To call SIN CITY a visceral triumph barely begins to cover the success Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller have pulled off. Hard edged and hard core this film is an authentic slice of pulp fiction. Miller's stories and characters are clearly inspired by Mickey Spillane or Raymond Chandler.
But Chandler and Spillane were never like this.
As anyone psyched to see this film knows, SIN CITY the movie is based on three of Frank Miller's "Sin City" graphic novels: the premiere story now dubbed "The Hard Goodbye", "The Big Fat Kill", and "That Yellow Bastard" (there's also a tidy wrap around from "The Customer Is Always Right").
"The Hard Goodbye" follows Marv (Mickey Rourke) as he hunts down the killer of the only girl who ever showed him an ounce of affection. Here we are literally bathed in what a "Sin City " story is all about. Ultra violence, nudity, and depravity. Oh, and did I mention the blood? There's lots of it in Marv's tale (stylized in ways discussed below). Marv is an unstoppable killing force. In many ways, he is no better than the twisted killer he is pursuing (a creepy Elijah Wood -- as far away from Frodo as you can possibly go). Like most noir anti-heroes, though, Marv has a code. A simple one, but a code nonetheless. It's what separates Marv from the animals. Barely. It's why we love the hamburger faced lug. Rourke is the stand out performance in SIN CITY. He portrays Marv with a well balanced blend of humor and cruelty, even more so than Frank Miller wrote.
"The Big Fat Kill" involves the one man who comes closest to being a nice guy. Dwight (Clive Owen) also has his code and it has a good streak of justice about it. He meters out his punishment in direct proportion to the wrongs inflicted upon him and the ones he cares about. The one he cares about most is Gail (Rosario Dawson). She runs a ring of well armed prostitutes that command the Old Town district. If any guy steps out of line on their turf, deadly consequences will follow. When the girls kill the wrong guy, it's up to Dwight to set things right. Following Marv's story line, Dwight's adventure seems softer at first. That's because Dwight is softer (which, in Sin City, means Dwight has some respect for the law and its few abiding citizens). "The Big Fat Kill" doesn't disappoint, though.
"That Yellow Bastard" deals with Hartigan (Bruce Willis). Hartigan was a former cop who went against the city's corrupt officials to rescue a little girl from rape and death. The fact that the rapist in question was the renegade son of the highest city crook is what gets Hartigan framed for the exact crime he prevents. Only Nancy, the girl he saved, knows the truth and loves Hartigan dearly for it. Eight years later, Hartigan fears that Nancy may have been found out by the very forces that wanted to silence her as a child. Nancy , now 19 and played by Jessica Alba, is still in love with Hartigan. She's also still in need of his help as the titular yellow bastard (Nick Stahl) is the one after her and Hartigan. Willis has this weary cop down cold. We feel every ounce of suffering he has been through in prison. Every bit of true love he harbors for Nancy. Alba wisely keeps a little girl innocence visible below Nancy's stripper shell. It makes Hartigan's sacrifices all the more poignant. He is the last defender of anything "pure" in Sin City. To call SIN CITY a film noir doesn't quite cover how black it can be. Miller's best work has always exposed the underbelly of the human soul. Even his Batman epic "The Dark Knight Returns" revels in the dark side. On one level, Miller's depiction of sin and violence comments on just how bad humanity has shattered its taboos. The books and the film are clearly influenced by a modern age's vice. Its sickness. "Hard Goodbye" even has elements of Ed Gein and modern serial killers (something Chandler would never dream of). On the other level, though, SIN CITY is a grand guignol entertainment like slasher films or Hong Kong action cinema.
Though SIN CITY is a lavishly violent film, it's violence is stylized just like the graphic novels that inspired it. Blood is often depicted as white splashes. Even when it is red, it is a stark red. As stark as the black and white that shares the screen (these splashes of color are an addition by Rodriguez done truly in the spirit of Miller's design).
Frank Miller's series is already considered a work of art. This is why Rodriguez was wise to partner with Miller in making his panels live and breathe. It's odd to think of things living and breathing when 85 to 90 percent of what's up on screen is created in a computer. Some of you may have noticed that I'm only now getting to the already infamous look of SIN CITY. That's because, unlike other effects heavy universes, SIN CITY's style is purely in service of the story.<!--page-->
Rodriguez, like George Lucas, is a champion of digital cinema and the virtual realities it can create. Unlike Lucas, however, Rodriguez clearly shows how to use this technology for art, not artifice. Every scene of SIN CITY was performed before a green screen with most (if not all) of the sets rendered later. We've seen this type of trick before in SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW and the recent STAR WARS films. The major difference here is that, after the first jaw dropping minutes of SIN CITY, you actually forget that nothing is real. The CG rarely calls attention to itself as it so often does in the more self conscious work of Mr. Lucas.
This is also the first time video has blown film away. As always with a Robert Rodriguez production, Rodriguez was his own cameraman. With SIN CITY, he has shot his first clear masterwork. The blacks are the richest blacks seen on screen since the golden age of black and white cinematographers like Greg Toland (CITIZEN KANE). The whites are brilliant shades of silver. If this type of photography can be achieved on hi-def tape, a whole new world has finally been perfected for filmmakers.
In the end, though, it is Frank Miller's stories that carry the day in SIN CITY. Like master magicians, they misdirect you from the digital tricks on screen while simultaneously wrapping themselves in it. Just as it should be.
Sin City opens across the US today and on June 3 in the UK. You can access details and media from the film in our database .
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