Since, apparently, I didn't have enough to be angry about today.

[tzikeh]

mtgat posted a segment of An Open Letter From WATCHMEN Screenwriter David Hayter, in which he is asking the fans who saw it on opening weekend to see it again. He is astoundingly blind to the hatefully misogynistic language he is using. Likely, there will be spoilers in the comments (there's a very mild one in the quote).

"All this time, you’ve been waiting for a director who was going to hit you in the face with this story. To just crack you in the jaw, and then bend you over the pool table with this story. With its utterly raw view of the darkest sides of human nature, expressed through its masks of action and beauty and twisted good intentions. Like a fry-basket full of hot grease in the face. Like the Comedian on the Grassy Knoll. I know, I know...

You say you don't like it. You say you've got issues. I get it. (I used the bold tag here, but what I really need is an incredulous-sarcasm-motherfucker-do-you-speak-it tag.)

And yet... You'll be thinking about this film, down the road. It'll nag at you. How it was rough and beautiful. How it went where it wanted to go, and you just hung on. How it was thoughtful and hateful and bleak and hilarious. And for Jackie Earle Haley.

Trust me. You'll come back, eventually. Just like Sally."

Later, when he tries to apologize, HE MAKES IT WORSE:

"...let me apologize for my metaphor. I am certainly not advocating violence against women of any kind. My sole intent was to reference... the nature of the relationship between Sally and the Comedian... in the spirit of speaking to those who are truly entwined with the heart of the story--[a] horrific act, that ends in a love story.

I sincerely apologize for any offense."

The fact that David Hayter is a vile, loathsome, abhorrent mass of human-shaped excrement doesn't necessarily mean I won't eventually see the movie. My sense is that he does not have a part of the profit-sharing; as he is a screenwriter, my bet is that his salary is paid already. But this is quite the public display of ingrained and unconscious misogyny, and I think that when people say things like this, it should be publicized as much as possible, and that the vilification and condemnation should be spread far and wide.

Comments

[suaine.livejournal.com]

So what he's saying is... that the movie tried to rape us and because it didn't get to penetrate, we should give it another chance to violate our souls? Yeah, wow, I really liked the movie for what it was and now I'm thinking just to spite David Hayter maybe I won't see it again.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Well, he's saying, though *probably* not even realizing he's saying, that, just like Sally Jupiter, we'll come back to our abuser, because we've been wanting to be cracked across the jaw and bent over a pool table.

The apology is even WORSE:

"...let me apologize for my metaphor. I am certainly not advocating violence against women of any kind. My sole intent was to reference... the nature of the relationship between Sally and the Comedian... in the spirit of speaking to those who are truly entwined with the heart of the story--A horrific act, that ends in a love story.

I sincerely apologize for any offense."

[suaine.livejournal.com]

...... in a love story? What the fucking hell?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as he's concerned, Comedian and Jupiter are a love story.

As you see.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

Strange that. When I read the book and saw the movie, it didn't look like a love story to me. It looked like trauma, abuse, self-esteem issues, violence and everything that isn't love. Strange how I could have gotten that wrong. I am so glad Hayter is here to educate me.

[isagel.livejournal.com]

But, but, but...

WHAT NOVEL HAS HE BEEN READING?!

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The one that can only be read with a male gaze.

[iko.livejournal.com]

I got the impression from the comic that Sally, in the end, fell in love (or, at least what she considers love) with Edward. I don't consider it a love story at all and I don't consider *that relationship* as "the heart" of the story.

I sense that Hayter is incapable at communicating the story to anyone outside already established Watchmen people. He is seeing the film and the world from an already established perspective and can't communicate outside of that perspective, speaking with in-context references to the material. He's blind to his language because he's being one of those fanboys who thinks he's clever and not realizing what he's actually saying. Not that it excuses it, but I see that as the reason for the display of stupidity.

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

Like a fry-basket full of hot grease in the face.

He certainly has a turn for inappropriate violent metaphor invoking abusive invasion, hasn't he? I'm thinking his surname seems quite apt at this point.

"A horrific act, that ends in a love story"....Good Flippin' God.

[letloverule42.livejournal.com]

....oh my fucking god.
i'm so incredibly disgusted that i don't think there are WORDS for it. holy shit.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Link it from you lj. Spread the word. People should know what this guy is made of.

[letloverule42.livejournal.com]

I twittered about it, will post it on my FB as well. Thanks for posting.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

what's your twitter name? I'm tzikeh.

[letloverule42.livejournal.com]

letloverule42, just like on here :)

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

What. The. Fuck. is that shit? If I hadn't seen it already, this would make me stay FAR away.

What a way to make sure I DON'T see it again.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Sort of astounding, isn't it. Especially the "apology" in which he tries to explain that the fans' reaction to the movie is like the complexity of Comedian / Jupiter's relationship, in that it starts out hard and TURNS INTO A LOVE STORY.

Pass it around.

[kismeteve.livejournal.com]

I'm posting about it and I sent a link to Jezebel.

[vickita.livejournal.com]

You know what's ironic? The juxtaposition between this dickhead and today's blog entry from John Rogers (http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/your-weekends-entertainment.html"). Makes me love JR just that much more.

[aurora]

GROSS. :|

[ratcreature]

It's probably a sign of having been in comics fandom too long that I can't even feel properly outraged at this kind of thing any more. :/

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's revolting. And not, I think, a particularly good reading of the book--or the film.

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Well of course Sally really loved him because he gave her what all women really want. It's totally true. Almost every woman I've talked to admits to having fantasies of being raped.

*closed captioning for the sarcastically impaired is not available at this time because our sponsor hightailed it to some uncharted island*

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. God. I don't even have words.

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

Oh. My. Gawd.

I haven't seen the movie, and now, I don't know if I want to.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Well, keep in mind the fact that DH is a waste of precious oxygen doesn't really have much bearing on the film as a film. Have you read the novel?

[12-12-12.livejournal.com]

I'm in the middle of reading it, at the urging of my friends list. *g* I know that the movie itself could be great, regardless of the fact that its screenwriter is a dung beetle in human form...but the fact that he's urging people to see it twice makes me want to avoid it completely out of perversity. And presumably, if the film profits, he profits. I doubt that my $10 could make much difference, but my initial gut reaction was just to run far, far away.

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

I feel nauseous.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

That is exactly what the movie is. Reading that, it could be a review rather than commentary, except for the part where it sticks with you after for it's complexness (it ain't that complex and I've forgotten it already).

Which is part of why I hated it. They other part is that it's an hour too long and wildly boring.

[grey-bard.livejournal.com]

I. Just.

On what planet does that even make sense for him to *say*? Even as a misogynistic man trying to get other misogynistic men to see his movie a second time?

He just compared watching his movie to being raped and he thinks this will somehow make people want to see it? Wait, what?

I do not understand. Is he from crazy person land?

deleted and re-posted for failure at typing coherently

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

My roommates and I were just boggling at that thing (and mocking the hell out of him). WTF, David Hayter? We were like, "So does that mean, if I go to see Watchmen... the movie is going to... rape me? And then I'll... have a baby with it?"

In addition to the misogyny, it's also so pompous. "Is my movie Jesus? Ghandi? Or just a thousand orgasms at once? I'm not sure yet."

BTW, if you buy the DVD, he will get residuals, but not if you rent. (I never thought I'd be giving people pointers on how NOT to give screenwriters residuals.)