Dear Mr. Snyder,
Thank you for doing an overall great job with Watchmen. The movie nearly felt as epic as the graphic novel, and the overall themes of human nature, paranoia of a Cold War nuclear holocaust, and the insane psychology of vigilantism remained markedly faithful to Alan Moore's book.
Also, thanks for almost ruining the whole fucking movie with, quite possibly, the absolute worst choice for music accompanying a sex scene that has ever been made. Sure, forcing in Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower with a shoehorn during the Antarctic crash can be forgiven. Even closing it out with a My Chemical Romance cover of anything can be overlooked. But Hallelujah? Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah? Really? Whatever the hell it was that you guys were smoking during post-production, I want some.
Seriously, what the hell was that about? What, you couldn't get the rights to The Final Countdown by Europe for your sex scene? You couldn't get Whip It by Devo? Jesus, if you wanted to keep the 80's theme and make it hilarious to the point of being unwatchable, you could have just gone with I Want to Know What Love Is by Foreigner. Why didn't you just go with Is This Love by Whitesnake? How could Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen have possibly made any sense to you for that scene? I think I'd rather watch people having sex to Eye of the Tiger, for fuck's sake. Could you have chosen a song that was less appropriate? What is wrong with you?
Sincerely,
James W. Rockwell
P.S. - Berlin? Take My Breath Away? Funnier, and would have been more fitting.
P.P.S. - (sigh)...Leonard Cohen? What the hell?
P.P.P.S. -
...
I can't believe that this still bothers me.
3 comments:
I beg to differ- it was ironic, and Snyder said so in an interview. He knew some people would miss it, but the point was to be cheesy, and just cheesy enough. Had he used Buckley's or Wainwright's cover, it would've been too romantic. The deep almost-drunken bellow of Cohen's voice was spot-on as the camera focuses on NiteOwl's ass. He used the techniques one would normally use to make a scene very sensual (i.e. focus narrowly on one body part, to keep people guessing), and used them to make it awkward. No one wants to see a nerd's ass thrusting in sex, but he did it as a joke, as did he use 'Hallelujah'. And he was right to do so.
No, I get it.
I get what he was going for. I don't really understand why he was going for it, but I get it. I still don't agree with the music choice. There are multiple ways to go about presenting sex in an ironic way, and literally thousands of songs that would present that same point more effectively. Come on, it was the 1980's, for Christ's sake. Was there really any shortage of garbage love songs?
My point is, why use a good one? I may not be a huge Leonard Cohen fan, but I understand why he's well-respected. I'm not really that offended by the fact that the song was bad for the scene; I understand that Snyder did it on purpose. I'm offended that he couldn't find a better song to get his point across. In this instance, Snyder just became the guy who tries to make an earnestly funny joke and just came off as creepy.
And rightfully so, Jamie. I agree. It was the only truly laughable moment for me, as a fan of the graphic novel and story, overall. The directors of 3am "midnight bedroom escapades" on Cinemax (take that title, Cinemax, please) would have had far better music for this.
Yes, it was a crappy crappy choice.
Post a Comment