A failure to communicate

Rating: 2/10 (23 July 2008)

I admit I didn't get through it. Stylized violence, like any art, has its place, and murder, blood, and ugliness can be instructive. The implied beating of the prostitute in the original "Cape Fear", coupled with her subsequent terror peeled a layer off the persona of Robert Mitchum's character, for example. But to take violence and accompanying stupidity to the lengths in Sin City, with no perspective or reason made me feel uncomfortably like a visitor to the Coliseum in Hadrian's day. The issue is entitlement. One is shown depravity without a sense that this is not what mankind can or should be. Like a video game there is no moral compass. It is "okay" because it isn't real. But we live our reality and to the point one excludes understanding and perspective one can become trapped by that lack of understanding. One can live in a personal ghetto that doesn't allow for much reasoning. I hated Sin City not because it is bad art but it is horrific example. I don't think that is something we need at present.