Good start to the silly season

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2005)

When I scanned the release schedule for 2005, there were a few 'event' films that caught my eye immediately. Obvious were King Kong, War of the Worlds and the next Star Wars chapter. Not only are these three films critic proof - and will provide a cloud of raining money which will pour down upon the producing studio - but they also had me salivating even with the realization that if just one out of the three is any good then we are above the mean.
Take last year for example. Trailers appearing around Superbowl time got me pumped for Troy, The Day After Tomorrow and The Village. The result was one half decent Saturday afternoon matinée film surrounded by two pieces of crap. Unfortunately, this is the norm.
But that didn't deter me from putting aside my dimes and quarters when the new trailers for summer 2005 came rolling out, and Sin City was the first of the five to jump out of the gate.
The making of Sin City was fascinating onto itself. Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller, director Robert Rodriguez caused a Hollywood coup when he resigned from the Directors Guild of America after they refused to give Miller a director's credit on the film (due to Miller's style in the novels). Such rebellion against the collective hasn't been seen in Tinsletown since Elia Kazan named names.
And then there was the word of the cast collection involved with the film. Willis, Del Toro, Rourke, Murphy (Brittany not Eddie), Owen, Alba.the list went on to read like a who's who of hip. When anyone asked a month ago "Who is in Sin City?", I would invariably answer, "Who isn't?". It is a dream cast in a dream project and I X'd out the calendar dates until the April 1st release.
With all this expectation, Sin City would surely be a let down. How could it not? Throw in the guest director Quentin Tarantino and the buzz meter soared into the red. Could this be the Pearl Harbour of 2005? Sin City starts off as promising as their ads. Bruce Willis is Hartigan, the only true good guy in a cast of shady characters, and we pick up Hartigan on the trail of a pedophile/kidnapper/murderer played by Nick Stahl. A standoff on a city dock leaves Hartigan will multiple bullet wounds and the kidnapper with two less appendages. It's a violent and visually energizing scene in black and white that sets the tone for the rest of the film.
Enter one Marv (Mickey Rourke), who wakes up beside a dead hooker. Marv is one ugly dude, but is a brawler with nothing to lose. The cops are already racing up the stairs and Marv is quick to realize that he has been set up. His story  the most interesting of the three told in Sin City  would lead him to a farm where a sadistic cannibal (played by a very eerie Elijah Wood) eats his prey and mounts the heads of his victims like deer heads over a mantle.
The second story surrounds a group of female renegades (lead by Rosario Dawson) who when provoked by Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) and his band of merry men lay a beating on the boys leaving severed arms and heads on the city street. A revelation that Jackie is a police officer requires the aide of Dwight (Clive Owen) to assist with the disposal of the body parts.
The third story brings us back full circle. Hartigan is released and attempts to trace the girl (Jessica Alba) whom he saved from the Nick Stahl character years earlier. A mysterious yellow man is hot on his trail and when the two do reunite, Mr. Yellow is revealed to be the kidnapper/murderer from the first act who is looking finish what he started years ago.
Sin City exploits just about every R-rated check box the MPAA censors have on the clipboards in front of them. There are dismemberments, shootouts, violence against women and police, crotch shooting, crotch ripping, suggested acts of cannibalism and in maybe the scene that will stick with you the longest, someone is left without limbs and tied to a tree for a dog to feast upon. This is not therefore your family movie after Sunday brunch. Sure, the black and white visuals of the film drop the red blood factor down to zero, but whether its fluorescent blood against a black background or yellow plasma spills in place of buckets of red, the imagination doesn't have to go far to imagine the scene in full Technicolor.
But I am sure that Rodriguez and Miller make no apologies. Nor will they offer your money back if you don't appreciate the art of the black and white shot film (against a green screen no less) that uses color only to create visual distractions. Red shoes and dresses, blue and yellow eyes and yellow skin are just a few examples of the scatterings of Crayola coloring utilized in the print. Never distracting and always interesting, it was the best use of color in a black and white shot film since the red jacket appeared in Schindler's List.
There are a plethora of things that are stunning in Sin City. The costumes, the music, the sets. But unfortunately, it felt after an hour and a half (the movie runs over two hours) that more time was spent on the style than trying to tighten the story lines. Cut about 20 minutes and leave them for the DVD and you have a movie that ends up on top ten lists rather than just being credited as being innovative. By the time the final story begins, you are already exhausted at everything you have been asked to ingest and that is probably too much for the average movie goer.
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