Sin City

Sin City



Any Comic Book fan will tell you, “If you’re going to adapt my favourite Graphic Novel to the screen, you’d better get it right.”
Countless adaptations have been slated because of displeased fans and even some of the authors sticking the boot in too I.e. Alan Moore.
The problem is that comics are already a visual medium. People know what the characters look like from the books.
If you’re going to adapt one, you need to stick as close to the book as possible, adapting the screen to fit the book, rather than the book to fit the screen.

Robert Rodriguez knew this when he went into production on Frank Miller’s Sin City. He changed nothing and reaped the accolades for it.

The film plays out three intertwined stories from three different books; The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard and The Big Fat Kill.
The Hard Goodbye follows Marv(Mickey Rourke) as he tries to uncover the killer of the prostitute he fell in love with. Using the only means he knows; violence. He discovers a plot involving the wealthiest family in Basin City and a string of unexplained murders.
That Yellow Bastard concerns a tired cop on the verge of retirement called Hartigan(Bruce Willis). He saves a young girl, Nancy Callahan, from torture at the hands of wealthy young psychopath, by shooting off his manhood. The psychopath’s rich family frame Hartigan for the crime and sentence him to a life of hell. When he’s inexplicably released, the psychopath stalks after him with newly acquired yellow skin(a side effect of reconstructive surgey). It’s a race to save young Nancy, who’s now grown up into a foxy stripper (Jessica Alba).
The Big Fat Kill tells the story of street-wise hoodlum Dwight (Clive Owen) who, after witnessing the death of hero cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) by his prostitute friends in Old Town, must hide the body before a gang war erupts.

The entire film was shot in front of a green screen and the flashy animated backgrounds were added later. The animation is so close to the original drawings that you actually feel like you’re watching the books in motion. The actors chosen for their likeness to the characters is inspired. None more so than Mickey Rourke as Marv. It’s hard to believe that anyone else could have taken this part.

The action is thick and fast throughout, barely stopping long enough for you to draw breath. One word of warning though, this is definitely a lads movie. In the same vein as Commando, the all out violence was never designed for girls. The fact that every woman in the film is strikingly beautiful should also let you know who this film is for.

The final seal of approval comes from the fact that the Author Frank Miller not only stars in the movie, but had a go at directing too. In a world where Alan Moore disowns every movie adaptation of his work, this is the greatest of endorsements.

Verdict 10/ 10
A truly original and bold masterpiece.