Tales of the Black Freighter

I was never a big fan of Gerard Butler until I watched Tales of the Black Freighter. His utter commitment to the sadness, desperation, and horror of his character’s plight sells the premise of the short animated film better than all the bursting corpse stomachs ever could.
Of course, at this point, we all know that Black Freighter is based on the comic-within-a-comic in the landmark graphic novel “Watchmen.” The story of a doomed vessel’s captain and his desperate journey to save his family from the same fate as his crew is meant to echo the emotional state of one of the characters in the story and, as such, is interspersed throughout the novel.
The animated film does a fairly good job of translating the grisly story into a movie format. It is powerful and haunting, just as it is supposed to be. In a lot of ways, I liked it better than the feature-length Watchmen, which tended to favor an overly-stylized version of reality. In Black Freighter, however, the story is meant to take place in a heightened reality, where a man can cross the ocean on a raft made of bloated corpses.
I enjoyed Black Freighter a great deal more than I ever expected.
I also enjoyed Under the Hood, a short film adapting another piece of “bonus material” from the graphic novel into a mockumentary about the history of masked vigilantes in the Watchmen world. Done in a 60 Minutes style, Under the Hood interviews several peripheral characters from the film, asking their opinions on the necessity for superheroes and the possible danger of Dr. Manhattan. All of the actors react with the degree of naturalism needed to sell the idea that we’re watching a news show.
“Under the Hood” was always meant to be a supplement to the primary story and the film version continues in that tradition. Those that haven’t seen Watchmen will neither comprehend what the characters are talking about, nor will they care. For those that have seen the film, however, Under the Hood will help to expand the alternate reality put forth in Watchmen.
While I’m not sure if I can recommend buying Tales of the Black Freighter/Under the Hood, I would certainly suggest you rent it. For diehard Watchmen fans, it’s a delightful- if fairly disposable- experience.