Sin City

by Pete Aleksa

The Italian futurist, Filippo Marinetti once said, “Up to now literature has exalted a pensive immobility, ecstasy, and sleep. We intend to exalt aggressive action, a feverish insomnia, the racer’s stride, the mortal leap, the punch and the slap.” In this Frank Miller's Sin City would give Marinetti wet dreams. The film displays a visual artistry in line with the futurist principles of the fluidity of human motion and the aestheticization of violence. The characters in the film make magnificent leaps and bounds with unsurpassed grace and engage each other in elegant performances of stark brutality. Or in more meathead terms: there are a lot of badass fight scenes.
Composed of a series of vignettes, the film immerses the audience in the gritty life of Sin City by chronicling the experiences of a host of individual characters. The moral bankruptcy of the city functions as an examination of some of the darker aspects of the human condition, subtly exploring themes such as greed, corruption, organized religion, perversion, and vice. A shifting first person narrative reminiscent of an old hard-boiled detective film takes us through the various stories of Sin City and lends the film the feel of an updated film noir. A similar effect is achieved through the visual representation of the city itself, awash in gothic skyscrapers, vintage cars, and Bogart-esque plumes of cigarette smoke.
For those of you who enjoy a good name drop or ten, the film’s cast includes a veritable who’s who of Hollywood A-listers: Bruce Willis as Detective John Hartigan; Jessica Alba as Nancy, the stripper with a heart of gold; Mickey Rourke as the vendetta driven thug Marv; Clive Owen as the smart-assed tough guy Dwight; Elijah Wood as the tormented cannibal Kevin; Rosario Dawson as Gail, the leader of a violent band of prostitutes; and Benicio Del Toro as Jackie Boy, an abusive Sin City cop; not to mention Michael Madsen, Josh Hartnett, and Brittany Murphy in bit parts. The film also boasts special guest director Quentin Tarrantino.
Fans of the graphic novel should be pleased with its adaptation to the silver screen. The creator, Frank Miller, was responsible for the screenplay, and also assisted in the direction of the film and consequently the film remains pretty faithful to the original source material. The cinematic style that is a trademark of Miller’s artwork translates well onto the big screen and additions such as lighting and intense splashes of color in an otherwise black and white film are effectively used to enhance the visual presentation. The actors for their part, do an excellent job of delivering, in an almost tongue-in-cheek manner, comic book lines that could easily have come off as kitschy when spoken. All in all, I found Frank Miller’s Sin City an extremely enjoyable watch and well worth the price of admission.