SIN CITY
dir: Robert Rodriguez; Frank Miller
"This is blood for blood and by the gallon. These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left. And I'm ready for war. " - Marv
Brief Synopsis
Several different stories taking place in Basin City involve murder, revenge, and (in)justice.
Why It's Here
Frank Miller's long considered un-filmable "Sin City" comic series has finally been adapted with stunning loyalty and clarity by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller himself as co-director. The film, which interlaces three (and a small portion of a fourth) of the stories written by Miller shows us a dark and condemning city known as Basin City. The residents represent the exact scum which is the city itself, the "heroes" are few and far between with questionable morals and ambitions. Each character is as vividly unique as the scenes surrounding them. The three leads are the bulky, terrible looking Marv who hunts down the killer of a prostitute who showed Marv affection, Dwight is a criminal on the run who must cover up the murder of his girlfriends ex-boyfriend, and Hartigan is the only good cop in the city determined to save a young woman from a rapist.
Miller was initially against a screen adaptation of his work, but when he saw the cast he expressed that it felt as though his characters had been lifted from the comic panels and into reality. Looking at the casting, make-up, and cinematography, Miller is dead on. Everything about this film looks and feels like a comic strip thrust forward at 24 frames per second. Unlike anything before it, "Sin City" used the comics as storyboards to visualize the film where actors moved and spoke like their comic counterparts.
The film's ulta-noir storytelling is drenched in stylistic directing choices. Miller's work is notable for it's sharp contrast in black and white and the strong dabble in occasional colour. The film beautifully translates the colour into vivid portions of the film where red speaks the loudest, yet other colours are more subtly implemented. Several scenes identically recreate the stark black-white contrasting panels from the comics, further perfecting the transition from page to film. The film may seem like excessive style over substance upon initial viewing, but don't worry, the tribute to the long considered dead genre of film noir and the playful uses of comic violence make "Sin City" a powerful crime noir.
Rodriguez proves his passion for filmmaking by taking something that was considered "unfilmable" and not only accomplishing the daunting task of making this film, but proving the limits of film can be stretched further than most critics would care to admit. As limiting as film is in adaptations, Rodriguez insists it's all about the dedication to the project. The director claimed that his film was not an adapation, it was a translation from a paper page to a film strip.
While many films today delve into CGI as an easy escape route for expensive set-pieces creating a vomit-inducing sense of digital overload, Rodriguez made his entire film with digital sets, actors acting in front of green screens. Why the CGI landscapes work is because they don't distract from the film itself, instead the computer generated world breathes like a comic book, giving a sensation that live sets could not achieve, the scenes never take a front seat to the poetic violence and grayscale characters, instead only complimenting their theatrics.
As if he hadn't already proven himself enough, Rodriguez furthers his accomplishment by proving to all the doubters that the digital age can be beautiful, you only need to see the first three minutes and you won't be able to disagree.
Miller was initially against a screen adaptation of his work, but when he saw the cast he expressed that it felt as though his characters had been lifted from the comic panels and into reality. Looking at the casting, make-up, and cinematography, Miller is dead on. Everything about this film looks and feels like a comic strip thrust forward at 24 frames per second. Unlike anything before it, "Sin City" used the comics as storyboards to visualize the film where actors moved and spoke like their comic counterparts.
The film's ulta-noir storytelling is drenched in stylistic directing choices. Miller's work is notable for it's sharp contrast in black and white and the strong dabble in occasional colour. The film beautifully translates the colour into vivid portions of the film where red speaks the loudest, yet other colours are more subtly implemented. Several scenes identically recreate the stark black-white contrasting panels from the comics, further perfecting the transition from page to film. The film may seem like excessive style over substance upon initial viewing, but don't worry, the tribute to the long considered dead genre of film noir and the playful uses of comic violence make "Sin City" a powerful crime noir.
Rodriguez proves his passion for filmmaking by taking something that was considered "unfilmable" and not only accomplishing the daunting task of making this film, but proving the limits of film can be stretched further than most critics would care to admit. As limiting as film is in adaptations, Rodriguez insists it's all about the dedication to the project. The director claimed that his film was not an adapation, it was a translation from a paper page to a film strip.
While many films today delve into CGI as an easy escape route for expensive set-pieces creating a vomit-inducing sense of digital overload, Rodriguez made his entire film with digital sets, actors acting in front of green screens. Why the CGI landscapes work is because they don't distract from the film itself, instead the computer generated world breathes like a comic book, giving a sensation that live sets could not achieve, the scenes never take a front seat to the poetic violence and grayscale characters, instead only complimenting their theatrics.
As if he hadn't already proven himself enough, Rodriguez furthers his accomplishment by proving to all the doubters that the digital age can be beautiful, you only need to see the first three minutes and you won't be able to disagree.