Bruce Willis is Hartigan in SIN CITY.
© Dimension Films
Comicscape April 13, 2005
By: Kurt AmackerDate: Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Generally speaking, I've enjoyed the recent glut of comic book adaptations that Hollywood has been bringing us. There've been a a few I didn't really care for, like BLADE: TRINITY and CONSTANTINE. But, even those were fairly entertaining in their own right. There have been comic book movies I've liked a lot, like the director's cut of DAREDEVIL and THE PUNISHER. Hell, there are even ones I've loved, like THE CROW, X-MEN, SPIDER-MAN, and their respective sequels (well, not THE CROW's). And then there's SIN CITY. It's not often I see a move that makes me want to run out to the theatre lobby cackling like an idiot, dragging people out of the line for BEAUTY SHOP and buying them tickets for another movie (if you send mail defending BEAUTY SHOP, I'm going to devote an entire column to you). To say Hollywood doesn't make movies like SIN CITY anymore is a disservice to Robert Rodriguez's and Frank Miller's (and Quentin Tarantino's) vision movies like this have rarely been made ever, nor are they likely to be in the future. When the lights went up at the grimy West Bank (in New Orleans, not Israel) multiplex, I looked at my friend and said "That was the greatest thing ever." Now, before I gush all over you, I'll state that I realize there must be substantial, reasoned criticisms to be leveled at this film. If you didn't like SIN CITY, I want to hear about it. E-mail me here or use comments@cinescape.com. I'll run your letters next week (especially the ones that disagree) with my responses. If you really dug the movie, you can e-mail me, too, but I'm going to focus on those that disagree with me. It's funnier that way.
All right, here's your spoiler warning from Zippy the Movie Pirate. You may remember Zippy from my rant about CONSTANTINE.
Zippy: YAAAAAR! There be spoilers lurkin' in the murky depths of this week's COMICSCAPE. If ye've not seen SIN CITY yet and ye don't wish to read spoilers, click here to go to the listings, says I! ARRRR!
Thanks, Zippy. Here we go: SIN CITY is brilliant from start to finish. It is absolutely the best non-superhero comic book adaptation ever filmed, forcing me to grudgingly unseat THE CROW from that coveted slot. It may just be the best comic book movie ever, but I'm not going to state that categorically. I really don't want my inbox flooded with "But what about *insert whatever here*!?" and frankly, I'm not so sure, either. But, SIN CITY is without a doubt, the best film I've seen this year. It is also Robert Rodriguez's finest film and I can't give the man enough credit for his decision to co-direct with Frank Miller, even sacrificing his membership in the Director's Guild to do so (the guild doesn't allow movies to be co-directed unless to the directors entered organization as a team, like the Wachowski Brothers). At the same time, there are a couple of minor criticisms I expect some people to have, and I'm going to address (translation: destroy) those here, as well.
My apologies to those that have already seen the film, but I've got to get the summaries out of the way for anyone is still sitting on the fence about checking this one out (if this is you, quit reading this and get your ass to the theatre!). If you've already seen the movie, feel free to skip this paragraph. I'll forgive you...in time. SIN CITY adapts three of Frank Miller's miniseries, all of which take place in the fictional Basin City: THE HARD GOODBYE, THE BIG FAT KILL, and THAT YELLOW BASTARD. The three stories intertwine and tacitly acknowledge each other, but they never come together as a single tale like PULP FICTION. THE HARD GOODBYE is the tale of Marv (Mickey Rourke under prosthetics and fking brilliant) searching for revenge against those that framed him for killing Goldie a prostitute he'd fallen for before she was killed right under his nose. In THE BIG FAT KILL, Dwight (Clive Owen) helps the vigilante prostitutes of Old Town dispose of the body of a cop (Benecio Del Toro) the girls have killed before the mob moves in to regain control of the area. In THAT YELLOW BASTARD, aging detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis) sacrifices his career and much more to save 11-year-old Nancy from a child molester that happens to be a U.S. senator's son. There are also opening and closing segments with Josh Hartnett as a hitman, but they're more to set the superb, so-thick-you-could-cut-it-with-a-knife noir motif than anything else.
First, the performances here are all top-notch and have supplied me with deliciously quotable lines for years to come. "I'm Shelly's new boyfriend and I'm out of my mind" holy hell, it doesn't get much more badass than that. Everybody just rocks. I realize this is a back-handed compliment, but it's especially great to see Bruce Willis in a movie that's doing well, after a string of films that haven't done very well at the box office. He's always been one of my favorite actors, and I've hated to see him perceived as flagging and I hope this changes that. What's most interesting about SIN CITY, though, is that its anthology format doesn't lend emphasis to any particular character. The result is that the movie is about Basin City itself, and its characters are just symptoms of its disease. I recall the trailers for the movie and they seemed odd in that it they couldn't really summarize the film very well. They just had to flash images like a music video without really explaining the story. I recall one that focused only on THE BIG FAT KILL, but it's difficult to sell a movie that's more about a city, rather than the characters that live there.
SIN CITY is the most faithful comic-to-film adaptation ever made. There's no argument to be made against that. It's as close as a live-action film can come to duplicating its comic source material. What really separates it from other comic movies is that it isn't grounded in the real world at all. Movies like X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN are ostensibly grounded in our world. Yes, people can pop adamantium claws and shoot webs. But, people also do things like go to work in the morning, lose their homes when they can't pay the mortgage, and otherwise carry on semi-normal lives. As part of its exercise in zealous faithfulness its source material, SIN CITY is firmly grounded in "comic book reality." People can jump out of five story windows and stand uninjured, survive getting hit by a car (repeatedly), and take multiple gunshots (and only die if the story calls for it). If a less faithful director had helmed this one, Marv probably would've just been big and ugly, without the cartoonish prosthetics. Junior Rourke probably wouldn't have been yellow, and there wouldn't have been that American Indian cop with the war paint and the Uzi leading the S.W.A.T. team. Part of SIN CITY's magic is that Rodriguez and Miller never really try to address the barrage of questions that the comic never answers like why does the mob use IRA mercenaries to get Jackie Raferty's head? Why is their a Neo Nazi working with a black mobster? You just have to relax and let the movie take you away. I know people said the same thing about THE PHANTOM MENACE except, well, that movie sucked. This doesn't. Most directors would've tried to ground SIN CITY in the real world with some of the same characters and situations.
You know what? I'm glad that the movie doesn't explain everything. Hollywood's gotten into the habit of spoon-feeding audiences all the answers. You're not necessarily supposed to "get it." It just is what it is, like it or not. SIN CITY is like ordering the "feed me" special at an Italian restaurant (when you pay one price and the chef decides what to cook for you, usually served in several small portions). You just have to walk into the theatre and think "I trust your judgment. Take me away." But, Rodriguez and Miller have constructed a brilliant adaptation that's more comic book than any other comic film before it. If you can't enjoy a well-crafted film without having all the answers wrapped up nicely like a Christmas present, then tough sh-t.
Like THE CROW and especially DARK CITY (not a comic book movie, I realize) before it, SIN CITY is best described as modern film noir. Film noir is that post-war style of American film with struggling private eyes, gangsters, femme fatales, and honest cops trying to make it on a corrupt force. I am aware of, but not well-versed in film noir. I've seen a couple of movies that fall into the category, and I'm familiar with some of the imagery (the close shot of the face behind the wheel of a car accompanied by a voiceover, for instance), but I'm no expert. After seeing SIN CITY, my interest in film noir has moved up several notches (somewhere above golf, but below comic books and porn). I like what I've seen thus far, and I'm probably going to grab the FILM NOIR CLASSICS box set that Warner Brothers released not long ago. If I've got any film buffs reading this that want to tell me more about noir or give me some recommendations, please e-mail me. Seriously, I'll defer to your judgment. SIN CITY does for film noir what RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, SKY CAPTAIN, and STAR WARS did for movie serials and what KILL BILL did for Kung-Fu movies it pays tribute to its source material lovingly, wholeheartedly, and without a shred of irony. In an age that's dominated by self-aware, nudge-nudge-wink-wink cinema, it's refreshing when SIN CITY screams "I'm film noir! So what!? If you gotta problem, eat it!"
And yet, SIN CITY's unapologetic embrace of its noir roots leads to the closest thing the movie has to a weakness its dialogue. To be blunt, it didn't bother me one damn bit, because it just drags you further into its bleak, noirish pit filled with more atmosphere than any film has a right to. And frankly, I'm willing to dive headfirst in the nude and drown (there's a mental image you'll have to live with for the rest of your life). But, if you're not willing to embrace SIN CITY's aesthetic, the dialogue will come across as heavy-handed and over the top. Depending on your perspective, it's either an asset or a weakness.
Speaking of objections, I want to address the two main ones I've read in most negative reviews of the movie: the violence and the depiction of women. You want violence (hell yes, you do)? SIN CITY is one of the most violent Hollywood movies I've seen in a while. The only thing comparable is KILL BILL, and even that was much more over-the-top. I think the only thing that kept SIN CITY from the dreaded NC-17 rating was its being in black and white (another integral aspect of the comic retained). There are some people that can't accept certain unpleasant things in cinema in context. Just like real life, not every movie is going to be a romantic comedy (if there ever was a genre to destroy...) and a feel-good, life-affirming celebration of the human spirit. Reality is rife with pain, violence, and evil. I realize a lot of people see movies as an opportunity to escape those things, but I think cinema does society a disservice when it doesn't deal with the bad parts of life. In Brian Webster's negative review of the film on the Apollo Movie Guide, he states, "Sin City...is a movie that's so cool you're not supposed to be concerned about its total lack of moral grounding. Nor its profound sexism. Nor its misanthropic nihilism. This is a movie for people who hate people." Damn right, I say (and if you're going to wax pretentious, at least learn to punctuate properly and not use sentence fragments in place of commas). My early remark about the necessity of films that deal with life's darker aspects doesn't preclude embracing that darkness from time to time. It's film, not reality. Just because I might indulge my primeval lust for violence by enjoying a bunch of vigilante prostitutes gleefully slaughtering mobsters from a rooftop doesn't mean that I endorse such actions in real life. And frankly, I do hate people.
But aside from stomping on the academic objection to the movie's violence, I'll respectfully tend to the emotional response: graphic violence in cinema makes some people really uncomfortable. Not everyone will enjoy the scene where Hartigan reaches between the Yellow Bastard's legs and pulls out a wet, gleaming hunk of yellow meat and throws it to the side before pounding his skull into the ground. Personally, I found it appropriate (perverted killer, perverted death), but I can't imagine my grandmother wanting to see something like that. I can understand someone's gut reaction to onscreen violence may keep them from seeing the film. That's fine. MISS CONGENIALITY 2 is still playing. However, in that regard, SIN CITY does something daring it doesn't try to cater to as many demographics as possible like most Hollywood fare. (coughCONSTANTINEcough). My guess is that Robert Rodriguez's clout and the current glut of comic movies enabled the film's relentless approach. When I saw SIN CITY, the rest of the audience seemed less appreciative than I was, particularly after the set-'em-up, knock-'em-down ending with Hartigan. I love how someone that hasn't read the comic is made to think that everything's going to work out for our intrepid detective. Presumably, Hartigan will clear his name, Senator Rourke will go down, and he can be with Nancy. But, just as the audience has settled in with the expected happy ending, Hartigan draws his gun and puts a round through his own forehead. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller have just spilled your popcorn, dumped your drink in your lap, punched you between the eyes, and I'm laughing at you like a fiend.
Regarding the film's depiction of women: not all of us are feminists concerned that every film makes sure to include at least a couple of thoroughly empowered womyn not dependent on the help of male oppressors. One reviewer complained that the image of the women's heads mounted on the wall at the farm was misogynistic. But, would the image have been anti-male if it were the other way around? Or should there have been an even mix of men, women, and transgender people? People only complain about sexism when women are brutalized or objectified, but you'll never hear men say, "I'm tired of all men being depicted as action heroes and thugs!" Who cares? SIN CITY pretty much drags all of its characters through the gutter and Hartigan is about the most moral of the lot of them. The objection is irrelevant.
If you're tired of the usual crap from Hollywood, SIN CITY feels damn good. Not every movie needs to be palatable to everyone. It's refreshing when a movie isn't watered-down and concerned about whether or not 14-year-old girls will like it. Despite my gushing, I realize there are substantial criticisms that could be leveled at this film. I don't really have many (couldn't you tell?), but I'm sure some of my astute readers will have something to say about all this. If you've got a b-tch with SIN CITY besides "It was gross" or "It was sexist," I want to hear it.
SIN CITY blows the door off with guns blazing. It's big, loud, and deliciously violent with a dark ending that kisses no one's ass. The whole movie is mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Frankly, in the post-Columbine era where most genre pictures are rated PG-13 and movies strictly for adults are almost unheard of, SIN CITY is a miracle.
DARK HORSEBLADE OF THE IMMORTAL #100 (MR) (NOTE PRICE) $5.99
Al: I have friends who were pissed when this didn't turn out to be "vampire pr0n". Sorry about them.
Kurt: I really can't stand those aholes that pretend to be vampires, but I really want to steal their women. They can pretend to be vampires all they want. Just sayin'.
CONAN & THE JEWELS OF GWAHLUR #1 (OF 3) $2.99
Al: I got kicked in the jewels of Gwahlur once. Sucked.
Kurt:: Truly, this is not what's best in life.
STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES VOL 2 TP $6.95
SUPER MANGA BLAST #50 (MR) $5.99
Al: This is fun to say. If I worked at Burger King, whenever anyone ordered a value meal I'd say, "Would you like a SUPER MANGA BLAST! with that?" just to see what would happen.
Kurt: You know, anime and manga provide us with enough ammunition as it is, but calling a comic SUPER MANGA BLAST! is really going the extra mile. And dude, if you worked at Burger King, I'd come in every day and make a point to change my order a bunch of times. Then I'd ask to speak to the manager
DC COMICS
ACTION COMICS #826 $2.50
Well, at least the title's honest.
BATMAN HAUNTED KNIGHT TP $14.95
At least we know it won't be Jason Todd's ghost doing the haunting.
BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #190 $2.50
BATMAN STRIKES #8 $2.25
Yeah! "I'm not answering the Bat-Signal any more until I get dental insurance!"
BATMAN THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD TP $19.99
Al: You should know that the real Greatest Story Ever Told starred Pat Boone as "The Figure in the Tomb". I seriously don't think Batman can top that.
Kurt: If you ever mention Pat Boone again, it's on like Donkey Kong.
BATMAN WAR DRUMS TP $17.95
I'm really glad Spoiler is dead, but I'm even happier that WAR GAMES is over.
BLOODHOUND #10 $2.99
BREACH #4 $2.50
FABLES #36 (MR) $2.50
Bill Willingham managed to completely blow me away in the final two pages of last issue, somehow changing nearly everything in about three sentences. It was one of the greatest moments in a series that's consistently among the best on the market. Now he's actually taking us back to the Homeland and ohGodIlovethisbook. New arc! For Christ's sake, get on board!
GOTHAM CENTRAL #30 $2.50
In this issue! The officers of GCPD peacefully arrest a bunch of criminals Batman's left tied up for them.
GREEN ARROW #49 $2.50
JSA #72 $2.50
MAJESTIC #4 (MR) $2.99
MEGALEX VOL 1 TP (MR) $14.99
MNEMOVORE #1 (OF 6) (MR) $2.99
Al: I don't think you should make books with unpronounceable titles. "Hey, have you checked out Menmi...meminemeva...Desperate Housewives?" You're asking for trouble, man.
Kurt: I saw this ad once that said I could talk to some desperate housewives on the phone for a couple of dollars a minute. I'm still trying to decide between them and the hot teen virgins on the other page.
SCOOBY DOO #95 $2.25
Rikes! Roo gives a rit!?
STRONTIUM DOG THE EARLY CASES TP $14.99
SUPERMAN VERSUS THE FLASH TP $19.99
THIRTEEN TP $12.99
Al: Going on 30? That movie was awesome. If I plug Jennifer Garner movies in this thing, do you think she'll make out with me? Elektra was awesome too! Wow, I don't think that sentence was worth it even if she gives me a rusty trombone.
Kurt: I'm not sure if we can be friends anymore.
TOM STRONG #32 $2.99
IMAGE
ARMOR X #2 $2.95
ATHEIST #1 $3.50
Al: Two things: 1) If this was about a guy who had superpowers but didn't believe in them, that'd be really funny; 2) Apparently there's something in here about a guy with "sentient cancer". I don't get it, but that's pretty cool.
Kurt: Sentient!? Aw man, he got the best kind! Lucky bastard.
BEYOND AVALON #2 $3.50
FLAMING CARROT COMICS #2 (NOTE PRICE) $3.50
FLIGHT VOL 1 GN $19.95
MORA #2 $2.95
NOBLE CAUSES #9 $3.50
SAVAGE DRAGON VOL 10 ENDGAME TP $15.95
"Endgame" has got to be one of most overused comic titles ever.
MARVEL
BLACK PANTHER #3 $2.99
BULLSEYE GREATEST HITS TP $13.99
DISTRICT X #12 $2.99
EXILES #62 $2.99
GAMBIT #9 $2.99
Al: And here is the absolute last time I will ever suggest you buy anything that has anything to do with Gambit: The conclusion of the Brother Voodoo storyline! Go ahead Kurt, I know you want to make fun of me for this.
Kurt: Make fun of? Nah. Is there a word that means "destroy utterly and completely and then violate the remains in a manner never intended by any god or man, ever?" That's what I was kind of thinking. Gambit sucks.
IRON MAN #3 $2.99
Shyah, I'll believe this when I see it. You've betrayed my trust for the last time, Diamond shipping lists!
MAN-THING WHATEVER KNOWS FEAR TP (RES) (PP #658) $12.99
I think this is the prequel for the MAN-THING movie that will finally premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel. If it's as good as I heard ALIEN APOCALYPSE was, we're in for a treat!
MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN #13 $2.99
I think they should stop referring to Reginald Hudlin (BLACK PANTHER) as a "Hollywood Heavyweight". Steve Soderbergh is a Al: "Hollywood Heavyweight". Hudlin is the dude who co-wrote "Bebe's Kids". Whatever,in this issue Wolverine hits on Mary Jane because, obviously, he's got a major thing for redheads. 20 bucks says she humps him.
Kurt: Dude, of course she will. If I was a chick, I would. I'm just sayin'!
MARY JANE HOMECOMING #2 (OF 4) $2.99
Al: In this issue: Mary Jane asks Wolverine to the prom! Somebody's spiking the punch...(get it? spiking the p...ah, forget it.)
Kurt: Hi-yo!
NEW THUNDERBOLTS #7 $2.99
POWERS #10 (MR) $2.95
SHE HULK VOL 2 SUPERHUMAN LAW TP $14.99
TALES OF THE THING #2 (OF 3) $2.50
THOR SON OF ASGARD VOL 2 WORTHY DIGEST TP (MR) $7.99
TOXIN #1 (OF 6) $2.99
Hooray, it's Venom 3.0! Because you can never have too many alien symbiotes.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #58 $2.25
Holy crap, an actual new villain (as opposed to an Ultimatized version of friggin' Fenris) pops up. I still say Vaughan knows what he's doing here.
ULTIMATES 2 #5 $2.99
And as long as we're on the subject of things I'm still saying, a) I'm still saying "hella" and I don't care, and b) I still say Thor's a real god.
X-MEN THE END HEROES AND MARTYRS #2 (OF 6) $2.99
If the X-Men ever really do end, there's going to be a party and I'm bringing the keg.
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