Just as a matter of personal taste, I haven't even the slightest
interest in seeing Watchmen,
but I did think it was amusing to see Entertainment Weekly
so swoony over the film's "at least two shout-outs to
Woodward and Bernstein"--breathtaking!--and accidental
endorsement of Obama's stimulus plan:
The biggest laugh Watchmen got at the sold-out, 9
a.m., IMAX suburban-theater show I went to on Saturday occurred
[SOMETHING OF A SPOILER ALERT HERE--LOOK AWAY IF YOU MUST!]
when the Lee Iacocca-businessman-figure said, "Free is just
another word for socialist." It was the happily derisive laugh
of a crowd that was totally into the movie, and which also
seemed well aware of the recent effort to label the Obama
stimulus package as "socialist"--and the audience clearly
thought the use of that supposedly-inflammatory word was a
joke.
One of the silly reactionaries most concerned over "that
supposedly-inflammatory word" is, of course, Barack
Obama, who some of you may recall from a recent issue of
Spider-Man.
UPDATE: See also Tabin's take on the complicated
politics of the film.
