Sleaze, Style, and Salvation

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2005)

"Sin City" paints a world where power corrupts, where the beating heart of a city, represented by the Roark clan, has corrupted absolutely. In this amped-up noir vision given us by comic book legend Frank Miller, and directors Robert Rodriguez ("Desperado," "Once Upon a Time in Mexico") and Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill"), the highest levels of political and religious authority conceal a seedy darkness that would make your skin crawl. Here in "Sin City," there are no angels. Only weathered mortals who walk a line between virtue and evil that is as hopelessly grey as the cinematography.
"Sin City" spins a trio of crime-related tales: Detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis), a good cop with a bad ticker, closes in on a serial child rapist whose father is the powerful Senator Roark (Powers Booth). Marv (Mickey Rourke), a hulking, pill-popping ex-con with a face even a mother would have trouble loving, wakes up after a one-night stand to find himself beside a dead blonde. Framed for her murder, Marv embarks on a mission, leaving a trail of pulverized (or worse) bodies in his wake. Lastly, another jailbird, Dwight (Clive Owen), finds himself a victim of circumstance, caught up in a war between the leather-bound female commandos of a liberated red light district, and a bone-crushing mobster named Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan), who makes Marv look puny by comparison.
Frank Miller's graphic novel series of the same name is one of the most popular non-superhero comics of the last decade-and-a-half. I assume Rodriguez is a big fan, given how involved he reportedly wanted Miller to be. A great deal of care and reverence has clearly been lavished upon the completed film. "Sin City" the movie includes much of Miller's particular hard-boiled speak, a large percentage of it presented as voice-over, a technique faithful to the source material.
"Sin City" the graphic novel used a lot of monologue blurbs. Translating it to voice-over is essential since Hartigan, Marv, and Dwight are each the strong, silent type. If the audience couldn't get into their heads, it's doubtful they'd be able to get a feel for the characters. The movie would be boring as a result of that emotional distance. Worse, viewers would be denied such witty banter as, "Hit men No matter what you do to them, you never feel bad about it afterward," and "Take down Senator Roark. Yeah, right. Maybe after I've performed that little miracle, I'll go punch out God." Artistically, nothing I have seen compares to this movie. There are shots, such as Marv leaping feet-first down a stairwell from an above perspective, which look like they could have been lifted directly from a comic book. Another shot, Detective Hartigan from the waist up in the midst of a snowstorm, could be either a comic book panel or a sequence in a Hitchcock film. The black-and-white cinematography by jack-of-trades Rodriguez is wonderful throughout, as far as setting a mood. In the rankings of modern black-and-white cinematography, it's a close second behind Roger Deakins' work in "The Man Who Wasn't There." Deakins' work seemed slightly crisper, but maybe that's because "Sin City" was done entirely with digital camera, in front of green screens (Rodriguez' specialty).
"Sin City" was an extremely violent comic book. In adapting it for the screen, a lot of the violence, including beatings, characters being shot multiple, multiple times, limbs and organs being ripped off, was retained. The end result: A movie that ranks up there with Tarantino's "Kill Bill" flicks, and Frank Miller's screenplay for "Robocop 2," for most variety of methods for damaging the human body. Luckily, Miller and Rodriguez each show the soul of an artist as well as a sadist. They soften some of the worst violence in the movie by: (a) having it done offscreen, (b) using visual trickery to make it less realistic-looking, and (c) implementing black humor...