Sin City is less like a movie about a comic book than a comic book that just woke up one morning and wandered into your nearest cinema. It is the purest embodiment of the comic book form in cinematic translation to date and a dazzling example of a work of fiction occupying two separate modes of presentation in a barely indistinguishable manner. It’s also got guns and cars and hot chicks and Michael Madsen and an exploding Irish guy and three different directors. It is thrilling from start to finish, and has left such an impression that despite the copious failures of its masterminds Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller in the eight years since its release, its 2014 sequel A Dame To Kill For is still awaited with bated breath, evaporating against the chilly night in the dark heart of Basin City.
It’s not hard to see why it has come under criticism from the fairer sex, though. Its three stories present a psychotic embodiment of manhood and women don’t fare too well outside their roles as things to be avenged, things to be fought over or things to wear absolutely no clothes at all, all night every night. I can’t quite defend this, but I can accept it as part of Miller’s vision in which every facet of masculinity is questioned and in some sense championed. It’s insane, yes, but it’s comprehensively insane.
What’s probably created the biggest impression for viewers since its 2005 release is its visual style. Shot almost entirely on green screen (as the Blu-Ray’s copious extra features can attest to), the film is presented in a tricked out monochrome with flashes of red, blue and yellow working effectively to highlight the intensity of moment that Rodriguez and first-time director Miller want to get across. It also features one of the greatest ensemble casts ever assembled, including Mickey Rourke at the peak of his noughties comeback, Bruce Willis playing against type as a seriously ill aging cop and Elijah Wood as silent slasher Kevin. At no point in its execution did its handlers wonder how Miller’s Dark Horse comic would translate to screen. Instead, they just stuck it all right up there, and it works beautifully. An absolute triumph.
