Harrison Pauer

Professor Linda Haas

Writing 39B
19 May 2014
The New and Improved Watson
What is a sidekick in the detective genre? Is a sidekick a wise advisor to the
detective? Is the sidekick a friend that helps the detective with his or her emotional
problems? Is the sidekick the physical backup for the main detective? The sidekick
Conan Doyle created is a mixture of all three of these elements. Doyle created a sidekick
that would help the detective solve crimes, but Doyle also made the sidekick a friend.
These elements are very simple characteristics that Doyle used to establish Watson;
however, Watson has many more complex elements that lead Watsons success as
sidekick.
One of the main conventions that led to Watsons success was his ability to relate
to the main audience, the middle-class Victorian man. Watson was a perfect example of
the middle-class Victorian man. Even the simplest characteristics of Watson, such as his
name, made him more relatable to the middle-class man. Watson was given a very plain
name; a name that would be very relatable to the middle-class man. Panek writes about
the convention of Watson in his book, An Introduction to the Detective Story. In
chapter 7 of this book, Panek writes about Doyles version of the detective story and
towards the end of this chapter Panek quickly mentions the convention of Watson. Panek
believes Watsons name makes him even more relatable to the main audience, quiet
name for this unostentatious man. (77). In one of Doyles stories, The Sign of Four,
Doyle does a very good job at representing Watson as the perfect Victorian man. The
Sign of Four is one of Doyles earlier stories where Sherlock and Watson are hired to
find the out the source of the mysterious gifts given to Mary Morstan. Watson and
Holmes end up finding the murders of the mysterious mans brother, and Watson falls in
love with Ms. Morstan. However, when Watson finds out that Ms. Morstan is about
receive a large sum of money, he does what a proper middle-class man does and leaves
her alone. (Location 640). Watson does not want Ms. Morstan to marry a man under her
social class. However, the most important convention of Watson is his role as the
narrator. In Paneks first chapter, Panek states the beginnings of the detective genre, and
Panek suggests that Doyle made Watson the narrator because he was more relatable to
the audience than Sherlock (9). Doyle gave the audience a narrator that was not only
relatable, but a narrator that was able to present facts without any biased thoughts of his
own. In Konnikovas book Mastermind How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes,
Konnikova talks about the two methods of thinking; the Holmes method and the Watson
method. Konnikova believes Watson is a man of observation, Think of the Watson
system as our naive selves, operating by the lazy thought habit . . . [the] path of least
resistance (18). Watson acts as surrogate for the reader by giving the reader the
perspective of Holmes world without giving the reader Holmes deductions. However,
this main function of Watson gets stripped from him in the recent films series featuring
Jude Law as Watson.
The new film series, featuring Jude Law as Watson, has reformed the Doyle series
to fit the desires of a modern film audience. In order to fit the needs of the modern
audience, Guy Ritchie, the director for the new two films of Sherlock Holmes, has
retailored a few conventions of the Doyle series to fit the new audience, and one
convention that has been remodeled the most is the convention of Watson. Ritchie has
made the world of Sherlock visible to the modern audience by taking the Doyle series
and transforming it to the big screen; therefore, Ritchie has completely erased the need
for a narrator because the audience now has capability to see what is happening in the
world of Sherlock. However, by eliminating the need for a narrator, Ritchie has removed
one of the main functions of Watson, which has significantly destroyed the significance
of Watson. In order to make Watson more relevant in the movie, Ritchie has given
Watson two main upgrades. One of the main improvements Ritchie gave Watson is the
power of deduction. Watsons new power of deduction is in no comparison to the grand
detectives deduction, but it is certainly better than the Doyle Watson who could not
make any deductions. The second improvement Ritchie has done to Watson is Watsons
background as a soldier. Ritchie has put to greater use in combat situations, which
helped portray Watson as more of soldier than the Doyle Watson. These two major
upgrades have significantly closed the gap between Watson and Sherlock; the two are
now more like partners than they are sidekick and detective. These new upgrades can
easily been in Ritchies first film, Sherlcok Holmes.
In Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock and Watson begin the film by stopping the evil
Blackwood; however, after Blackwood is hanged and buried, Blackwood somehow
resurrects from the dead. Sherlock and Watson spend the rest of the film trying to find
and stop Blackwood. About forty minutes in the movie, there is a great four-minute
scene that represents Watsons new powers. The scene begins with Holmes struggling to
pick a lock to a door when Watson suddenly kicks down the door, and Watson and
Holmes begin their observations and deductions of the laboratory. This is one of the
more serious scenes in the movie, which can easily be seen in the change of lighting from
the previous scene, for the previous scene was a comical and outside scene filmed in
high-key lighting. However, the scene inside the laboratory is serious, so the scene is
filmed in low-key lighting. Since the scene is filled with Sherlock and Watson making
deductions, the first two minutes of the scene is filled with single character shots and
following shots filmed at a medium long angle. Ritchie used the single character shots to
show Watson and Holmes perspective, and Ritchie used the following shot from a
medium long angle to show the characters movement and facial action as they make
deductions. To match the action packed pace of the movie, Ritchie filled this slow scene
with quick reverse cuts to help keep the high paced flow of the movie. In this scene,
Watson is able to make several deductions. His first deduction is based off a bear trap he
saw, and he was able to deduce that subject who worked at the laboratory was expecting
trouble. The second deduction Watson makes is based off his observations off the notes
on the windows and table, and he concludes the resident of the laboratory was trying to
combine sorcery and magic. The third and final deduction Watson makes is the resident
of the laboratory was working with Blackwood, and he was able to make this deduction
with the help of a little chemistry. The next few shots involve Holmes and Watson
fighting three criminals that wanted to burn the house down. This scene shows Watsons
new effectiveness in combat; Watson takes on two men that are equal in size to him and
wins. In the next film by Guy Ritchie, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Ritchie
gives Watson even more improvements.
In the second film, Sherlock and Watson are trying to stop the worlds most
dangerous man, Professor James Moriarty. To help increase the intensity of the movie,
Ritchie improves all of his characters including Watson. Roger Erbert, a movie critic,
agreses that Watson has been upgraded. Erbert states Dr. Watson has a more proactive
role this time. (1). Erbert believes that in this movie Watson behaves more as a hero
(1). For Watson, Ritchie increased marksmanship, increased intelligence, and increased
Watsons level of deduction that could match Sherlock. One hour and forty-five minutes
in the movie, which is the climax of the film, we see the peak of Watsons powers.
Watson and Sherlock are trying to find Moriartys planted assassin, and the scene begins
with a backwards tracking shot filmed at a medium shot camera angle which is suppose
to show Watson observing the crowd. The beginning of this scene has no music in it
which helps increase the suspense of finding he assassin. The next few shots are of the
Madam Heron trying to find her brother who believed to be the assassin. The next shot
there is medium shot of Watson and Madam Heron, and during this shot there is a slight
ticking sound from the chess game between Watson and Moriarty that signifies the
countdown to the terrible act of the assassin. In this shot, Madam Heron tells Watson that
see does not know which man is her brother, so Watson begins to observe the crowd to
make his own deductions. The next shot is a pan shot followed by quick jump shots from
ambassador to ambassador, and these shots are supposed to represent Watsons
perspective while he gives his deductions about the assassin. The next shot is a close-up
of Madam Heron followed by a pan shot of the ambassadors. This shot is suppose to
represent Watson listening to Madam Heron followed by his observation of the crowd
with his new information Madam Heron gave him. During the next few shots there is a
violin that gets slightly louder with each passing second to intensify the scene, and the
remaining shots are reverse shots between Holmes, Moriarty, Watson, Madam Heron,
and Watsons perspective. The next few shots go from a medium shot to a close up shot
and finally extreme close-up shots; these decreasing size shots help increase the suspense
of the climax. These sequences of shots are very chaotic and fast-paced which increases
the suspsense. As these shots are been made, Holmes is narrating Watsons thoughts,
which demonstrates that Watson has finally reached Holmes level of deduction. Finally,
when Watson believes he has found the assassin, the reverse shots become slow reverse
pan shots; these slow shots represent time slowing down. These slow shots are a
technique used in film industry when the audience finds out the answer in order to create
suspense for the audience. Then time speeds backup with a loud thud representing
Madam Heron confronting her brother, and as soon as Madam Heron grabs her brother, a
violin begins to play a very sharp note thats drives the suspense even further. Then the
assassin suddenly pulls out a gun, but Watson was able to disrupt his shot.
With Watsons inability to narrate, Ritchie needed to fill the void that was
created, or risk the chance of creating a character that would be relatively useless.
Ritchie decided to give Watson a power-up that would make Watson closer to Holmes
partner rather than his sidekick. In the first film, Ritchie gave Watson the power of
deduction, a trait that was unique to Sherlock, and the ability fight effectively. In the
second film, Ritchie gave Watson another power-up, and Watson now had increased
marksmanship, increased intelligence, and increased levels of deduction that could match
Sherlock. Ritchie kept his films very close to the conventions set by Doyle while keeping
the film entertaining for an action movie audience.
Works Cited
Works Cited:
Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Sign of the Four. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2013.
Kindle eBook. Online.
Konnikova, Maria. Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. New York:
Viking, 2013. Print.
Panek, Leroy. An Introduction to the Detective Story. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling
Green State University Popular Press, 1987. Print.
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows Movie Review (2011) | Roger Ebert." All
Content. Web. 18 May 2014.