An expanded director’s cut of Watchmen hits the big screen for one weekend only Friday, before landing at Comic-Con International and on DVD and Blu-ray shortly thereafter. But a leaked scene that chronicles the death of Hollis Mason, aka the first Nite Owl, justifies its excision from the theatrical version.
Beginning with a glimpse of Tales of the Black Freighter, the meta-comic woven into Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ acclaimed work, the video gives way to a group of Knot Tops who clumsily complain about Mason (played by Stephen McHattie) before setting off to kill him.
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It would be partially unfair to say the Knot Tops, the notorious street gang from the comic, look and sound ridiculous, as director Zack Snyder has faithfully captured their outfits and dialogue on film.
But their awkwardness brushes roughly up against that of the less-goofy Knot Tops encountered, and beaten within an inch of their own lives, by the second Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg, played by Patrick Wilson) and the second Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) earlier in the film.
In the Watchmen comic, the Knot Tops’ hues and costumes are muted and melded into the gory wash of Gibbons’ art and Moore’s narrative. But in Snyder’s hands, they’re bright, shiny and more than silly.
It’s arguable that by delivering two sets of Knot Tops alone, one threatening and the other laugh-inducing, Snyder dropped the ball on his otherwise faithful adaptation. Then again, Snyder’s Watchmen also took other unnecessary liberties that diluted the film’s impact.
The clip does have its wonderful moments: Mason’s death is much more heroic than it is in the comic. He gets in some great punches of his own, which pave the way for some brilliant flashbacks from Snyder, who laces them with insider information that Watchmen fandom will enjoy dissecting. But the entire clip seems to falter more than fly, making the case for deletion that much easier.
Director’s cuts like this one, and the forthcoming ultimate edition which reintegrates not just Snyder’s cut but also the Tales of the Black Freighter animated short, are bonanzas for fans. So what do you think? Should Snyder have kept Mason’s death in the theatrical cut? Was the deletion of Mason’s death a marketing ploy designed to sell a separate cut of the film and press more DVDs? Do the Knot Tops crack you up? Let us know in the comments section below.
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