And now I feel very, very low.

Rating: 1/10 (20 June 2005)

God I'm depressed, I don't know what depresses me more; the fact that this film was made, or the fact that so many film enthusiasts liked this movie, more than liked it, rated it very highly.
Last week I went to see Moolaade, a surprisingly uplifting story concerning female circumcision, set in Senegal. This film, written and directed by an 80 some year old African man, was a gossipy, sometimes frightening, at times a little slow, but profoundly memorable film; not only regarding female circumcision but also colonialism, power and the complex relationships between friends, within families and through out societies. Last night, I went to see Sin City.
I appreciated the art direction/cinematography, but this didn't hold my attention for long and after a while I was hardly aware of it. Sin City began at a fast pace and I didn't look at my watch during any point of the film, which is also a good sign. The violence didn't particularly bother me, I've seen loads of films that are extremely violent and though I can admit to being a bit of a girl about it sometimes, I have never been turned off a film purely because of its violence. I could mention the script was quite poor and that the characterisation was quite hammy, but I forgave these aspects early on, due to its comic book style  I wasn't looking for Anton Chekov. What really upset me, the reason why I have awarded this film one star, was the cruel and insidious streak of misogyny running through its woefully misguided core.
I know that there are those of you that say I am taking this too seriously, sure one of the heroes (Clive Owen) punches his girlfriend and apparently she finds this a turn on but "Hey, it's a comic book  it's not meant to be Fried Green Tomatoes". You see, I don't agree, I found this a bit disturbing. There is also that bit where a 50 something year old man saves an 11 year old child from a paedophile only to find sexual reward in her arms 8 years later, now that she is a vacant, plastic 19 year old. Maybe I'm just being a bit touchy, but I don't think so. Considering that my favourite film ever is South Park the Movie, Bigger, Longer, Uncut you wouldn't think I was so easily offended. I've even enjoyed films depicting female humiliation  I thought In the Company of Men, was an incredibly insightful, if harrowing film.
What became disturbingly apparent to me were the mounting associations between violence and sex and a painful plot driven by a fear of women and answered by retribution's physical violence. The violence is not just tolerated at times it is frighteningly celebrated. You may say that the old city prostitutes are portrayed as powerful and vicious but they too are drawn into the camera's voyeurism of women subjected to violence (the Clive Owen bitch slap).When not being portrayed as sexual objects they are terrifying, soulless characters or morally circumspect characters. The serial killer decapitating beautiful prostitutes was not there to scare us but intended to titillate. The moment when the camera focuses on the little Nancy in the grasp of a sexual predator is dark and edgy while the scenes where young adult Nancy is being whipped by the same predator are lovingly fleshed out by the camera. Even Brittany Murphy's beating by evil ex-boyfriend is powerfully sexualised. I'm not so stupid as to pretend that male/female relations are not tinged with the struggles of power and that they shouldn't be explored but I don't expect them to be manipulated in such a women-loathing way and then paraded as harmless, if explicit, fun. You may argue that the heroes were also beaten, punched and degraded but they are portrayed as heroes and winners (troubled and misguided but still heroes) and not, more often than not, victims.
This film is pure and absolute fantasy. Admittedly film is often fantasy, that's what we really want to see: something that is a form of escape from the pressures or tedium of reality. What I would like to know is - if the brutalisation of women is a fantasy that so many people can happily cope with, how would they feel about watching the fantasy of a white supremacist stringing up a black person? Would we watch this as happily? I don't think so.