Am I Worth It?

This blog entry was first posted in February 2008. We must never forget.

"Dear Lord, lest I continue my complacent way, help me to remember that somewhere, somehow out there a man died for me today. As long as there be war, I then must ask and answer, 'Am I worth dying for?'" - A wartime prayer by Eleanor Roosevelt

When this Global War on Terrorism started the front page of every paper in America would have news of a soldier dying. Now, try and find it. Go ahead. Leaf through your paper and see if you can find their names. If it was someone that lived or graduated high school in your newspaper's readership area, then yes, you will find it on the front page. "Local Soldier Dies."
I live near a major Navy base that employs young men that do the most dangerous job in the Navy. The are Navy SEALS. Even among those of us that are also in the Navy - they stand out. They carry themselves differently, look differently and are respected differently. They are respected greatly. Because of this, the front page news is that someone that served on my base was killed. They are from this base which makes them from here. In the past month we lost three SEALS. Two of them were Chiefs. All under 30 years old. I might have known them. Seen them at the bowling alley with their family, the commissary (grocery store) or in line at the personnel department getting an ID card. It didn't hit really hard until last week.
Last Friday, a dreary drizzly day, I saw a sign that said "SEAL Memorial." I thought it was a memorial service at the Chapel. It was more than that - it was a funeral. I drove by the base Chapel on my way to work out at the gym and I saw something I will never forget. Even now I tear up at the thought.
There in front of the Chapel was a hearse and behind the hearse were eight Navy Chiefs lined up on either side of the gurney for the casket. They stood there in the steady rain, waiting. They were wearing their dress blues which looks like a black double breasted suit with a white shirt and black tie. They wore their white dress hats with black brims. In the rain. On the sleeves of their jackets were their rating badges (rank insignia patch) and they were gold. To wear gold means they have over 12 years of good conduct. On their sleeves were the gold hash marks indicating years of service. Most of them had over 4 hash marks (16 years of service). They stood in the rain doing what SEALS do. The job that no one else wants to do. The hard job.
Navy SEALS don't see the signs that say, "Bring Our Troops Home!" and think the signs refer to them. For the SEAL it's about the mission. Everyone in the Navy has a mission. But not like the SEALS. They train, eat, drink, live and die the mission. They are totally focused and doing a job. They volunteered to be SEALS and went through the hardest training the military has to offer. Most don't make through the training. Those that do - wanted it more.
Last week three Navy SEALS were remembered for their final mission. And there will be more.
We need to remember them and remain worthy.

Watchmen

The question that keeps cropping up in the movie Watchmen is "Who watches the Watchmen?" To the average viewer it might be, "Who watches the Watchmen movie?" I can see why that question might come up.
Watchmen is based solely on the 12 issue comic book series (put in one volume as a graphic novel). This isn't like Spiderman, Superman, Hulk or Iron Man that you can enjoy without ever having read the comic - those heroes are part of a collective cultural consciousness. Watchmen is not like one of those hero series of which we know so much. Watchmen was a comic epic of a complicated, violent, sexual, apocalyptic nature - something that, up to the point it was published, was never seen in comics before. Watchmen is what started such a series being called a "graphic novel." Movies like Constantine, From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and V for Vendetta were also of this graphic novel vein. The last three mentioned were from the creator of the Watchmen.
Unlike Spidey, it seemed impossible to comic readers that such an ambitious project of Watchmen being brought to screen could even be done. It's not just the complicated, intertwined and, dare I say, convoluted story, it was also the effects. You see there is this bright blue atomic dude named Dr. Manhattan that elaborately moves around through time and space.
Back to the movie.
Watchmen takes place in 1985 in an alternate reality. Nixon is on his third term as President and we won the Vietnam war, just to name a few odd things that are out of place in this time line. We learn through the opening credits and flashbacks that there were two groups of costume heroes (not with super powers, per se, but vigilantes) that have existed. One group, known as the Minutemen, were around in the 1940s. The second group of costume vigilantes was in the 1970s and was known as the Watchmen. One character is in both groups, the Comedian. The death of the Comedian is what drives the story. We find out that the Minutemen, through personal circumstances and cultural changes, was disbanded on their own but the Watchmen was disbanded by the government. One Watchmen, Rorschach, has never given up his mask. He figures that someone is killing off costume vigilantes and decides to warn them all. Through this we find out what they are all doing after the masks came off. There is also this odd character of Dr. Manhattan, or John, that keeps cropping up. He is pivotal to the story. He once was human but through an experiment gone wrong he is transformed into something else. Something that defies time, space and reality. There is the threat of nuclear war looming in the news during this story as well. Nixon and the USSR are poised for war and the Watchmen are left wondering what they can still do to save the world.
This movie is completely based on the comic. The story board for this movie was the comic, as was the script. It would have been too much to film the entire graphic novel. But if you are a fan, there is enough of the story to keep you delighted.
I am not sure about those that have not.
As I said earlier, you can go see Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings without reading the books.
Normally, I can say that kind of thing with certainty about most movies based on books that I have seen (read the book or not). But in the case of Watchmen, I can't. It is movie mommy policy that any movie made from a book must stand on it's own.
My husband saw Watchmen and liked it. There was enough violence, sex, fight scenes, gore and special effects to keep him interested.
I feel I can only recommend this movie to people that have either read the comic/graphic novel, really dig any kind of superhero movie, pulp fiction story telling or off the norm stuff like V for Vendetta. Or just want to fly their movie freak flag.
By the way, the soundtrack kicks total butt!
MMM (3 Ms out of 5 Ms) based on the normal movie mommy criteria.
MMMM1/2M (4.5 Ms out of 5 Ms) for a movie based on a comic/graphic novel that I have read.