The Eyes of WATCHMEN
Watchmen 1.07 "An Almost Religious Awe" digs into a theme the original comic repeats again and again and again and — who is watching.
This episode is all about eyes: as windows to the soul, as ways to discern the truth or ignore it, as symbols of destruction, as a link from past to present. It also makes the most of eyes in looks, from scene transitions to set design, closeups to superimpositions.
Let’s look at eight moments, how they’re shot, and what they mean.
Glasses Reflecting
Bian is the daughter and mother of Lady Trieu; we soon find out Lady Trieu cloned her mother and is presenting the clone as a young girl. This model of glasses is also worn by the woman Bian was cloned from, the style signifying who she is before our suspicions are confirmed.
Look closely and you can see Angela’s reflection — also doubled — in the lenses.
Eyes as Symbols
Eyes, glasses, and their related ephemera are used in literature from The Great Gatsby’s billboard to the Eye of Sauron to Piggy’s glasses in Lord of the Flies.
When Laurie is kidnapped, she wakes up at Kavalry headquarters under their symbol which looks like an angry, always-open eye.
Lady Trieu’s broadcast draws attention her eyes not merely with framing, but the way they draw a ‘eyeline’ from her to Angela (photo 1 below) and the placement of the wall/screen’s segment breaks, highlighting them in the look of an Orwellian Big Brother seeing every move Angela makes (photo 2 below).
Closeups
The episode uses many closeups, eyelights and ‘forced perspectives’ which blur much of the frame and concentrate focus on Angela’s eyes.
Watchmen’s costumes all make good use of eyes, even (or especially) those like Rorschach whose disguise obscures the person’s actually eyes. In this episode, Pirate Jenny’s brief appearance really highlights how stunning her eyes are, and how her disguise showcases them.
Match Cut
This gorgeous transition isn't purely for looks - the episode has clearly established how important as eyes are, and the transition links two characters as the narrative starts to tie together all its storylines on the way towards its endgame.
A Third Eye
During Angela’s flashbacks to her childhood, she sees herself painting Matryoshka-style dolls of Doctor Manhattan, with a ‘third eye’ prominent in the frame.
The final shot of the episode shows Angela removing a small disc from her husband Cal’s head, confirming to herself he is Doctor Manhattan.
The shot racks from the disc (superimposed over her right eye) to her eyes, leaving us staring into her soul as the final frame.
Takeaway
Our ethos “shot design isn’t just how something looks, it’s how it works” couldn’t be demonstrated more clearly than by this episode.
"An Almost Religious Awe" is gorgeous, but most importantly the shots all work to draw our eyes, help us connect narrative dots, show us who characters are, and underscore themes the show explores — all considerations when shotlisting and shooting.
Additional Stuff
A few years ago(!!!) Stu and I (and Chas!) did a Draft Zero podcast episode examining how the writing techniques of this Watchmen differed from the 2009 film, and what each took (or ditched) from the original comics.