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Sin City tells three slightly intertwining stories set in the fictional noir throwback town of Basin City, all adapted from graphic novels by writer/artist Frank Miller.
A savage, hulking brute of a man named Marv (Mickey Rourke) smashes up the town seeking vengeance for the murder of the angelic young woman he just spent the night with.
A recently facially reconstructed murderer named Dwight (Clive Owen) aligns himself with the hookers of the Basin City red light district to help preserve their delicate truce with the cops after an unfortunate killing threatens it.
And a lone honest cop, Hartigan (Bruce Willis), struggles to protect a stripper (Jessica Alba) from the well-connected sexual predator (Nick Stahl) he saved her from when she was a little girl.
The film was shot entirely on set-less green stages and all the backgrounds were added during post-production with computer generated imagery. It's a bold technique that very much pays off. While the film very much works in terms of story, tension, action and humour, it could've succeeded on its visuals alone.
The look of the film is taken directly from Miller's monochromatic comics, with brief colour injections throughout - a searing splash of blood here; a hideous mutated yellow bastard there. Not a single line of dialogue exists in the film that wasn't in the comics. Practically every camera angle is taken from the panels on the pages.
As Rodriguez has often said, the film does not adapt Miller's comics, it translates them into another medium. It represents the uncompromised cinematic embracing of a specific aesthetic. And it's freakin' awesome.
The project was generated by Robert Rodriguez, who is credited as director alongside Miller. For Miller to get this co-directing credit, Rodriguez had to resign from the Director's Guild of America (the DGA doesn't like more than one director to be credited on any one film), which displays but a hint of his commitment.
Sin City is incredibly violent, but its ultra-stylised look allows for extremities in this, and other areas. However, the faint of heart should probably be warned. Not only is the film groin-grabbingly good, it features a groin-grabbingly gruesome scene where one character actually grabs another's groin and rips it clean out of his body. It's that hardcore.
The doomed characters, grim surroundings and violent actions take inspiration from certain noir staples, but Sin City very much creates its own world, albeit one informed by influences both contemporary and classic.
Taken out of context, the characters may sound like they're speaking in clichés, but again, the aesthetic justifies it. And the actors more than pull it off.
The casting of the film is a masterpiece in itself. Never before has such a wide and varied ensemble of genre actors been assembled, let alone gelled so well.
The casting of has-been Mickey Rourke as Sin City mascot Marv raised a few eyebrows when it was announced, but it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing the role now. Talk about showing people you're still worth a damn Mickey, to quote from the film.
Both Benicio Del Toro and Clive Owen burst onto the scene with eye-catching, badass cool performances in two indie hits - The Usual Suspects and Croupier, respectively. It could be argued that neither has since played a role that lived up to their initial promise of more bad ass cool characterisations. Sin City provides each of them with such a role. Owen shows his slightly bent leading man prowess as a killer with morals, and Del Toro is hilarious (and wearing a prosthetic nose) as a drunken lothario who comes up against Owen.
Bruce Willis, who hasn't done anything interesting in some time, finds himself once again ably at home in a seedy underbelly-type setting, supporting the sometimes laughed-at contention that he is our generation's Humphrey Bogart.
Also worthy of singling out are Rosario Dawson (Men In Black II) as the vixen-ish head of the prostitute collective; Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings) as a silent killer with a disturbing fetish and Carla Gugino (Spy Kids) as Marv's improbably sexy probation officer, among others. None of the leads fail the film. Even Brittany Murphy (Clueless, Just Married) seems to have finally found an apt setting for her doe-eyed shrillness.
Rodriguez also crams the edges of the film with a creative selection of strong character actors, all of whom get their brief moment to shine - Rutger Hauer; Powers Boothe; Michael Clarke Duncan; Michael Madsen and especially Nicky Katt (Dazed and Confused), absolutely hilarious in a three-line role.
Briefly re-teaming with his From Dusk Till Dawn collaborator, "Special Guest Director" Quentin Tarantino stands behind the camera for one scene involving Willis and Madsen, two actors he's directed before. There's no noticeable change in style for the scene, and it's pretty much a token gesture, but the concept is kinda neat, and fits in with Rodriguez's rebellious disregard for strict union-dictated movie crediting.
Some complaints could be levelled at Sin City by party-pooper detractors - it glorifies violence; it treats its women characters badly; it doesn't resemble reality in any way shape or form; it's all "fake". But none of these arguments hold water when you find yourself caught up in the aesthetic tornado of the film. The experience of viewing it is all encompassing. It does what films are loved for, but rarely achieve - it transports you to, and immerses you in, another world.
Rodriguez made an impression with early works such as El Mariachi, Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn. Heck, even The Faculty was cool. But he's spent the majority of the last five years toiling in family friendly films that seemed to squander his skills. It began to look like his talent for progressive, edgy genre films had dried up.
Last year's Once Upon a Time In Mexico was not the return to form fans had hoped for, but on the strength of Sin City, the man has earned himself a lifetime of cinematic good will. He could make only corporate videos from now on, and still be one of the coolest directors ever.
While Sin City can be accessed by the less feverish cinema-goer as simply a gritty action thriller anthology, it's so much more than that. But the point is you don't have to be a comics-loving, film-devouring fanboy to enjoy it.
However, to those ready to fully embrace the film, Sin City is an ultra-stylised noir-ishing masterpiece that heralds a new era in cinema, and represents one of the most purely exhilarating viewing experiences in years.
Highly recommended. Highest recommendation possible. Absolutely mega totally ultra recommended. Just see the darn thing dammit!
Dominic Corry
