When the Theatrical Release of the Watchmen hit theaters earlier this month it was missing a few specific things. 1) Giant Squid Monster, 2) Tales of the Black Freighter, 3) Blue Genitalia …wait no…there was plenty of that….4) Under the Hood. Well Warner Brothers and Director Zack Snyder have just released Tales of the Black Freighter and Under The Hood on one Blu-ray set as supplemental material not in the movie!
Tales of the Black Freighter tells the tale of a Captain (Gerard Butler) who survives a horrific onslaught from a ship known as the Black Freighter. All of his crew are slaughtered and he is the sole survivor. He manages to stay alive by holding on to the broken bow of his former ship. The Captain is afraid that the Black Freighter is on it's way to his home port of Davidstown and that if he can't make it back soon to warn everyone his wife and daughters will be killed by this evil ship. He and the remains of his crew wash ashore a deserted island where the Captain remains for some time. When the body of his former first officer washes up on the island wrapped in the sail the Captain has renewed hope that he can escape the confines of this island and warn his family. He uses the remains of his ship which have washed up on the island along with bloated bodies of his former crew and builds a makeshift raft and sets out to sea. He begins to halucinate that his former first officer is speaking with him and he slowly starts to go insane. After surviving a massive attack by several sharks he eventually makes it home…but things aren't what they seem. He believes that he has made it too late and that the twisted crew of the Black Freighter have already killed people and taken over the town. He then sneaks into his old home and attacks the new occupants only to find that he has severely beaten his own wife! He realizes the the Black Freighter wasn't after his town…but after him! He then boards the freighter accepting his fate…The story was meant to show parallels between the Captain's willingness to make sacrifices and how Veidt (aka Ozmandias) was willing to sacrifice the lives of many to create a new world peace.
Not only did readers have to follow the tale of the Captain in the Black Freighter while reading the epic tale of the Watchmen, but they got to read several chapters of the original Nite Owl's Autobiography:Under The Hood. Instead of a narrated version of the book, we are treated to a nice news featurette in which the original Nite Owl (aka Hollis Mason) is interviewed about his book and his history. This version of Under the Hood provides a very nice back story and gives the viewer more history and context to the Watchmen Universe. I found it to be a refreshing take on the material and that it would have fit perfectly into the world that the movie established.
There is only one new special feature on the set and that is "Story Within a Story: The Books of the Watchmen: How Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood connect to and expand the world of the Watchmen". Additionally the set includes Chapter One of the Watchmen Motion Comic and the DC Universe First Look at the the upcoming Green Lantern Direct to DVD feature.
Watching these after having seen the movie I can better appreciate the creative reasoning for not including them in the theatrical release. The Black Freighter story would have confused a lot of people (especially if it was just shown in bits and pieces) but I think that the Under the Hood piece would have fit nicely into the overall outline of the film…But I guess it really comes down to the fact that if these two pieces were included it would have made the film closer to 4 hours long…I am excited to see how they are inter-cut when Watchmen comes to DVD and Blu-ray in an ultimate Director's cut.
ComicsOnline gives Tales of the Black Freighter and Under the Hood 4 out of 5 Watchmen stories that don't include blue genitalia.
