no longer an everyday concern, the world is still shrouded in countless wars and violent disputes of all kinds. The times may indeed be a changing, but one thing remains the same: humans are still willing to destroy one another to accomplish their aims.
Ronald Reagan himself acknowledged that man has never had a weapon he didn’t use. Still relevant today, the Watchmen reminds us of the catastrophic possibility – perhaps even inevitability – of a nuclear disaster stemming from the very existence of nuclear weapons; a situation in which, if not remedied, there will be no superhero to save us.
Related posts:
- Watchmen
- Where is Captain America When You Need Him?
- If There’s a Problem Just Nuke It
- The Animatrix: Nine New Visions
- Red Planet Versus Blue Planet
I was just reading an article in the New York Times on how President Obama is going to have major difficulty getting a progressive energy policy instituted in this country because of the Cold War legacy of nuclear waste.
According to the article:
“Today, the [Energy] department’s main task is managing the thousands of facilities involved in producing nuclear weapons during the cold war, and the associated cleanup of dozens of contaminated sites. Approximately two-thirds of its annual budget, which is roughly $27 billion, is spent on these activities, while only 15 percent is allocated for all energy programs, including managing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and researching and developing new technologies.”
I just wanted to thank Ronald Reagan for helping to make all those nukes, nuclear weapons sites, and nuclear waste possible. Before we pay to have his head carved into Mount Rushmore, maybe we should spend some money cleaning up this mess before one of those terrible things goes off and destroys a city or an entire ocean.
I’m glad the makers of Watchmen kept the story in the Cold War eighties and reminded us we’re not in the clear yet.
May the nukes rust in peace.
yeah, but what like did you think of the movie?
Polly, frankly I thought it was a real mixed bag. There’s so many opinions floating around about this movie I didn’t think the world needed another piece of impressionistic criticism, so I thought I’d try and say something interesting about the nuclear angle. I hope you enjoyed the article.
yeah, but you still haven’t said what you thought of the movie
Nuclear waste can either be reprocessed or disposed of safely, provided certain precautions are taken. For instance, the entire state of Utah could be declared a nuclear disposal site.