The Mainstreaming of Gratuitous, Sadistic Violence

Rating: 5/10 (13 May 2005)

"Sin City" is a flawless on screen realization of a graphic novel. If you allow yourself to be immersed, you could swear you're watching a comic book come to life on the silver screen. Characters are either monstrously hideous or impossibly gifted. The women in particular, accurately represent the febrile fantasies of adolescent and post-adolescent males. Buxom, statuesque, gun-totin' ass-kickers, they'd just as soon snap some slob's neck as wrap their legs around it.
I have to admit, I was immersed in this movie from beginning to end. I can recognize something new when I've seen it, and this movie is definitely not like anything I've seen before. A movie will score points with me just on that basis alone. However, not being a big fan of graphic novels, I doubt I'd be interested in seeing another film like it. As with most graphic novels, the dialogue in the film, recreated faithfully, tends toward tough guy/gal patter, which, with its inherent limitations, can get old fairly quickly. Most of the plots in these novels tend to be based on revenge fantasies (certainly the prime motivator in "Sin City"), and I tend to think (wish?) that the well-adjusted of us typically grow out of the need for that kind of bloody retribution when we exit our teens.
On a side note, there are those who have taken exception to the way in which women are presented in this movie. They probably have every right. However, bear in mind that this movie represents the mainstreaming of a sadistically violent mindset traditionally limited to a coterie of readers of graphic novels. That mindset allows for a graphical realization of all manner of horrific transgressions that probably make the transgression of misogyny seem relatively tame in comparison. Perhaps a more relevant issue raised by this movie would be to ask why we are seeing the mainstreaming of this type of sadistic and retributive mindset at this point in our history.
Finally, as a counter to the feminist outcry this movie has engendered, there has been some ameliorative talk as to how the hookers, exotic dancers, and waitresses in "Sin City" are all "empowered" women, as if this could somehow offset the fact that almost all of the women portrayed in the film are hookers, exotic dancers, and waitresses, with nary a PhD in Marine Biology among them. Feminists should not go to this movie unless their idea of feminism is getting him before he gets you.
Somehow, this film feels post-apocalyptic. If you can get into that mindset, enjoy the ride.