Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood DVD: Review By aeinhorn

First off, this is really two flicks on one disc. "Tales of the Black Freighter" and "Under the Hood." So, we'll discuss them separately.

"Tales of the Black Freighter" is a pirate/revenge story, which is an adaptation of the "comic within a comic" in the Watchmen comic book. In it, Gerard Butler voices a sea captain who is the sole survivor of an attack on his ship by the ghost-pirate ship, the Black Freighter. He is marooned on an island with pieces of his ship and his men, and he becomes obsessed with returning home before the Freighter does, and he does several unspeakable things to reach that aim - including using the bodies of his crew to create his raft. In his efforts to reach his own, he battles the sea, sharks and gulls, and his own growing madness. Ultimately, when he does reach home, his obsession proves to be his own undoing, and the story ends, as it must, in tragedy.

It's a bloody, often-times disgusting strory, but it is oddly beautiful in it's animation. It retains the style and spirit of Dave Gibbon's illustrations from the comic, but manages to become its' own creature. The story of the captain and his deeds can be read as a parable for the arc of Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias from Watchmen - but it also works entirely on its own merits as well.

"Under the Hood" is, in some ways, the greater departure from the source material. It isn't simply a video representation of the fictional autobiography of Hollis Mason - the first Nite Owl. Instead, it is done more as a doc*mentary about the book, on a television program called The Culpeper Minute. First off it has an episode from 1975 when the book was originally published - and before the Keene Act made vigilantism illegal in the world of Watchmen.

Much of the text of the two "Underneath the Hood" chapters contained in the graphic novel is recreated through the interviews in the moc*mentary, so little is lost. But the moc*mentary format allows Snyder and his creative team to integrate other elements of the comic-book version Watchmen in to the film world, including commercials from Veidt enterprises, and interviews with characters who wouldn't have been a part of Mason's book.

The moc*mentary features Stephen McHattie heavily in his role as Hollis Mason - the original Nite Owl. But other actors from the film make appearances as well, including Jeffrey Dean Morgan in his role as Eddie Black/the Comedian, Carla Gugino as Sally Jupiter/the original Silk Spectre, Danny Woodburn as Big Figure and Matthew Frewer as Edward Jacobi/Moloch the Mystic.

There are some beautiful Easter Eggs in the video as well, such as showing that one of Mason's inspirations for Nite Owl was the original Blue Beetle comic. The irony here, being that all of the characters from Watchmen were based on the Charleston Comics characters, and Nite Owl is a reimagining of Blue Beetle.

Essentially, the moc*mentary allows audiences to see the full world behind some of the small details that are only touched upon in the film. And for fans of the Watchmen comic, that's a beautiful thing.

The disc includes a featurette "Story Within a Story: The Books of Watchmen" explaining why "Tales of the Black Freighter" and "Underneath the Hood" matter so much to fans of the comic. The featurette has interviews with the cast and crew members, including director Zack Snyder and co-creator Dave Gibbons, and helps to illustrate how the level of detail from the graphic novel couldn't be contained within a single film, but needed the supplemental materials.

Additionally, the disc includes the first Episode from "Watchmen Motion Comics" and a First Look at the DC Universe's Animated "Green Lantern" direct-to-DVD film. Finally, there is a digital copy of Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter for you to download to your computer or portable media player.

"Tales of the Black Freighter" is presented in a "letterbox" widescreen format preserving a "scope" theatrical exhibition aspect ratio, enhanced for widescreen TVs.

The sound is handled through the Dolby Digital 5.1 format.

Nothing special is going on here. The DVD box art is an image of the captain from "Tales of the Black Freighter" on his raft.

For fans of the Watchmen comic, or fans of the film who want more from the world of Watchmen, "Tales of the Black Freighter" is a must-have. The animated "Black Freighter" segment is a nice addition and parallels the story of Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias from the film, and the "Underneath the Hood" segment absolutely helps to immerse yourself into the world of the film. For more casual Watchmen fans, however, the content of the disc is probably a bit excessive.