Monday, December 1, 2008

Watchmen trailer song / music - The beginning is the end is the beginning



Yes, I was also wondering what song is being played in Watchmen Trailers and found that its "The beginning is the end is the beginning" by Smashing Pumpkins (rarities and b-sides album). The song won the Grammy Award 1998 for Best Hard Rock Performance and I really liked the way it plays with Watchmen trailer thematic elements! Besides Watchmen trailer, it was also included in the soundtrack for Batman & Robin.
This is not one of the songs that Alan Moore used in the Watchmen graphic novel but I like the way it meshes with the dark and gloomy Watchmen movie trailer just inline with the Watchmen graphic novel. Infact I think its the perfect fit for both Watchmen graphic novel and movie the way it goes with some of the Watchmen characters (Rorschach & Dr. Manhattan aka Dr. Jonathan Osterman in particular) . Let me explain a little below (the song might relate to apocalypse and such but below are more specific line by line interpretations relating to Watchmen characters) -

The beginning is the end is the beginning

Since its referring to the cyclic nature of time and history, its a clear reference to Dr. Manhattan's / Osterman 's last words to Ozymandias(Adrian Veidt) - "It never ends. Nothing never ends".

Send a heartbeat to The void that cries through you


Shows how both Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan / Osterman feel alone / lonely. Alone not because they don't have any friends/associates but because few share their view of the world.


Relive the pictures that have come to pass


I kinda feel that its some sort of reference to how Dr. Manhattan / Osterman looks through the time.


For now we stand alone
The world is lost and blown And we are flesh and blood disintegrate With no more to hate


This sort of relates to
Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) and Dr. Manhattan / Osterman in two different ways. For Ozymandias its a way to create a perfect world free of war and hate and for Dr. Manhattan / Osterman its the higher understanding that he has gained of the world after his "disintegration" (yeah a bit oblique but can't miss it)

Is it bright where you are
And Have the people changed Does it make you happy you're so strange And in your darkest hour Now all secrets fade We can watch the world devoured in its pain


Kinda relates to again how Dr. Manhattan / Osterman views the world around him. In some ways also to
Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) because of his "master plan" to save the world.

Delivered from the blast
The last of a line of lasts The pale princess of a palace cracked
And now the kingdom comes Crashing down undone And I am a master of a nothing place Of recoil and grace

Is it bright where you are
And Have the people changed Does it make you happy you're so strange And in your darkest hour Now all secrets fade We can watch the world devoured in its pain

Time has stopped before us
The sky cannot ignore us No one can separate us For we are all that is left


Again clearly about Dr. Manhattan / Osterman. I think that its kinda about how Dr. Manhattan is transformed into a God among mortals!

The echo bounces off me
The shadow lost beside me There's no more need to pretend Cause now I can begin again


This, I think, is about how Nite Owl / Dan Dreiberg and Silk Spectre / Laurie Juspeczyk
feel after its all over, specially the "Cause now I can begin again" part.

Is it bright where you are And Have the people changed Does it make you happy you're so strange And in your darkest hour Now all secrets fade We can watch the world devoured in its pain Strange Strange Strange

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