Various Artists - Watchmen Soundtrack (Album)
Zack Snyder’s highly anticipated and controversial superhero film Watchmen - adapted from the blockbuster 1985 graphic novel by writers Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons - has affiliated with it a highly eclectic soundtrack with some very compelling and well-known tracks.
Extra emphasis is placed on the importance of music in this film as references to music and lyrics run throughout the original graphic novel, abstractly reflecting the context of Watchmen that is set in an alternative 1985, with flashbacks back and forth to times between the proposed ‘present’ and the 1930s, also known as the era of the Cold War.
My Chemical Romance kick off the soundtrack with the only newly recorded song on the album – a three-minute punk rendition of Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row. The modernised and up tempo style in which they deliver the track adds to the theatricality of the recent adaptation, and is more in synch with the intensity of the action film. The original acoustic track is a pertinent and evocative eleven+ minute tale from which the name and closing stanza of the first chapter of the graphic novel was plucked.
Bob Dylan is clearly favoured on this album with the inclusion also of his iconic protest song The Times They Are A-Changin delivered as Dylan’s’ uniquely stylized acoustic ballad. The song is featured in the book, and in the movie the song plays behind an opening montage of remembered moments in U.S. history, apt for the description of time continually passing, and as it was first recorded in the time leading up to Kennedys assassination, it symbolises the context of the film which demonstrates a stride toward catastrophe. Along with this is Jimi Hendrix’s vigorous rendition of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower. The Lyrics of the track appear in the title and the end quote of Chapter X of the Watchmen comic series. Dylan is attributed in the novel, but like many of the other tracks, the more up tempo work of Hendrix makes for greater waves in the film adaptation.
Another golden oldie that features is Paul Simon’s folk ballad – The Sound of Silence, which is always an interesting addition, as Simon has rarely granted permission for its inclusion in film. It is a masterful inclusion as the song itself was written by Simon as a direct result of Kennedy’s assassination, whereas in the film it is played during the funeral of the man the movie suggests was secretly responsible for Kennedy’s death. The addition of Janis Joplin’s emotionally riveting rendition of the folk rock anthem, Me and Bobby McGee, recorded just a few days before her death in 1970 can be used to denote a story of love and loss with its famous dissident lyrics: “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. Seemingly out of nowhere springs the disco favourite 1977 I’m Your Boogie Man by KC and the Sunshine Band. In the film, the dainty track is contrasted with a riot scene during which superheroes must intervene. As the scene is a flashback, the song suggests that the action is taking place in the 1970s.
Further up the timeline is Leonard Cohen’s overtly familiar 1984 folk anthem Hallelujah. Its spiritual tones and profound attributes make it an easy pick for the Watchmen soundtrack. The soundtrack also features a couple of Jazzy numbers such as the well renowned Unforgettable as first performed by Nat King Cole, and the older still You’re my Thrill classically performed by Billie Holiday. Unforgettable features in the film during the showing of a commercial for a perfume created by one of the films main characters - superhero/entrepreneur Adrian Veidt. During the commercial, another main character - Edward Blake a.k.a The Comedian – is being violently beaten by a masked figure. The song is apparently mentioned in the graphic novel in reference to the advertised perfume, and provides an ideal juxtaposition to the extreme activity this slow paced track is allied with.
You’re My Thrill is also plucked directly from the graphic novel itself. The superheroes play this particular version of the song from an airship as they rescue people from a fire, and the film reflects this by playing the track over a similar scene. Holiday’s rendition of the song is well known for being chilling in a sense, with its apparent foreboding nature. It maintains its aesthetical value but it is devoid of the comfort and security that is present in other recordings, making it edgier and better suited to the risqué action packed scene it accompanies, much like Unforgettable.
Left now is the lesser known pieces, firstly Pruit Igoe and Prophecies by Philip Glass is a very abstract addition to the soundtrack, originally two pieces combined from a 1983 photography film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out Of Balance. It is an ominous and moving arrangement that was used in the Watchmen trailer which denotes demolition and makes obvious the undertones of the films context. Next is the well known classical Wagner piece Ride of the Valkyries, here performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra. In the novel, this track is cited by retired superhero Hollis Mason as being melancholy. It has been used in the context of war and is similarly denoted in Watchmen in a scene where the U.S.is victorious in the Vietnam War with nuclear superhero Dr. Manhattan as a tool for mass destruction.
Lastly is a Nina Simone cover track Pirate Jenny originally from the musical The Threepenny Opera, created by theatrical revolutionary Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1928. The song depicts a whore who is bribed to turn the shows protagonist into the police for villainy. Simone’s English rendition refers to the coming of a revolution, making it apt for the innovative approach of the Watchmen Film. An interesting and diverse array of musical styling’s that appropriately, albeit often bizarrely reflect the films context.
