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Sin City, directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank
Miller. Dimension Films, 2005, 124 minutes
The New Noir by Todd Skousen
Take the dark worlds of Mickey Spillane, Ed McBain, or
even Raymond Chandler and let them simmer for 40 years in their own depravity and
you might end up with the yin to the Galt's Gulch yang. A place filled with
low-lifes, corrupt politicians, city districts ruled by ultra-violent
prostitutes, clergymen who condone cannibalism, and a few heroes and anti-heroes
alike. This isn't Spiderman, Superman, or even Hellboy. This is the world of Sin
City. Welcome to the last exit before hell.
| | Todd
Skousen is an economics major at Rollins College.
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With the recent advances of computer graphics, Hollywood has finally been able
to cash in on the creative superpowers of comic book heroes. Unfortunately, many
fans found the tone and artwork of the pulp comics replaced rather than enhanced
by big-budget Hollywood effects. For this reason, Frank Miller resisted the big
money offered him for the rights to his award-winning "Sin City." It wasn't until
filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, known for his action films "Desperado," "From Dusk
Till Dawn," and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," as well as family films like the
"Spy Kids" trilogy, approached Miller with a sequence showing his version of Sin
City — one that stayed true to the world, artwork, and creator of the comics
— that Miller acquiesced. Miller came on the film as a co-director, which
forced Rodriguez to quit the Directors Guild due to bylaws prohibiting such a
combination on a film of this size. The result is a movie that is the closest
adaptation of a comic yet, but is still a mix of successes and failures.
The most striking element of the film is its adherence to the artwork of the
books, especially its use of color. Rodriguez shot the entire movie against green
screens and then reduced it to the black and white world created by Miller,
leaving color intact only to emphasize a particular aspect of the film: a woman's
bright red dress and lipstick, a prostitute's golden hair, an evil character's
yellow skin. The film opens with an assassin (Josh Hartnett) lighting the
cigarette of a woman he has been sent to kill. The fire ignites in an explosion
of color, but once it enters the world of Sin City on the end of her cigarette,
the color quickly dissipates into black and white. When Marv (Mickey Rourke)
thinks he sees his love Goldie (Jaime King), the woman he'd kill anyone to
avenge, she appears in radiant light with bright gold hair and a red dress. But
as soon as he realizes the girl is actually Goldie's sister Wendy (also played by
Jaime King) the color disappears and she fades back into the dark society Marv
inhabits. Likewise, when Hartigan (Bruce Willis) sees a girl he once protected
(before his eight-year stint in prison) dancing seductively on stage in a local
bar, she lights up in saturated color because she was the one thing that kept him
going in the joint. This use of color is taken directly from the comics and is
one of the film's resounding successes. Never before has a comic-based movie been
rendered so closely to its original source material. |
| Rodriguez leaves color
intact only to emphasize a particular aspect of the film: a woman's bright red
dress and lipstick, a prostitute's golden hair, an evil character's yellow skin.
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The dialogue also reinforces the comic book roots of the movie. In comic books
(or graphic novels, as the genre is called), the action is suspended, with a
single drawing representing the ongoing action. Dialogue spoken between
characters is found in "thought bubbles," often revealing the characters' inner
thoughts. The film brings this sensation to the screen by using voice-overs of
the thoughts of the characters as they interact. When the over-the-hill honest
cop, Hartigan, experiences chest pains while chasing a band of kidnappers, we
hear his every thought as he musters his will to save young Nancy (Jessica Alba)
from her captors. At times, the dialogue and voice-overs seem over the top. But
the film slowly eases into the new approach, bringing the audience into the comic
book world where we are privy to things both spoken and thought. A few of the
performances suffer from campy delivery of the cliched dialogue, especially
Michael Madsen's as Hartigan's partner, and perhaps also from the strains of
acting in a blank room with green walls where the sets are added later. Though it
takes some adjustment, the constant voice-overs add a nice layer to the film and
enhance our understanding of the characters living in Sin City. The other
notable element of the film is the outrageous violence which dominates it. In
changing media from comic book to full-action film, Rodriguez and Miller portray
the brutal reality of what is merely suggested in the drawings. Rodriguez is
already known for the violent deaths in his action movies, but this movie makes
those gun fights in Mexico seem quite tame by comparison. Miller's graphic novels
include dismemberment, cannibalism, beheadings, misogynistic beatings of women,
and castrations, and these scenes become more gruesome when shown on film. When
Marv finds Goldie victim to the cannibal Kevin (Elijah Wood), he goes on a streak
of vengeance that makes Beatrix, the blood-soaked heroine of "Kill Bill," look
weak-hearted. As he dismembers and tortures his victims, some with a saw and
rubber tubing for tourniquets, he states, "Hell will feel like heaven after what
I've done to them." We witness Miho (Devon Aoki), a prostitute and assassin, cut
off arms, stab assailants through eyes, and chop off skulls with her samurai
sword in order to protect prostitute gang turf. If there is any saving grace to
all the bloodshed, perhaps it is that the level of violence is not like the
brutality of a Tarantino film, because we are always aware that we are watching a
comic book world; the color of the blood is not red, the characters are
superhuman, and anyone can be brought back from the brink of death and restored.
After being hit by a car three times, Marv needs only a beer and about 50
ridiculous white patches to ready himself to kill again. The stinking "Yellow
Bastard" (Nick Stahl) is mostly restored after having part of his face, his arm,
and even his genitalia shot off. The violence falls in line with the rest of the
film as purposely over the top and, well, comical.
| "Sin City" shows us what
the future can hold for cinematic adaptations of comic books.
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While "Sin City" succeeds brilliantly in its style and artistic approach, it
fails to create a dynamic and intriguing plot. This is because the directors
chose to tell the stories from three of the first four Frank Miller books, which
are simply three episodes from the same world, not three stories where the
characters interrelate. The stories are put together in a "Pulp Fiction" format
with the story being told in a non-linear fashion. The audience expects to
discover how the characters relate to one another, but is disappointed when the
stories touch each other only in passing. This disappointment is especially felt
with Marv, the superhuman, ruthless avenger — the character is played
brilliantly by Mickey Rourke, but appears only in the first episode. Because all
the characters are given such short scenes, we don't have time to connect with
their struggles. Aside from its few shortcomings however, Rodriguez and
Miller's new film shows us what the future can hold for cinematic adaptations of
comic books. This movie, for the first time, didn't adapt a comic book to a
movie, but instead brought the comic to life. Hopefully, Miller and Rodriguez
will do the same for the last three books of the "Sin City" series.
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