sex and violence

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2006)

Sin City, based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller, incorporates three stories, set in the fictional city of Sin City. It seems the only people living there are criminals, prostitutes and strippers, and little girls growing up to be strippers. Consequently all women appearing in the movie are sexy and scarcely dressed, and all men are rough, tough and scarred. This makes the movie a dick flick: sex and violence, for some men a wet dream, I guess. But this doesn't mean a little girl like me can't enjoy a movie like this.
The movie is stuffed with comic book clichés, but what did you expect? Thank god the girls are not constantly scared and screaming out 'Oh please help me!'. These girls bite back, and that makes up for them all looking gorgeous and being half-nude. Besides, bad boys can be sexy too.
Besides the sex, many people complain about the violence in the movie. I must say sex and violence are two main themes in the movie. I can't remember any real sex-scenes, or any shocking positions performed in complete nudity. The 'sex' never was embarrassing to look at, unless off course you faint when seeing a nipple.
The violence was so over-stylized, it never made my stomach turn. Actually you never really see anything so disgusting it would make you sick. It is being told that his guts were smeared out all over the place, but you actually don't get to see it. The moment a dog wants to start eating a certain person, the screen turns black and white: white figures moving in front of a black background. No matter how disgusting some characters are, no matter how creative the ways to make people die (in a most painful way), unless you have a very weak stomach, it won't make you puke.
Enough sex and violence. Let me tell you a bit about the story and the characters. As I said there are three main stories, based on the story lines of three Sin City-books: 'Sin City', 'That Yellow Bastard' and 'The Big Fat Kill'. The movie begins and ends with lady killer 'The Man' (Josh Hartnett). In between we get: the story of Hartigan (Bruce Willis), a good cop, who tries to save little Nancy Callahan out of the hands of a child rapist/killer, who really gets turned on by little girls screaming; the story of Marv (Mickey Rourke) revenging the death of the only girl he loved; and the story of Dwight (Clive Owen), who tries to prevent all hell breaking loose between the prostitutes from Old Town and the cops, as a result of the sad passing of crooked cop 'Jackie Boy' (Benicio Del Toro). The cast is impressive. Besides the men already named, we also see Jessica Alba, Michael Madsen, Rosario Dawson, Michael Clarke Dunkan, Brittany Murphy, Elijah Wood,  Most of them perfectly fit the kind of character they are supposed to portray: the lined faces of Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Michael Madsen and Benicio Del Toro makes them believable as genuine troubled men. I would particularly want to congratulate the filmmakers for the casting of Elijah Wood as Kevin: the creepiness of his big blue eyes has never been displayed in such a perfect way.
I have already mentioned the over-stylized way the movie is shot: the directors have stayed very close to the way the comic book itself is styled: black and white with a drop of colour once in a while. It is as if you are watching a comic book, where the figures have come to life. It all seems very unreal and surrealistic in the beginning, but after a while you get sucked up in the atmosphere, in the world of Sin City, and in the stories. You forget that the real world doesn't look like that, that real people don't need about twenty bullets pumped into their body to die, and that just looking at yellow bastard only dressed in short pants, would make every real person immediately scream. Also the voice-over by the main characters in each sequence (The Man, Hartigan, Marv and Dwight) take a while to get used to, but it gives extra depth to the story, it gives you a bit more insight in the motives, and it often gives what you are watching a relativising and comical note.
I really liked this movie. It was visually new and challenging. The story doesn't need too much thinking and is quite surreal, yet it isn't incredibly ridiculous and stupid, nor is it absolutely unoriginal. It is based on a comic book, but in most comic books (and movies) the distinction between heroes and villains is as clear as black and white. Sin City heroes are everything but angels, and the villains are absolute perverted psychos. There is only grey and the blackest black. And somehow this makes the heroes more real, there is no idealism, no moralistic crap, no false pretences, and in the end, no absolute heroes. The way the story is told makes the darkness complete, without ever making it too heavy or depressing. Just sit back en let yourself get sucked into it.