A visually stunning narrative that captures the novel almost page-for-page with passionate respect

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2009)

I read the graphic novel before seeing the film. In turn I went into the film knowing what I was about to see - a living embodiment of the story with an ending I already knew. In doing so I immediately found myself asking these questions upon the start and ultimately the entire way through the film: Will the narrative of the film respect the narrative my mind constructed as I read the novel? Will the shots structurally reflect the same visual craftsmanship of the novel in it's move from page to screen? To answer this, we have to grasp that the way your mind reads a book and watches a movie are two vastly different faculties. With a book - in this case, the graphic novel - your mind constructs the voices, the tone, the choreography and the pacing as a response to the static visual narrative. In films it's all done for you. Ultimately, I found myself able to recall the novel page for page as each scene progressed. Very little of the narrative is rearranged, and those elements that have been shuffled are structured in a way so as to make the character development happen smoothly for an audience that has not read the book. I think the cleanest and simplest way I can describe it is that everything necessary to the telling of this story has been included and everything unnecessary has been left out without damaging the final product. As far as capturing the true visual of the novel, I think the film was completely successful. It is one of those works where the novel itself would have been literally used as the story-boarding. Speaking strictly from the perspective of a comic book fan, one of our greatest desires in film adaptations is seeing how successfully the cast matches the look and feel of the characters. This is also near-flawless. If there is one difference it is in the women, but this is to be expected because from my experience women in comics are never drawn realistically - figures are too toned, too elongated, faces are sharper, and they almost always are overtly sexualized. Obviously, the genre demands it. And the film manages to capture that, the combination of grace, sexuality and strength in a real body and real costumes. Rorshach comes out exactly as I picture him in the novel - a gruff, Punisher-like force of violent vengeance, willing to go right to the edge to prove the ends never justify the means. The back story of his mask is not explained in the film, and it is one of those elements I would argue is it's own compelling detail in the novel, but is peripherally unnecessary in the film translation.
I don't believe you have to read the novel prior to seeing the film. Nothing structurally critical in the novel is lost on-screen. The establishing of the political climate and the superhero generations is done perfectly fine. What you get from the novel is the understanding of the minor details - characters you see momentarily in the film whose lives are fleshed out in subtle asides throughout the novel. The characters of the young man reading the comic by the news vendor, the vendor himself, the heroine Silhouette, and so forth - to the unknowing audience these are inconsequential elements resolved in a manner that balances their introduction; to the book-first audience, it's almost a little feeling of satisfaction, knowing more than what's shown, as if the character was played by a close friend, allowing you to lean over and say, "See that police-man? That's my cousin." Most importantly, what you take from the novel is knowing how it ends. This is one area of the narrative that was modified for the film. To have taken the ending exactly as it was written creates two problems. First, the literal ending would require greater extrapolation into all of those minor characters and side stories (the majority of which are in true essence erased from the film's script), thus creating a longer movie. Secondly, the literal ending I believe would have been an imbalance in the narrative - in the greater context of the film it would be asking too much for the suspension of the audience's disbelief.
I have to address the common observation of "You have to read the book to appreciate the film." What they're really saying is you have to know the details to appreciate the details left in and left out. I say appreciation must take two paths here: If you watch the movie first, you're likely to choose to appreciate the film simply for the cinematic art it is, and rank it next to others of the genre; if you read the book first you're more likely to appreciate it as an adaptation of a rich layered story, and draw the lines of comparison between the page and the screen. Taking these two perspectives I present my opinion. As a film, it is visually stunning, fairly well acted, and long in the same fashion that Dark Knight was long - you weren't watching the clock, you were watching the movie. As an adaptation, I feel it succeeded. I feel the filmmakers did everything in their power to respect the material at its core and it is successful for their doing so. Ultimately the biggest question is one nobody can answer due to the uncertainty paradox - does reading the book first in any way diminish the impact of the movie more-so than the inverse of this query? I can't answer this. No one can. What I can tell you is you need to make your own decision on the matter. Do not listen to the critics, just go see it and make up your own mind.