How I imagine Rorschach's voice when I read WATCHMEN

link to original posting:  http://moderatedamage.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-i-imagine-rorschachs-voice-when-i.html

******************Edit for extra clarity:

THIS IS NOT A RAGE POST ABOUT THE FILM VERSION! I only put the movie in at the start and end to give my interpretation of his voice some kind of reference. This thread is about going into the ideas behind WATCHMEN (the comic) and forming an opinion based on a complete and thorough understanding of the comic. The film has nothing to do with any of the actual intellectual ideas expressed within this post.

*******************

This is an extremely long post for anyone who is genuinely interested in WATCHMEN so if you are going to complain about its length or harass me for writing this, please just leave now. We don’t want your kind here. This also isn’t a rage post about the movie; it’s about the comic and deconstructing Rorschach’s character in order to come up with a voice that makes sense for his personality.

Also, SPOILERS!

I want to start by saying that even though I despise WATCHMEN as a film in its current non-director's cut state, I thought Jackie Earle Haley brought an interesting take on Rorschach. While it was a good voice, it's not exactly the way I envisioned Rorschach speaking. It is extremely difficult to put to words what something you imagine actually sounds like, which is why only the best authors can vocalize what they mean and most people just allow something an actor brought to life to be their definitive version because they can’t describe what they imagined. I am going to try my best to describe what my interpretation of Rorschach's voice is, and I'd appreciate comments on my take as well as your own ideas.

Rorschach's voice to me represents much more than a raspy “Christian Bale Batman” when I read WATCHMEN. It describes his entire character, summing up his world view, personality and physical state. Let’s take into account all of the traits of his voice in the comic.

Another of Rorschach’s qualities which most people don’t pick up on is the fact that when talking to other people he speaks in sentence fragments, but when writing in his journal he uses more complete and well-constructed sentences. He is trying to speak like he’s jotting down notes in a journal but he writes in his actual journal like he’s producing an essay. Granted, his journal writings aren’t perfect either but they’re definitely more complex than his speech. This habit suggests two things, the first being that he is obsessed enough to intentionally go out of his way to speak like he’s writing in a journal. This kind of dedication to literally change your speech into something you know is socially unacceptable is only demonstrated by people who are mentally unstable enough to follow through with it. The other thing this habit does is reinforce Rorschach’s detachment from society. He feels more comfortable in his journal than he does when speaking to real people . The only people he deems worthy of seeing his true thoughts are, as we later find out, the staff of The New Frontiersman. This is curious, as they would no doubt publish it in their newspaper where everybody can see it anyway, which makes this aspect of his character much more complex.

Another quality to Rorschach’s voice is the jagged nature of his speech bubbles when he is in costume. When his costume is removed however, his speech reverts back to being in normal speech bubbles. This is another strong indicator about Rorschach’s character, because he gets all his confidence when he dons his costume (a theme that spans the entire comic with all of the characters) but it also serves as the groundwork for later in the comic when he is in prison. He finds out when forced to deal with dangerous prisoners that he can be just as resourceful without the costume, which may have been the first step in his progression to humanity. Ironically, his change to relative sanity began in the prison, but no thanks to the Dr. Malcolm Long, who began descending into Rorschach’s state of mind by the end of his issue (if you pay attention to the way he writes in his journal his sentences at the end of the chapter are much more disjointed and to the point than they were when the chapter started).

All of these traits should be expressed in Rorschach’s voice, but not only passively. His character should be actively understood to its fullest in order to be truly represented on film. That’s why I got into all the themes behind his voice’s traits and kind of got off topic by going into general themes of the comic, because any great actor should ‘exist’ as his character, and not just take things at face value.

To contrast the film version of Rorschach with the one I’ve fleshed out here, he constantly flares his voice (they seemed to have switched Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach in the film because Rorschach shows a lot of emotion while Dr. Manhattan shows hardly any). He also speaks like Rorschach when he is out of costume in the prison, which also goes against the comic version. A curious addition to the film was the ‘ink bleed’ effect on Rorschach’s mask, which actually did add gray to his mask, pretty much going against everything Rorschach stood for. (Also “it never ends” wasn’t even in the film, changing the entire meaning of everything, in addition to the other horrible change of making Dr. Manhattan kiss Laurie at the end instead of forgiving Dan. Another change in the film was having the first fight with Comedian and Veidt actually be told by Blake’s point of view and zooming out to a wide shot of the city with the detectives, killing the ‘in the trenches’ idea expressed in the comic.) They also turned his voice into an intense- at-all-times and always ready to fight kind of “superhero” instead of tired, unloved, unwanted “retired costumed adventurer.” Just to clarify here, I think Haley did a great job with the new Rorschach the film created, but it’s really the fault of the filmmakers’ for failing to catch onto these themes and turning Rorschach into a thematically inconsistent character.

This isn’t really a post about why I hate the film though, the real point was to explain how I imagine my Rorschach and get across some points from the comic that may have been overlooked to anybody interested in furthering their knowledge. I hope you enjoyed my little analysis of Rorschach and I will continue to put these out for anyone who wants a different perspective on WATCHMEN.

P.S. to everybody who points out that cutting the prisoner’s arms off was a better idea than cutting his throat, he didn’t have a saw in the comic! In the comic the guy was trying to use a blowtorch to cut the door down and the guy with his arms in the door was screaming. They were in a secluded part of the prison where guards may have heard them (since there was no riot in the solitary section and they didn’t know the guards were incapacitated by the screechers on Archie) so the guy took out a box cutter and killed the screaming prisoner so they could continue their work in peace and without getting caught. You can’t cut someone’s arms off with a blowtorch or box cutter! Stop saying it didn’t make sense in the comic please!

Just to clarify, inb4 why did you write so much about this, I just scrolled down to see how long it was, it’s not that important it’s just a comic, the movie was fine stop complaining, why do you have the movie icon as your GB picture if you hate it, nobody cares, or any such variations on these.

link to original posting:  http://moderatedamage.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-i-imagine-rorschachs-voice-when-i.html

******************Edit for extra clarity:

THIS IS NOT A RAGE POST ABOUT THE FILM VERSION! I only put the movie in at the start and end to give my interpretation of his voice some kind of reference. This thread is about going into the ideas behind WATCHMEN (the comic) and forming an opinion based on a complete and thorough understanding of the comic. The film has nothing to do with any of the actual intellectual ideas expressed within this post.

*******************

This is an extremely long post for anyone who is genuinely interested in WATCHMEN so if you are going to complain about its length or harass me for writing this, please just leave now. We don’t want your kind here. This also isn’t a rage post about the movie; it’s about the comic and deconstructing Rorschach’s character in order to come up with a voice that makes sense for his personality.

Also, SPOILERS!

I want to start by saying that even though I despise WATCHMEN as a film in its current non-director's cut state, I thought Jackie Earle Haley brought an interesting take on Rorschach. While it was a good voice, it's not exactly the way I envisioned Rorschach speaking. It is extremely difficult to put to words what something you imagine actually sounds like, which is why only the best authors can vocalize what they mean and most people just allow something an actor brought to life to be their definitive version because they can’t describe what they imagined. I am going to try my best to describe what my interpretation of Rorschach's voice is, and I'd appreciate comments on my take as well as your own ideas.

Rorschach's voice to me represents much more than a raspy “Christian Bale Batman” when I read WATCHMEN. It describes his entire character, summing up his world view, personality and physical state. Let’s take into account all of the traits of his voice in the comic.

Another of Rorschach’s qualities which most people don’t pick up on is the fact that when talking to other people he speaks in sentence fragments, but when writing in his journal he uses more complete and well-constructed sentences. He is trying to speak like he’s jotting down notes in a journal but he writes in his actual journal like he’s producing an essay. Granted, his journal writings aren’t perfect either but they’re definitely more complex than his speech. This habit suggests two things, the first being that he is obsessed enough to intentionally go out of his way to speak like he’s writing in a journal. This kind of dedication to literally change your speech into something you know is socially unacceptable is only demonstrated by people who are mentally unstable enough to follow through with it. The other thing this habit does is reinforce Rorschach’s detachment from society. He feels more comfortable in his journal than he does when speaking to real people . The only people he deems worthy of seeing his true thoughts are, as we later find out, the staff of The New Frontiersman. This is curious, as they would no doubt publish it in their newspaper where everybody can see it anyway, which makes this aspect of his character much more complex.

Another quality to Rorschach’s voice is the jagged nature of his speech bubbles when he is in costume. When his costume is removed however, his speech reverts back to being in normal speech bubbles. This is another strong indicator about Rorschach’s character, because he gets all his confidence when he dons his costume (a theme that spans the entire comic with all of the characters) but it also serves as the groundwork for later in the comic when he is in prison. He finds out when forced to deal with dangerous prisoners that he can be just as resourceful without the costume, which may have been the first step in his progression to humanity. Ironically, his change to relative sanity began in the prison, but no thanks to the Dr. Malcolm Long, who began descending into Rorschach’s state of mind by the end of his issue (if you pay attention to the way he writes in his journal his sentences at the end of the chapter are much more disjointed and to the point than they were when the chapter started).

All of these traits should be expressed in Rorschach’s voice, but not only passively. His character should be actively understood to its fullest in order to be truly represented on film. That’s why I got into all the themes behind his voice’s traits and kind of got off topic by going into general themes of the comic, because any great actor should ‘exist’ as his character, and not just take things at face value.

To contrast the film version of Rorschach with the one I’ve fleshed out here, he constantly flares his voice (they seemed to have switched Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach in the film because Rorschach shows a lot of emotion while Dr. Manhattan shows hardly any). He also speaks like Rorschach when he is out of costume in the prison, which also goes against the comic version. A curious addition to the film was the ‘ink bleed’ effect on Rorschach’s mask, which actually did add gray to his mask, pretty much going against everything Rorschach stood for. (Also “it never ends” wasn’t even in the film, changing the entire meaning of everything, in addition to the other horrible change of making Dr. Manhattan kiss Laurie at the end instead of forgiving Dan. Another change in the film was having the first fight with Comedian and Veidt actually be told by Blake’s point of view and zooming out to a wide shot of the city with the detectives, killing the ‘in the trenches’ idea expressed in the comic.) They also turned his voice into an intense- at-all-times and always ready to fight kind of “superhero” instead of tired, unloved, unwanted “retired costumed adventurer.” Just to clarify here, I think Haley did a great job with the new Rorschach the film created, but it’s really the fault of the filmmakers’ for failing to catch onto these themes and turning Rorschach into a thematically inconsistent character.

This isn’t really a post about why I hate the film though, the real point was to explain how I imagine my Rorschach and get across some points from the comic that may have been overlooked to anybody interested in furthering their knowledge. I hope you enjoyed my little analysis of Rorschach and I will continue to put these out for anyone who wants a different perspective on WATCHMEN.

P.S. to everybody who points out that cutting the prisoner’s arms off was a better idea than cutting his throat, he didn’t have a saw in the comic! In the comic the guy was trying to use a blowtorch to cut the door down and the guy with his arms in the door was screaming. They were in a secluded part of the prison where guards may have heard them (since there was no riot in the solitary section and they didn’t know the guards were incapacitated by the screechers on Archie) so the guy took out a box cutter and killed the screaming prisoner so they could continue their work in peace and without getting caught. You can’t cut someone’s arms off with a blowtorch or box cutter! Stop saying it didn’t make sense in the comic please!

Just to clarify, inb4 why did you write so much about this, I just scrolled down to see how long it was, it’s not that important it’s just a comic, the movie was fine stop complaining, why do you have the movie icon as your GB picture if you hate it, nobody cares, or any such variations on these.

Ok, I skimmed over it, but all I really have to say is that your example of Rorscach's speech could have been much better than that particular page. When he's with Nite Owl, he speaks a lot more, and it is a much better example of what you are saying. Also, you say that they swapped Manhattan and Rorschach regarding emotion, but neither one was all that emotional. I didn't see the film, but in the comic, I only recall Dr.Manhattan getting emotional one time, just before he left for Mars. I do agree, however, that Rorscach is more of a tired cynic than someone always looking for a fight. He's simply doing what he thinks he must do, he's not necessarily an overly aggressive kind of guy. 

The movie was fine stop complaining.

If anyone is interested I will continue to write these posts delving into the greater details of WATCHMEN, but if nobody's going to read/respond then I'll hold off on it. Pretty much this is a bump, but only to gauge GB's interest in this subject.

When it comes down to it, you have to realize that the movie of Watchmen is not the end-all, be-all of Watchmen.  It is merely an interpretation.  That's all.  It's a supplement.  Snyder has never once said that the movie would be a complete replacement for the book.  He's always stated that it would be an interpretation.

Great blog Spike

Great post Spike! It was a very interesting read.

I do think that your analysis is actually quite informative and interesting. I like how you spoke of Rorschach's voice being more than just "a voice".

But, I kinda want to add in one thing, and though I'm not sure it's fact or not, I'd like you to consider it: Alan Moore made the speech bubbles warped (probably) because he's wearing a mask. He did the same thing for V in V for Vandetta. So, Haley's "Rorschach vs Walter" voice interpretation was a little shaky as far as that information goes.

And personally, I like the gravelly voice being there 100% of the time. And JEH did do a marvelous job with Rorschach, and not just as your perception on "movie" Rorschach vs "comic" Rorschach. I understand that the characters have been slightly meddled with, but nobody's perfect, and it's hard to make a masterpiece of graphic literature into a 3-hour movie.

i thought haley performed better than ledger 

i didn't think he had that voice all the time. i thought when he was writing his journal he was merely talking very angry. and then in the prison scene with the psychiatrist. he is plain spoken almost like Hannibal Lecter. 

When I read Watchmen, that's pretty much how I imagined it.

"nabaroo said:

"I do think that your analysis is actually quite informative and interesting. I like how you spoke of Rorschach's voice being more than just "a voice".But, I kinda want to add in one thing, and though I'm not sure it's fact or not, I'd like you to consider it: Alan Moore made the speech bubbles warped (probably) because he's wearing a mask. He did the same thing for V in V for Vandetta. So, Haley's "Rorschach vs Walter" voice interpretation was a little shaky as far as that information goes.And personally, I like the gravelly voice being there 100% of the time. And JEH did do a marvelous job with Rorschach, and not just as your perception on "movie" Rorschach vs "comic" Rorschach. I understand that the characters have been slightly meddled with, but nobody's perfect, and it's hard to make a masterpiece of graphic literature into a 3-hour movie."

It's definitely true that it's extremely hard to adapt such an amazing comic into so small a timeframe and when the Director's Cut comes out I'm optimistic it will make the film better. The first impression I got from the reason the speech bubbles were jagged was also because he has his face on to muffle his voice (like the explanation they give for people not recognizing Spider-Man's voice in the comics), but then when he partially takes it off to eat sugar cubes or beans, he still talks like that. This led me to believe that it is his custume that provokes him to do the voice transformation, which also goes with the theme of all the characters feeling more at home when they become their larger-than-life counterparts. 

Also, yes Haley did do an amazing job acting as Rorschach, and again, I really hope we get a lot more content from him in the Director's Cut because that performance, along with the opening montage and Jon's narration of his past life, was my favorite part of the film. 

"

Hey, thanks~!

I never imagined a voice, but I did figure it would be growly since he was a psychopath & that was 12-14 years ago when I read it, before anyone even knew who Christian Bale was, except for maybe American Psycho.