I had heard so much about the ultraviolence in Sin City I warned Darin that, if I couldn’t take it, I would leave and go to the bookstore and wait for him there.
I did not, in fact, end up at the bookstore, which is not to say Sin City isn’t violent. It is, extremely violent. Errr…cartoonishly violent. Sin City is based on a comic book by Frank Miller, and its heritage shows in every frame: if you are into stylized visions in movies, this is your flick.
There are three main stories told in the movie: Bruce Willis as a cop one day before retirement set to find the abductor of a little girl; a completely unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as a lowlife out to avenge the murder of the only woman who ever showed him kindness; Clive Owen as a murderer who gets involved in a gang war between the whores and cops. Corrupt politicians (hell, everyone’s corrupt in this world), cannibalism, sleazy clergy, Uzis out the wazoo, child molesters, vintage cars. And a visual style that does not stop for one frame of the film. The violence is toned down somewhat because the blood is shown either in shades of red we don’t associate with blood, in neon yellow, or in white. (As I told Darin after the movie, that was a smart move: that much blood in movie-blood-red would just have looked ridiculous, not horrible.)
But sitting here two days later I would have to say I can’t recommend the movie. It’s unending violent pornographic nihilistic cynicism for no purpose that I can fathom. To be cool? Because that’s just how Frank Miller looks at the universe? In which case I say, Wow, dude, so sorry. All the men are violent thugs, all the women are violent, thuggish whores (who dress in nothing but fishnet, the better to show off their over-aerobicized asses). What is the point of wallowing in this? It’s “gritty” and “hardboiled” for no other purpose than to delight in the evil, over-the-top excesses that every single character gets into.
I mean, at least with A Clockwork Orange I felt like there was a point. With this, the only point is that writer-director Robert Rodriguez (in close collaboration with Miller and “guest director” Quentin Tarantino) just wanted to show off a live-action comic book.