Not to be written off as yet another comic book film, “Frank Miller’s Sin City” is the first comic book movie to be more comic book than film. It perfectly captures the mood and style of Miller’s cult books, foregoing the standard impulse to massage the material into something more traditionally cinematic. For some, this may work against the film. For me, it proved that Robert Rodriguez (Desperado) has achieved what many had considered impossible—his “Sin City” actually does justice to the original graphic novels.
This translation of the material could have resulted in a dull exercise to appease Miller’s fans (see the first two Harry Potter films), Rodriguez, however, avoids this pitfall. Sometimes gruesome, sometimes sadistic, but always gripping, “Sin City” is a visceral blow to the senses. Using Miller’s illustrated panels as storyboards, while also pulling his brash-yet-eloquent dialogue unfiltered, Rodriguez’s “Sin City” immerses us in a comic book styled narrative. Despite what people may think of the film, no one can deny that it is visually stunning.
It is black and white in the truest sense, as opposed to traditional black and white films that are merely shades of grey. Rodriguez shot the film with a hi-definition digital camera, which allowed him to tweak the colors on the fly. He shows us the stark contrast between black and white, taking the term film noir literally. Much of the film is digitally created in a method similar to “Sky Captain”, but we accept this early on as “Sin City” is entirely engrossing.
The film’s city of sin, Basin City, is aptly named. It is a cesspool of corruption, violence, and machismo. They exist together seamlessly in such a way that it is sometimes difficult to tell the good from the bad. Our heroes are as violent and sadistic as the villains they pursue, but we know they are good because there are limited in their actions by a consistent moral viewpoint, something the villain’s lack. Their actions are justified, or perhaps excused, because they fight for the sake of someone else, in each case a woman.
Hartigan is a seemingly typical role for Bruce Willis, who is often cast as the tough cop. But instead of seeming typecast, Hartigan reminds us of why we always think of Willis as a hard-hitting cop. Mickey Rourke’s Marv is a hulking, ugly, brick of a man. Rourke lives and breathes the character, and despite heavy prosthetics, he is always believable. Clive Owen’s Dwight isn’t so much a typical hero as he is a violent crusader on behalf of wronged women. Owen is electric in the film, but this is always true for him.
Misogyny is inherent in the film noir, where women are both weak and meant to be protected, or something to be feared. “Sin City” makes this abundantly clear, but it also shows that women in its noir universe can exercise power through their sexuality. The strong women in the film are either prostitutes or strippers, and it seems that is the only way a woman can survive in Basin City.
Sex drives the film, as each of the three main characters is driven by their need to avenge or protect a woman. While this is misogynistic in its own sense, as chivalry always has been, the villains are instead more overt about their sexism in their extreme violence against women. So, for example, when we see Hartigan blow a man’s hand and crotch off, we feel the victim is somewhat deserving of his fate.
I mention the violence of the film so often because “Sin City” is, without a doubt, the most violent American film I’ve seen in theaters. More so than “Kill Bill”, whose violence was often not to be taken seriously, “Sin City’s” violence is serious and meant to hurt. While “Sin City” offers no scene equal to Uma Thurman’s dismemberment orgy, it contains small moments of extreme violence that are memorable because Rodriguez isn’t afraid to show us the violent act in its full glory.
Some would write this off as “shock value”, I instead consider it a trait of a film that knows exactly what it wants to be. Miller’s “Sin City” books were dark and grimy stories, and this is what is most often lost in the cinematic translation. Rodriguez knew better than this—he brought Miller on board as co-director to ensure that the movie would carry the same elements as the books.
“Sin City” isn’t something that everyone will love, but it is something everyone should see at least once. It is a bravely ambitious film, and thus far, the best release of 2005. For Miller, Rodriguez, and Tarantino fans, it is heaven, and for the rest, it’s a refreshingly experimental, borderline independent, sort of film.