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Rorschach’s Journal October 13th, 1985

natebuchman — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:00:25 +0000

It was back in the summer of 2006 I first read Watchmen. Now, unlike everyone else I know who has read the book I was blessed with a beautiful copy of the Absolute edition, so in a way I was spoiled. It took me two weeks to read the book, which is due to me reading a chapter a day, and when I finished it I felt a sense of satisfaction and understanding. I understood why many called it the greatest graphic novel of all time. I enjoyed the book from front to back. It’s an important piece of literature and everyone should read it.
Tonight I went and saw the movie. I remember when I first heard mention of Zack Synder taking on the task of directing the unfilmable movie. I had faith. I had this firm believe that Zack would do no wrong. I mean come on, 300 is a phenomenal movie that proved a comic book can be transported to the screen perfectly. Over the past couple of weeks though my hype for Watchmen went through a rollercoaster ride. I remember finding out they changed the ending of the movie and how it would be different from the books which made me mad. Then I read a few early reviews and I just decided to play it on the safe side and just go in with low expectations so in case the worse were to happen I wouldn’t be disappointed. This proved to be most useful as I left the movie somewhat disappointed by what I saw, and you have no idea how sad it makes me to admit that.
First off let’s start off with the good. The opening credit sequence is the greatest opening credits to any movie, period. It’s the best part of the entire movie. The opening, set to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “The Time’s They Are A-Changin’”, goes through the early history of costumed heroes and progresses forward to the new group of masked heroes. It’s a beautifully well crafted sequence that just sets the mood of the movie instantly. In fact to expand upon this the first half of the movie is fantastic. From the beginning of the film until the last time we see Edward Blake are my favorite parts of the movie.
Going into performances Jackie Earle Haley is the perfect Rorschach. I can’t picture him being played by anyone else. Rorschach was my favorite part of the movie. I felt deep sympathy towards him when he goes into detail about the night that changed him from being Walter Kovaks into being full-blown Rorschach. He was scary, funny, and just damn cool. It’s Rorschach dammit he’s awesome! The two other performances I loved were that of Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian/Edward Blake. Dr. Manhattan had a very human voice to everything he said, compared to the way I thought he would sound in the comics. Always pictured him with this god-like voice, but I loved how he was in the movie. And for The Comedian he’s just an interesting character that I wanted to learn more about. Jeffrey Dean did a great job portraying a man who throughout his superhero life was more or less an asshole.
Another good part of the film were the visuals. Everything looks just like it did in the comic. From the costumes, to the sets, everything looked real and visually stunning.
Now, onto what I didn’t like. After The Comedian is buried and no longer on screen the movies becomes a rollercoaster ride of good and bad and by that I mean only a few scenes were good while most of them were just bland. I did not like Malin Akerman’s portrayal as Laurie Jupiter. Her acting, as well as the acting of the guy who played Nixon were BAD. She didn’t make me believe for one second she was Laurie. She sounded nothing like Laurie in the comic. Also to add on the topic of Laurie the love scenes between her and Dan (played by Patrick Wilson) were awkward and uncomfortable. Let me just say I said out loud “Are you fucking kidding me?” when they both were making out and “Hallelujah” came on. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Things just felt ehhh in the second half of this film.
Speaking of the second half, let’s talk about the ending. I miss the real ending, the one from the book. The ending in the movie wasn’t that good. See in the book we get hints throughout that leads up to (SPOILER ALERT) the giant squid, and instead what we get is a nuclear explosion caused by Dr. Manhattan, which makes no sense seeing as Dr. Manhattan would never let something like that happen. Sure, there were moments in the ending that followed the book, but the ending just didn’t feel right. Most of the second half felt off. I will admit though, that scene in the jail where Rorschach is taking to the guy about the night he went from Walter to Rorschach was my favorite part in the second half of the movie.
Overall, the movie was ok. It didn’t wow me like it seems to be for everyone I know which also makes me wonder if we read the same book, but to each his own I guess. This is one of those cases where the book is way better than the movie. For now I’m going to wait til the director’s cut comes out because to me that’s the definitive version of the film. I will say one thing, to me the movie may just be ok, but I can’t see it being done any other way than the way it was presented. It’s not a bad movie, it’s not a phenomenal movie, it’s just good movie that has some disappointing moments. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a need to listen to Bob Dylan. Such an amazing opening credits, favorite part of the movie, so amazing….

The World’s A Mess; It’s In My Kiss

natebuchman — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:21:55 +0000

Last week during break I finished up reading I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert. Over summer I read the first chapter of the book, which was up online for free, and just felt connected to it. I really don’t know how to describe that connection. I’d guess I’d say the musical connection seeing as the book is about punk and the rock n’ roll lifestyle I’d love to be a part of. I just connected with the punk part of this though. As someone who plays guitar and primarily loves to play songs by bands such as The Clash, The Ramones, Sex Pistols, X, Flogging Molly, The Distillers, and many more, this book just resonated well with me.

Ok, enough of me talking about this book. Seriously, it will just be paragraphs of me repeating the same paragraph over, and over, and over again. Thanksgiving break was last week. I got back to my house Tuesday morning at 1:30am. Last Monday we had cabaret rehearsal until 9:30pm and no matter the time my friend Andy and I were going to leave for MA after rehearsal. After we bid everyone adu we left the Fine Arts Center and headed out. Let me just say it was one of the scariest car rides I’ve experienced next to that Christmas my dad drove me and the family back home in white out conditions. For the car ride back to MA it was snowing to the point where there was extremely limited visibility. Add in trying to stay awake for the car ride and it was difficult. However, we got to MA, he dropped me off at my house and he safely made it home.

2 and a half weeks left of the semester. So much to do, so little time.

I’ve been here, there, and everywhere.

natebuchman — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 16:45:28 +0000

I need to start writing more. Lately I’ve been so busy that I’ve had to neglect leaving posts. You see I was on crew for a show, You Can’t Take It With You, and because of that I was busy as can be. Add in school work and well there’s no time to sit down, catch your breath, and type out some intriguing material. However, I am here now, sitting in my dorm room with the PS2 on and I’m ready to provide you with another interesting script.

For the one due on the 25th (which I won’t be passing in because I’m going back home to MA tomorrow night!) might have been the hardest script prompt he’s presented so far. We had to write a one minute script. A one minute script. Sounds impossible, but it’s probable. Nothing truly came to mind for a few days, but then I remembered the last script I wrote for class. It was about zombies invading an Apple Store (which happened actually) and sadly when it was read aloud in class we talked about it for maybe two minutes and then moved on to the next script. Even the professor was distraught about this. No one gave any feedback. Oh well…. Anyways, I was remembering that script and it dawned on me. I should write a one minute horror piece with some kind of creature in it. What further influenced me to do this was the commercials I kept seeing for Left 4 Dead, primarily the intro cinematic for the game.
It blew my mind away. This cinematic has to be one of the best I’ve ever seen. It captures the intensity and horror of what a good zombie movie is all about. This proved to be my muse for this script. It inspired me. Hopefully it’s scary, I just am hoping it is, that and hoping it’s only a minute long.

No Escape

Dead of Night

natebuchman — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:09:53 +0000

So lately I’ve been enjoying the beauty that is Hulu.com. Seriously, if you haven’t been to Hulu, you are missing out. Had no idea Buffy was on there for viewing so I spent Sunday night watching episodes 1 and 2 of season 1. Forgot how good that show was, how smart it was, and how funny it was. Somehow the whole vampire thing rubbed off on me when it came to this script.

For the prompt we were told we had to open up with “Where were you last night?” and end with “Well, I hope you’re satisfied.” I had no idea what to do and then Sunday night after watching 2 episodes of Buffy this script just came to me. You gotta love when that happens. Out of nowhere an idea emerged and presented itself to me. The beauty of it all. With that I present to you Dead of Night as I’m calling it. It’s about two people chatting it up about Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and Alan Moore’s Watchmen while taking a stroll through a graveyard with an ending you might or might not expect.

Feedback and comments most welcome.

Dead of Night

The Punchline (inspired by Watchmen)

natebuchman — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:52:33 +0000

You try to tell a joke,
But you won’t get a laugh.
Everything seems funny.
It’s all just a gas.
Fire and flames,
Death and decay.
The jokes on you
When your the Comedian to blame.

Tea anyone?

natebuchman — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:18:06 +0000

For the next script we had to have these six items used-teapot, raincoat, carving knife, camera, moose antlers, and white gloves. With that I wrote what I consider a farce or dark comedy. Enjoy it.

Tea Anyone?

Songs of the Night

natebuchman — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:47:36 +0000

We had to write a serious play this time around. One centered on someone “wrestling” or “wresting” with their inner demons. We had the option of making the piece a monologue which I sort of did at the beginning, but then transfered it into two people having a conversation. All in all I like it. Feedback is most welcome

Songs of the Night

Harvey Dent, a tragic hero

natebuchman — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 01:02:45 +0000

For the past couple of weeks in two of my classes we’ve been talking about the Greek era. In my Touchstones of Western Literature Class we’ve gone about doing this by reading The Odyssey by Homer and Antigone by Socrates (which I really enjoyed reading, got to play Creon when we read it aloud in class). In Theatre History we’ve been discussing what made Greek plays the way they were. When we got on the topic of what constitutes a tragedy it got my head thinking, especially when it came to talking about what makes a tragic hero and when it came to giving out examples I said Anakin Skywalker which the professor somewhat agreed with. Then it dawned me. I came to realize there was a better example and that’s Harvey Dent.

Harvey Dent fits all the qualities that are found in a tragic hero. He’s someone of great heroics. In THE DARK KNIGHT he helps take back the streets of Gotham (or try to at least) and isn’t afraid of putting the mob in their place. In the animated series from the early 90′s he was just the rising star in Gotham running for D.A. He’s a great figure of heroic stature that ultimately looses it.

Every hero has a tragic fall and Harvey’s is well truly great. Take for example THE DARK KNIGHT. Harvey gets taken to an abandoned building where there are gas canisters placed all around him with fuses that are ready to go off and also at the same time his love interest Rachel Dawes is in the same situation at another location. What causes him to fall is Rachels death and the scarring Harvey recieves from the flames. It’s because of this we get a hero who was once might and ends up giving in to chaos and destruction all because of loving his love interest. The Joker just gave him the option of introducing a little anarchy and he took it without question. In the film version we owe his fall to The Joker who was his “ace in the hole.” Unlike the comics, Harvey dies in the film which many of you people don’t believe, but trust me he’s dead ok, move on already there’s no Two-Face in the third film.

This is how I see Harvey Dent. He is a classic example of a tragic hero. Sure, I could have added more reasons why, but this is my blog and at the moment of typing this I don’t have my theatre history book on me to help me out so I gotta make due with what I got.

King of Dreams

natebuchman — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:44:42 +0000

For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what nursery rhyme to adapt for my next script. I spent the past 10 or so days trying to narrow down the selection to one, and I came to this…

“What did I dream?
I do not know’
The fragments fly like chaff.
Yet strange my mind
Was tickled so,
I cannot help but laugh.”

Much like I usually do I thought outside the box and came across the idea of using Dream from Neil Gaimans Sandman series and originally I ran with it and even had him talking about his brothers and sister The Endless, until I had my sister read the script. Made me realize I really shouldn’t do that since most of the people if not all the people in the class would not have a clue as to who this character is talking about. With that The Endless were omitted and I turned this script into something original entirely. Enjoy.

King of Dreams.

Some family history for your viewing pleasure

natebuchman — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:20:33 +0000

I knew my dad’s side of the family had some interesting history, but I forgotten how interesting. For a class assignment in my Touchstones of Western Literature class we have to write a paper on a story in our family that happened before we were born. With that my dad provided this wonderful insight I present to you.

“

Hi Nate:

This is not a long story but here it is. This was told to me by my grandmother, Minnie Katz, on my mother’s side. That would be your great-grandmother. Minnie and Samuel Katz lived in a small village in Poland. They decided to leave Poland for America. Samuel, my grandfather, came over first and settled in Lawrence, MA and opened up a bakery there. He was a baker by skill. Sam about 6 ft tall, and had large hands – naturally from kneading the dough and baking. After a time, he made arrangements for his wife Minnie to come to their new home in America. Minnie was scheduled to come by boat. She fortunately was never able to get to the dock to board the boat in time. The boat she was scheduled to come to Amercia on was the Titanic. Eventually Minnie came over to America. They had 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls. All are now past away. Your grandmother, Ida Buchman , was one of those daughters. We are lucky to be here. Who knows what could have happened.

After my father died, I found Samuel’s original passport from Poland. It was in polish. Your grandmother Ida and uncle , Morris Katz, had it translated. Samuel had served in the Polish army and had come from a tiny village. The passport listed his street ,etc. The village doesn’t exist anymore as I could not find it on any almanac. I also found Samuel’s social security card. It was metal!

On the Buchman side of the family, your great grandfather ,Benjamin, was in the Russian band during the Sino-Soviet war. When the Communists started to take over Russia, he escaped dressed as a woman. The Buchman side had several musicians in its ancestrey. A top violinist was also one of our relations. I don’t know the name.

There were 2 marriages betwwen the Katz & Buchman families. Ida Katz married Gilbert Buchman, my parents. And Gilbert’s sister Anne Buchman married Ida’s brother Morris Katz. Rochelle, cousin Shelly, and I are first cousins twice over.

Cousin Shelley has a drawing of one of our relatives at her home.

Hope this is helpful!

Dad”