Sin City (2005)

Sin City (2005)

February 22, 2006

Starz Broadcast, Somerville, MA

**** / ****

Sin City is a visually stunning creative masterpiece. With this film Director/Jack of All Trades Robert Rodriguez and Writer Frank Miller give us simply the best and most creative representation of a comic book that I have ever witnessed. Packed within an overlapping array of linked stories are an amazing breadth of colorful and unique characters which, when combined with a visual style on par with nothing else, make Sin City a gripping, flamboyant, thoroughly entertaining cinematic experience. And of course, let’s not forget Carla Gugino’s smoking hot naked body. I just could not lift my eyes from what I saw, and that goes for everything, not just Carla.

Sin City as masterpiece begins with its visual artistry. The movie is drenched in stunningly crisp digital black and white that recalls the greatest film noir dramas of classic Hollywood while modernizing its optical clarity as well as its characters and action. Where Humphry Bogart’s performances during Tinseltown's glory days were charicatures of his own times’ gritty detectives, likewise Bruce Willis’ Hartigan roams the forbidden docks and dens of Sin City in a similarly forboding manner with all the glare and shadows one would expect perfectly enshrouding him.

Where the look distinctly diverges from classic noir is in the red of certain female’s dresses and the blood that spurts from some of the heroes’ wounds, the greens and blues of the characters’ inquisitive eyes, the blinding white of rain from the ever-opening skies, and of course, the yellow of the evil Yellow Bastard. To question ‘why’ when considering these coloring choices I think is to undermine their greatness. To me it is like questioning in our own world why the sky is blue or the grass green; better to just enjoy their beauty and majesty than undermine them with triviality.

This building of color on top of black and white not only keeps our eyes transfixed on the beautiful visuals but also creates a new and different feel for this type of film noir. Sex and violence, although presented in more than ample doses, are rarely afforded the kudos. Instead, it is how they are presented as repercussions for living in a filthy, contaminated world that make them important. When color does appear it is as a short drop of beauty in this otherwise grotesque, violent world, just as it should be. Color is life in Sin City, fleeting, and always at the mercy of yet another violent crime.

Another essential to Sin City’s greatness is its acting. Mickey Rourke leads an all-star cast that makes you wonder just how Rodriguez could have obtained the services of so many famous people (Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Carla Gugino, Rosario Dawson, Clive Owen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Elijah Wood, Rutger Hauer, Josh Hartnett, Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Nick Stahl, and on and on). Rourke’s virtually unrecognizable performance as violent thug with a heart, Merv, is the best of a plethora of great performances and pure film-noir genius. His raspy yet commanding voice, misshapen face, bulging muscles, and relentless pursuit of revenge make him one of the most memorable good bad guys (or is it bad good guys?) since WWE’s The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, themselves icons of character and place. Here, Rourke is exceptional using both his voice and body to convey the complexities of a viciously violent man who just as easily have could come off as silly and typical.

Certainly Rourke’s Merv is a charicature, as are all the characters in the movie, but his subtle flourishes of inner purpose make him rise above similarly clichéd characters of the past. When Merv breaks down a door and squeezes a thug’s larynx in Sin City, we have to watch. In another movie with a different actor and director we’d probably just walk out. This ability of Rodriguez, Rourke, and the rest of his talented cast to make the otherworldly amount of violence present in this film stylish, gripping, and essential put it in league with very few other films, most notably 1994’s Pulp Fiction, which itself has already changed the course of movies forever. What Pulp Fiction did for dialogue and story arc, I expect no less to happen with visual story telling post-Sin City.

Although tertiary to the movie’s unprecedented visuals and awesome characters, the plot in Sin City is solid and faithful to the world of graphic novels, which is the basis for the film. Like the books, the movie is about a corrupt city dominated by violence, sex, and revenge. Female prostitutes rule Old Town, a section of Sin City too dark and dangerous for the cops but perfectly fitting their own need for independence. The reigning senator is crooked and has the city in the palm of his hand. His son is a broken second-rate criminal who has a physical transformation unlike any I’ve ever seen. The detectives are both honest and devious, depending on who you are and who sent you. And then there are the regular citizens of Sin City, the thugs, strippers, bar maids, and daily toilers, who are by no means regular by our own society’s standards. Violence and sex are their currency and slapping a woman in the face is more common than buying her a drink. This may come as shocking to some, but because Rodriguez and Miller weave the many characters of Sin City so expertly and create a world whose rules we can understand and which are consistent with portions of our own violence and sex obsessed psyches, it all makes perfect sense.

Certain portions of the plot do get a bit confusing, and all the violence does become a bit tedious after a while, but on the whole Sin City is a breathtaking work of creative genius. The acting is excellent and nothing you have seen before can compare to the visuals you will see in Sin City. When we look back on the most influential movies of the first decade of 2000, I have no doubt Sin City will be prominent on that list. The movie’s story and theme are certainly not for everyone, but the style used to create its world can undoubtedly be appreciated by just about anyone.