A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

The good news is Sin City the movie does not suck. The bad news is fans of the graphic novels will be spoiled after seeing this movie. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Based on Frank Miller’s Sin City graphic novels “The Hard Good-Bye“, “The Big Fat Kill“, “That Yellow Bastard,” and the “Babe Wore Red,” the movie stays true not only to the look and feel of the books but also to the books’ inspiration. Director Robert Rodriguez understood the roots of Miller’s books and went on to use the film noir conventions of the 40s and the 50s as a springboard to make something entirely fresh and new from something vaguely familiar.

Sin City is about the story of several characters living in Basin City, a corrupt, tough fictional town. It’s the kind of town where there’s an uneasy truce between prostitutes and the law and violence is a common, everyday occurrence. We follow the stories of Marv, a monster of a man accused of murdering a hooker named Goldie, John Hartigan, a good cop framed for child molestation, and that of Dwight a P.I. who stumbles into a brewing underground war while trying to rescue his waitress girlfriend from a violent ex.

Frank Miller making a cameo appearance as a priest during Marv’s segment of the movie.

If that sound like something you’ve heard and seen a dozen times before in late night TV and bad B-movies, then you are correct. But Sin City’s strength lies in how these stories are told. Shot entirely in black & white with judicious and quite effective use of color, Sin City recalls old crime movies where shadows and light were intricately planned as much as the plot twists and tangles. Where else would you see someone’s shadow make the mortar between the brick wall’s glow and not darken as it’s supposed to? I recall an anecdote I’ve read somewhere about Akira Kurosawa while filming Hidden Fortess. Kurosawa wasn’t satisfied with the rain they were producing. Apparently it wasn’t showing on the black & white film. What he did was to put milk so that the rains appear thicker and would show up on film. Rodriguez, taking a cue from Miller’s work, heightens the drama from these interplay of shadow and light. While Miller mastered the use of negative space on print, Rodriguez’s stylized film noir offers a fresh take on an old forgotten genre. And yes, the rain in Sin City are thick and almost white.

The violence is over-the-top. If you’re queasy about women being slapped about, this may not be your thing. Miller was accused of being a misogynist because of his depiction of women in his books and Rodriguez doesn’t water it down. But the theatricality of the entire endeavor gives the violence a cartoony flavor. As if to underscore the silliness and borderline campiness of it, a character gets hit by a speeding Porsche twice and just walk away with nary a broken bone or any apparent permanent damage.

The casting is perfect. It wasn’t just that they came so close to the look of the characters in the books but they also seem to understand where these characters are coming from. The prosthetics helped, sure but the delivery and the choices the actors made helped sell the idea of the movie to the audience. Aside from the main cast, there are great cameos too. Elijah Wood goes Gollum as Kevin, a demented version of Charlie Brown. Cinema tough guys Rutger Hauer, Powers Boothe and Michael Madsen all make an appearance. Props too for Carla Gugino. Rarr.

Sure there were some inadvertent chuckles brought about by a clunky line of dialogue, but you can forgive that. Sure this may not win any acting Oscars but at least it’s entertaining. Seeing Nancy, Becky, the Yellow Bastard and Marv walk and talk would be enough to give any fan-boy chills. And if you’re not a fan of the books, you’ll be drawn in by the stories. Rodriguez did an amazing work with the pacing the movie despite its length, just a bit over 2 hours. The stories flow and interlap with each other in an organic way.

Rodriguez is said to be thinking of making more of the Sin City stories into movies. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and now with the success of Sin City, we might be seeing more movies shot in a digital set. If only they’d be as fun and have someone like Rodriguez to care for the material, then there’ll be a lot of movies to look forward to in the future.