Sin City
From a personal degree of taste, I've never really taken to the genres film that Sin City belongs. For me, it's
two distinct genres. Firstly, and as much as I love it now, when I was younger a huge problem for me with Batman was
struggling to comprehend the ultra-gothic and stylised cityscape that Burton created. Why the hell would people choose to
live in such an alien environment. It just didn't make sense for such a dark, dank and crime-ridden concoction of buildings
and people to exist. It was too strange, with validity of the material only possible if you were willing to donate the
largest goodwill in suspension of disbelief.
Then there's the gritty. Worlds populated by criminals and underworld scum that take on the pretense of the champion of the
story, when in reality you'd be ashamed to know them if they were related to you in any way. The Guy Ritchie films are a
prime example. For all their fast talking no nonsense characters, Lock Stock and Snatch are filled with
morally bankrupt assholes that'd kill you as soon as talk to you. It's another reality, and while entertaining in its
element, it's a world I can't associate with - and wouldn't want to - with characters that would mean just as much dead
as they would alive.
On the surface, Sin City is the combination of everything I dislike about film. A hyper-stylised city, dark and
miserable with little air of hope for anyone living there. A city filled with nothing but scum, rapists, murderers,
torturers, prostitutes, hit men, cannibals and crooks. Yes, Sin City is as filthy and grotty as it gets, it's the
essence of diseased humanity. Sin City fills it's world with the sickest kind of bad guys you could ever want to
imagine, inside a city you'd be reserved in sending the most depraved of individuals, even a Catholic priest.
Sin City manages not only to survive in spite of its subject, it thrives on it. It excretes style, it secretes
style, in all manner of what's depraved, it's one sick puppy of a cool film. Sin City has multiple bad guys, the
villains of the story, and while they're all cantankerous degenerate assholes, they've all got their purpose. Unlike
villains in other stories who are designed to win our sympathy on some level, the villains in this story aren't around to
be worshiped, admired, liked or even to be associated with. They provide an un-ending drive to Sin City, and their
purpose? They're half of the reason Sin City works just so well, as cleverly wicked as these cruel bastards are,
they're rivaled and surpassed by the heroes of the piece.
We have three of them. Hartigan. Played by Bruce Willis, he's a cop out on a mission to stop Roark Jr. (Nick Stahl), the
son of a senator who's a perverse rapist and murderer of children. With the protection of his father, Roark has had almost
free reign to pursue his fetish, dogged only by persistent detective Hartigan. He has a bid to see that no more little
girls end up with that look of terror etched onto their corpse. With the hope only that he's not too late to save the
latest abductee, it's Hartigan's sheer resolve - years of it - that allows us to offset the depravity we see. There's good
in this Sin City, and it's the stronger of two wills. Willis is solid as Hartigan, it's one of his better
performances in saying he's solid, but that's not difficult considering his resume. That he's a one last wish cop set for
retirement, the material demands a fatherly resolve and it's all supplied by Willis. Stahl is also solid as the Yellow
Bastard/Roark Jr. pedophile. Surely not an easy role to visialise yourself in, but by circumstance he's hideous enough
to be perceived as the vile character required.
Marv. Played by Mickey Rourke, he's down on his luck but as tough as they come. He's out searching for the killer of the
one woman who ever thought enough to give him her time. The beautiful Goldie, murdered as she slept next to him. Marv
begins trawling the streets, starting with lowly hit men and reaching all the way up to the corrupt powers behind the ills
of Sin City itself. Kevin, played by Elijah Wood is the quick and quiet assassin sent to frame Marv for her death. It goes
deeper. Marv has found Goldie's murderer in Kevin, but he's more than expected. Wood is downright sickening as Kevin, his
silence sends more of chill through you than the sharpest line of dialogue ever could. As a character, Kevin emotes similar
reactions that one would feel in reading about Easton-Ellis' Bateman. But he's the one of the coolest chilling sick fuckers
you've seen on film since, ever. If Wood is the villain with the money, then Rourke is the hero with the Swiss bank
account, and it's all cashed in on his Marv. As tough as they come barely does his performance justice. Rourke's Marv is
virtually impossible to kill. His morality and unnerving drive for revenge in the face of such odds gives the character an
amazing endearing quality, even in light of his actions.
Dwight. Played by Clive Owen, he's possibly the least heroic of the three. That's if you count a private investigator
putting his life on the line times over in defense of what's right, un-heroic. It probably has more to do with the villain
he goes up against being the least sadistic of the three, rather than anything lacking in his actions or resolve. Benicio
Del Toro's Jackie Boy is a corrupt cop who enjoys slapping around women, and he's out for some fun tonight. Unlike Hartigan
and Marv who kick ass solo, Dwight is out-shone by some serious interjection from the girls of Old Town. Hookers, out in
force, govern the streets by their law and more than hold their own. Dwight starts and ends his battle to put an end to
Jackie's exploits, but there's a complicated middle section that involves a couple of street massacres where he's only a
part player. Del Toro and Owen both exude the monotone charisma necessary, but they pail in comparison to what's going on
around them.
If the base characters populating the hero vs. villain plots aren't solid enough for you, you've always got the never
ending supply of supporting characters. Highlighted by Jessica Alba as stage dancer Nancy, not only is her gyrating body
the picture of perfection, but her role is also the film's female highlight. Honourable mentions go to Rosario Dawson and
Jamie King, with Brittany Murphy an unfortunate slave to her rather feeble character.
Sin City tells three different stories based on the same theme three times over. Essentially, a lady has been done
wrong by, and some serious ass kicking needs to be done to make things right again. Our heroes all base their actions on
the same moral guide, they're the half of Sin City that makes living for its citizens worthwhile. They go head to
head against the scum of the city with a sheer, brutal justice, justified both by their own resolve and the unspeakable
terrors their antagonists perform.
The characters and the story are the two centres to Sin City. They give what would otherwise be profoundly
unnecessary violence and gore a context, and it all works so very very well. Sin City has a visual appeal that suits
its theme, probably more so than any other film that's tried material like this before, be it in story or style. Not
everyone will enjoy Sin City, simply because it is so unapologetic about the story it's telling. I still might
not be able to associate with most of the characters, or the world they're set in, but I can live inside this story and
find it particularly engaging because there's a balance to it all. Sin City has its morally bankrupt associates, but
it completes its world with heroes, champions who make walking down some wrong dark streets forgettable.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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