Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

This week the assigned reading was Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and the film that accompanied it was Batman released in 1989. When comparing the two mediums there are a few things to highlight, the way the media push the storyline along as well as the tone in this film. In both mediums it is the media that pushes the storyline along. Various news programs are critiquing the styles of Batman and the Joker. The media see Batman as a menace to society and the Joker as another citizen. Throughout the film there are attempts to try and have Batman stop what he is doing. In the novel this is seen clearer because there is a warrant for Batman's arrest. Plus there are constant debates as to if the Batman helps to make Gotham a better or worse place with his vigilante style of crime fighting.  This is interesting because the marjoity of the public seem to agree with the negative portrayal of Batman. This is interesting because most of the reports of Batman and his accomplishements come from a talking head. That is to say that these people are most ilinformed of what is really going on, yet the claim to be bringing the news.

Secondly the tone of the film and the novel. In the novel the tone is much darker. The way the comics are drawn casting more shadows on the faces of characters and the way Batman himself is portrayed. His thoughts are much darker. In the film Batman's character is relatively dark but not as dark as the in the novel. In the scenes where he is In his cave alone trying to uncover the plot of the Joker. Also when Ms. Vale realises who Mr.Wayne really is the scene itself seems realtively dark to compare with other films shot during that time period. Comparing this film to something like Superman, made roughnly around the same time,  the feel and tone of this film seems extremely dark. However if one were to compare it to Batman films of late this film would seem not as dark. 

Adaptation

This week’s topic of discussion is adaptation. When trying to adapt from one medium to another it can get quite complicated. The texts for this week were Watchmen the novel by Allan Moore and its adapted film by Zack Snyder.  Although the bases of the two were the same the viewer/ reader were left with varying impressions. As talked about in class there are issues with adapting a comic book to a film. In the film one has to decide how closely they will follow the novel in terms of the story line, characters and what direction they intended to take with the film. For example if they are going to take the purist approach or not. Something as simple as that can make or break the adaptation.

 Using Watchmen to explore this concept was quite an eye opening experience. The film did a decent job trying to stick with the novel. For example in trying to keep the look of the novel in the film as far as having the actors resemble the drawings in the novel they did a great job. But on a more technical level a lot of the back stories of the characters and the feel of the time that the novel was set in, was lost in the adaptation. A possible reason for this can be explain by what McCloud talks about in chapter thee and four of Understanding Comics. In chapter three he explores the different types of sequences moment to moment, subject to subject etc. Regardless of what type of sequence it is a lot of the interpretation is left to the imagination of the reader. This creates issues within the adaptation process because what is imagined by each individual is different. Since film fills in those blanks, it becomes problematic in an adaptation because what the reader imagined might be different from what appears on the screen possibly then giving the film a different feel than imagined by the reader. In terms of the timing in the film than in the novel it’s hard to determine where more time should be allocated. Of course every single detail cannot be in the adaptation but in the film they did a decent job as to where they spent more time over others and what to include versus what to cut out. But for the things that they glossed over or decided to cut out entirely really took away from helping to set the mood for the film, for example the comic within the comic. The theme of that comic accompanied the theme of the entire novel and added significantly to the tone of it. It having been left out of the film did more damage than it did good. These examples all illustrate how difficult it can be to adapt one medium to another. 

Moore, A & Gibbons, D (1987); Watchmen; New York: DC comics. 

McCloud, Scott (1993); Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art; New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc. 

Snyder, Z. (Director). (2009). Watchmen [Motion Picture].