"Watchmen" Film Review

Ok. That was kind of a lie. This isn't really a film review but a paper on the philosophical aspects of the film "Watchmen". I hope you read it and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
By the way, this is an extremely long post. Roughly around 2700 words. :D

WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS! LIKE MAD!

Who Watches the Watchmen:
Morality and the Justice of Rorschach and Ozymandias in Watchmen
by Richard The-Emperor Chung

Introduction
Superheroes have always been a fascinating concept in contemporary society. They have captured the imaginations of children and done so with costumes, masks, and villains. However, they still grasp the admiration of older people and one reason is because of the philosophical implications of the existence of Superheroes. Everyone has faced evil in their lifetime; evil and injustice that the current justice system could do nothing about. Everyone has had bicycles stolen, brothers and selves physically bullied, struck by natural disasters and plenty of other unfortunate events. The idea of a single human being taking justice into his own hands and executing it is a concept many desire to see and even execute themselves. They are only held back by their own mental limitations. They see becoming a superhero as being unrealistic and ironically develop a passive view on things which the creators of superheroes wish to discourage.
I am going to take a look at the concept of justice that both Rorschach and Ozymandias, who are both masked superheroes, have in the film, Watchmen. I am going to compare and contrast them and offer up my own view of justice. Although Rorschach and Ozymandias have extremely different views of justice, I argue that they are both a defective version of what justice is. Rorschach’s violent judgment upon the wicked is an incomplete view of justice, just as Ozymandias’ salvation of humankind is. You need both parts in order to have true justice. I am going to cover how both Rorschach and Ozymandias are lacking in their view and how the justice of God in the scriptures is much better and much more complete.
There is also the aspect of morality in justice. The masked superheroes are ultimately men who are placing justice into their own hands and they exact justice whenever and with whatever amount of severity as they see fit. Morality is something that one can only have if one has a greater basis for it. If there is no ultimate rule and guideline for morality, then there can be no morality and consequently, no righteous justice. And so, if one desires to be just and exact righteous justice on “evil” doers, then they need to have a strict moral guideline which can only be provided by God and His existence. No other power, entity, or concept on earth can have the ability to decree moral law.
The Basis of Morality in God
One thing that a person needs in order to be just is morality. In justice, there is a distinction one needs to make between right and wrong, good and evil. This distinction is where morality comes in. Morality is what allows a person to declare something to be good or evil. Without morality, it is impossible to distinguish good from evil. Moral relativism is a universally unacceptable concept. Everybody can sense that something is evil. All people will agree that the holocaust was wrong and all people will agree that Mother Teresa was, at the very least, a pleasant woman.
However, where does this sense of morality originate from? This is difficult to answer without a fundamental belief in a perfectly moral God. There is nothing else to base it on. If we were to base it on the each individual’s discernment, then something that is wicked for one person may be absolutely fine for another. One thing cannot be both fundamentally good and fundamentally evil at the same time.
If we base it on the law, then we need to look at who created the laws. The flaw with both Rorschach and Ozymandias, and perhaps all masked vigilantes, is that they both work outside the law; yet depend on the morality of the law to execute their justice. They punish those who break the law, by breaking the law themselves. There is a beautiful piece in the film when a mob paints the words “Who watches the watchmen?” on a store window. The phrase originates from an ancient debate between Aristotle and Plato. Plato argued that there will be filakes, or Watchmen, who will be the ultimate, infallible authority in the city-state. Aristotle denies this statement by asking, “Who watches the watchmen?” In other words, who holds the men who create the law accountable? Other men? If other men, then, it wouldn’t really be an ultimate, infallible authority. This argument shows that it is difficult if not absolutely impossible for men to have the final authority on morality because there is a natural assumption that men are not morally perfect beings. It is not something that mortal men can figure out. The necessity of a perfectly moral divine figure is presented in Aristotle’s question. Because even pagans believe that there is a moral absolutism, and Aristotle’s claim shows that men cannot establish an infallible authority on morality. God needs to be in the picture for justice to exist at all. So what are Rorschach’s and Ozymandias’ justice’s based on? Since, Ozymandias and Rorschach both seem like the type to not believe in an all powerful, righteous God, I am going to have to assume that their justice is based on themselves and their own thoughts of what good and evil is, which is extremely unreliable and unsettling.
Rorschach’s Justice upon the Wicked
Whenever Rorschach is on the screen, the audience jumps and slightly tenses up because he gives off the air of unpredictability. He seems crazy and hence, his actions are unaccounted for and random. However, a closer look at Rorschach and everything he does starts looking rather predictable and understandable after the audience realizes the principles Rorschach lives by. Rorschach lives on the single principle that criminals and evil-doers must be severely punished. This is shown when Rorschach recounts of his first overtly violent act against a criminal. Rorschach was investigating a house where he finds the remains of a little girl who had disappeared. The perpetrator meets Rorschach and after subduing the perpetrator and tying him up, the perpetrator admits that he killed the little girl and that Rorschach arrest him and take him to jail. Rorschach shows an internal transformation in his monologue when he explains how “men go to jail, dogs are put down.” Then Rorschach proceeds to violently dispatch the perpetrator with a butcher’s knife. Despite the violent nature of this murder, the audience almost supports Rorschach the whole way through because the audience does believe that the perpetrator deserves a little more than merely going to jail. Director Zack Snyder does a good job making Rorschach a very relatable character in that everything he does, even when some of those actions are brutally violent.
After Rorschach gets framed for the murder of a former enemy and arrested, he goes to prison where he eats and sleeps with dozens of criminals that he himself placed in prison. Tensions rise when as he stands in line to get his food, a prisoner, who Rorschach arrested, displays hostile intent and even pulls a knife on him. Rorschach parries the knife and he pours a pan of boiling oil over the face of the other prisoner. At first, the audience flinches and the audience is even shocked but they soon recuperate and praise him for what he has done especially after his following statement to all the other inmates in the prison, “None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with *ME*!” The audience constantly praises his violent actions because ultimately, he does what the audience thinks is right. He exacts violent punishment on those who deserve it. Snyder uses the audience’s experiences of being angry at wrongs they can do nothing about, and satisfies that past anger by being overtly violent on criminals and villains.
Rorschach is predictable because he only punishes the wicked. He does not harm the innocent. He sees things in a unpredictably simple manner. The audience is surprisingly attracted to Rorschach and begin to love and respect him even if they don’t want to cross paths with him.
Ozymandias’ Salvation of the World
A much more difficult character to read is the “smartest man in the world”, Ozymandias. For a bit of background information, there are tensions throughout the world as Soviet Russia and the United States flex their nuclear muscle and there are predictions that the world would end soon as a result of the hostilities between the US and the USSR and the nuclear war that will result from that hostility. Now in the main story, after Rorschach and Nite Owl, another superhero and Rorschach’s friend, realize that Ozymandias is the one behind the murders of the other masked vigilantes; they head over to his secret base in Antarctica and try to get the jump on him while he watches the news on dozens of televisions. After fighting him and losing, Ozymandias confesses that he had detonated several bombs that imitate the energy readings of Dr. Manhattan in many major cities throughout the world causing millions of deaths. Dr. Manhattan is another superhero but differs from the other heroes in that he has near god-like superpowers. Rorschach and Nite Owl are unable to stop Ozymandias and soon, Dr. Manhattan and Sally Jupiter II, yet another superhero, join the fight. Nite Owl, Rorschach, and Sally Jupiter II realize that Dr. Manhattan is the only one capable of stopping Ozymandias because Ozymandias is just too strong for them. After an unsuccessful attempt to eliminating Dr. Manhattan, Ozymandias is cornered by Dr. Manhattan. Ozymandias picks up a device which Dr. Manhattan mocks it and asks:
DR. MANHATTAN: What is this? Another ultimate weapon?
OZYMANDIAS: You could say that.
In the final climactic moment, Ozymandias activates the device which turns out to be a remote control for the televisions in his room. In all the televisions, there are news reels of how the two leaders of the United States and Soviet Russia are going to unite to fight the evil menace that is, Dr. Manhattan. This is when everyone, including the audience, realizes that Ozymandias had just created world peace. Rorschach, who cannot accept this, states that he is going to tell everybody about what has happened. Dr. Manhattan, knowing that Rorschach’s confession would undo the peace that Ozymandias has created, kills Rorschach to silence him.
Before we find out that Ozymandias saved the world, we get excited when Dr. Manhattan comes to fight Ozymandias. We are even tickled when Rorschach almost tattles on Dr. Manhattan what Ozymandias did. We fully root for Dr. Manhattan, especially with his new-found hope in human beings. We want him to destroy Ozymandias. This is our inner Rorschach. We want violent justice to fall upon Ozymandias who has committed this atrocious act. However, after we realize what Ozymandias has truly done, we are forced into a morally uncomfortable area. Especially when we see Ozymandias displaying signs of pain and empathy towards the people he had killed. This is the part of the movie where we have the most unsettling feeling. The world was saved, but at the cost of millions of lives. Dr. Manhattan’s words best describe our feeling for Ozymandias’ actions: “Without condoning…or condemning, I understand.” We know that ultimately, Ozymandias had saved the world but the fact that he had murdered so many people in order to do so place us in a moral bind. It is important to note that our favorite hero, Rorschach, who represents the violent, simple, and severe justice on evil, fails to defeat Ozymandias. He is physically inferior to Ozymandias which symbolizes moral inferiority. Ultimately, Rorschach only accomplishes putting down the bad guys. Dr. Manhattan, who is the only one who could defeat Ozymandias, does not defeat him because Dr. Manhattan sees the greater good that Ozymandias has accomplished.
Ozymandias’ view of justice is the greater salvation of all. While Rorschach just tries to destroy evil, Ozymandias tries savor and save good. They are two sides of the same coin called justice. Justice is not just punishing the bad but saving the good. However, while Rorschach neglects the salvation of good, Ozymandias also neglects the punishment of the bad. Snyder never shows Ozymandias beating down thugs or Rorschach rescuing a cat.
God’s Perfect Justice
Throughout scriptures, God displays his justice perfectly. Both aspects of justice mentioned previously are covered in God’s justice. God judges the wicked and provides for the faithful (Leviticus 20:1-24; Leviticus 26:27-39, Deuteronomy 5:36; etc.). God has displayed both punishment upon the wicked and salvation of the good. God saved the Israelites from the bondage to Egypt by destroying Egypt’s great chariot army in Exodus 15. God punished his own people when they disobeyed by sending hostile nations against them, then he saved them after they repented throughout the book of Judges.
Like Rorschach, God had violently punished wicked people. This is an account of the graphic and violent punishment of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab, murderer of the Lord’s prophets, murderer of Naboth, and a wicked woman:
“Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window. As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, "Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?" He looked up at the window and called out, "Who is on my side? Who?" Two or three eunuchs looked down at him. "Throw her down!" Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot. Jehu went in and ate and drank. "Take care of that cursed woman," he said, "and bury her, for she was a king's daughter." But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands. They went back and told Jehu, who said, "This is the word of the LORD that he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: On the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh. Jezebel's body will be like refuse on the ground in the plot at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, 'This is Jezebel.' "

God violently punished Jezebel for the evil that she has committed against Him and His people
Now, while exacting judgment upon the wicked, God, like Ozymandias, also saves the holy and good but without the immense sacrifice of other innocent lives. If Ozymandias had killed millions and millions of criminals and evil people, then things would have been different. If Ozymandias had bombed an army coming to destroy the United States, then the moral dilemma would not be as prominent. God protected Elisha and his disciples from the king of Aram and his army. This is an account of God’s providence and protection:
“When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked. "Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God had saved Elisha and his servants from the armies of the king of Aram.
The justice of God in the Bible is not one-sided and incomplete. God always judges justly. His morality is also absolute because He is the creator of all. Everything, all the things that exists, exist because of Him. Everything in the universe is a testament to His glory. God’s own sense of justice, as opposed to a mere human being’s sense of justice such as the justice of Rorschach or the justice of Ozymandias, is the most righteous justice in the history of the world.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the justice of Rorschach, though attractive, and the justice of Ozymandias, though slightly effective, are flawed both in their fundamental aspects and the overall wholeness of their justices. Unlike God, Rorschach and Ozymandias have an incomplete view of morality which is the basis for justice and so the reason for their justice is just incorrect. Also unlike God, their justices are not full and complete. They only cover one aspect of justice, either the punishment of the wicked or the salvation of the good, while God’s justice is full and accomplishes both.