SIN CITY

US, 2005, 123 minutes, Colour.
Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Powers Booth, Rosario Dawson, Benicio del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Carla Gugino Josh Hartnett, Rutger Hauer, Jaime King, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl, Bruce Willis, Elijah Wood.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.

As a tour-de-force of state of the art CGI and cinematic technology, this is a fascinating experience. Storyboarded exactly like the graphic novels it is bringing to the screen, it combines black and white photography with splashes of colour (mainly blood red), white on black silhouettes, swift editorial cuts and a pace that rarely lets up. An impressive gallery of actors do their comic book stuff with great relish. Mickey Rourke is particularly impressive as a both kindly and monstrous. Clive Owen is better than usual, though Bruce Willis does his world-weary good-hearted cop again (reffering to himself as 60ish and old). In fact, the extensive cast is quite star studded, including Nick Stahl as a loathsome paedophile, Elijah Wood as a kind of supernatural killing maniac, Rutger Hauer as a corrupt cardinal, Powers Boothe as his corrupt brother, a senator. Benicio del Toro (made up, as is Mickey Rourke, to look like a comic strip character) is a corrupt police officer. Rosario Dawson and Brittany Murphy lead the female cast (who are not made to look ugly in any way!).

Robert Rodriguez has co-directed with the author of the graphic novels, Frank Miller, who has been so pleased with the results that Sin City 2 is already in preparation.

Robert Rodriguez also has a credit which, instead of saying ‘photographed and edited by’, says ‘shot and cut’. That’s the clue. This is a movie full of shots and cuts. Frequent, even vicious. Friend of Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, directs one sequence (Clive Owen driving the dead Benicio del Toro to the tar pits). They collaborated, one remembers, on the graphically ugly, From Dawn to Dusk.

One of the cast remarked that the violence is part of the wit of the screenplay. In a post-modern way it is. However, this is a film that relishes excess, the splatter of video games and horror genres while using film noir conventions. One of the most frequently used words in the screenplay (apart from the expected four letter words) is ‘kill’. It demands a response to the question of how a creative pulp fiction aesthetic relates to an ethic of violence. (At a time when US military have been found guilty of torturing Iraqui civilians, this is a significant social question.)

1. The impact of the film, critical acclaim, audience reaction – entertainment, violence and excess? The comic strips, the graphic novels, post-modernist style and morality?

2. The popularity of graphic novels, film versions, the visuals like the comic book illustrations, the storyboards? The framing action? Larger than life? The splatter tone? The emphasis on the word “kill”? The overall pervading black and white, the touches of colour, bright reds and yellows? Make-up? The overall effect? Computer graphics and the film as a tour-de-force?

3. The work of Frank Miller, his graphic novels, his mentality, characters? Transferred to the screen?

4. Robert Rodriguez and his career, his interest in dramatising violence, graphic novels, the influence of Quentin Tarantino – and the tendency to excess?

5. The Quentin Tarantino scene – Clive Owen and Benisia del Toro? Rodriguez’s homage to his master?

6. The impact of the violence, issues of violence on screen, realistic, over the top? Violence and humour, wit and exaggeration? The violent mentality? Ethical issues?

7. The prologue, the killer and the girl, pretending to love her, killing her, the cheque – his reappearance and his charming Becky to kill her?

8. The Hartigan story: Bruce Willis’s screen presence as the weary detective, Elijah Wood as the cannibal, Nick Stahl as the abuser, Michael Madson as the tough partner? The detective, his age, the relationship with his partner and his partner’s criticisms? The authorities and the pressure on him? The confrontation with Roark, saving Nancy? Roark and his perversions and cruelty? Kevin as mad, cannibalistic creature? Hartigan’s partner shooting him? Roark and Hartigan castrating him with his shot? Hartigan left to die, Nancy’s escape?

9. The story of Marvin, Mickey Rourke’s style? His appearance, ugly, like the Hulk? Goldie and the splashes of colour? The sexual encounter, Marvin’s tenderness, Goldie being targeted, her trust in Marvin? The sexual encounter, her death? Marvin in himself, the prison background? His going to Lucille, her relationship with her partner, as parole officer, the questions? Her helping him? Her death? The bar and the girls? Sherrie and Dwight? The girls and Gail? The slap? The confrontation with Wendy – and her being Goldie’s sister? Marvin and the brutal interrogations, the thugs, the police? His maiming and killing, the confrontation with the Cardinal, the Cardinal supporting Kevin, his death? The death of Kevin? The senator and his protection? The portrait of Kevin, Elijah Wood as Kevin, evil, captured, his legs, the dog? The senator and Marvin’s capturing him? His not talking, going to prison, the treatment, the electric chair, Wendy and her believing in him? Her support of him?

10. Dwight and Sherrie, Clive Owen and Brittany Murphy? Jackie Boy – Benisio del Toro – and his gang? The tough, the confrontation, Dwight in the bar, Sherrie and her work? The girls in the neighbourhood? Gail and her command, the tough Miho and her martial arts, Becky? The confrontation of Jackie, Sherrie’s boyfriend, his gang, the intrusion into the house, Dwight’s reaction, the toilet? The killing of Jackie – driving the body – with the tool? The girls and their support of Dwight? Gail as tough, the leader? Becky, her mother, betrayal? The arrival of the Irish mercenaries? The confrontation at the tar pits? Dwight being rescued? Their exchanging the head? The explosives from the Irish?

11. Hartigan and his recovery, the encounter with Bobby, the senator? His refusal to confess? The eight years passing, kept alive in jail by Nancy and her letters? The letters stopping? The yellow creature? His deciding to confess to be free and find her? Finding her in the bar, exotic dancer? The yellow creature following and attacking her? The capture? The farm, the torture? Hartigan and his confrontation with Roark? His not screaming? His partner, the death? Hartigan and his claiming to be old, Roark’s death, wanting Nancy to be free, the decision to kill himself?

12. The initial killer arriving to murder Becky? The beginning and the end?

13. The cumulative effect of the visuals, the characters, the emergence in Sin City, the moral perspective, the violence and killing?