Movie Reviews

Sin City

16 July 2005

Of all the movies based on graphic novels, few have paid direct homage to the art form of the comic book. Ghost World, The Road to Perdition, even most superhero movies, stay relatively faithful to the storylines, but not to the visual style of the comics upon which they were based.

            For the unacquainted, graphic novels are to most comic books what art films are to Hollywood action flicks. Sin City, for example, was an anthology of underworld stories, written and drawn by Frank Miller, set in a city that, with such a name, is bound to have crime problems. In an inspired move, Miller is co-director, alongside Robert Rodriguez. Though Rodriguez is also cinematographer and editor, co-composer and sound mixer, this is still more Miller’s film, as it slavishly follows the visual style of the comic book: a gritty, monochromatic look, with touches of colour to emphasise certain characters and motifs. More than Ghost World, or even Fantastic Four, this is truly a comic book translated to the big screen.

            Miller’s graphic work is as distinctive as any of the great film directors. He is the Quentin Tarantino of comics, with his hyper-real, over-the-top violence and savagery. Unlike Tarantino, he doesn’t glamorise violence, but his stylish portrayals of brutality made it seem regrettably cool. Fittingly, Tarantino is credited as “special guest director”, on a project he must have adored.

            Many of the most artistically brilliant graphic novels took their cue from the movies. Sin City recalled Hollywood film noir, but the medium of comics allowed it to shift a few steps away from realism. Moved back to the screen, the realism is further diluted. What looked believable in graphic novels now looks like fantasy. Actors like Mickey Rourke and Nick Stahl are covered with enough prosthetics to look like Miller’s drawings, but not especially human.

            Strangely, the uneasy balance between reality and fantasy works brilliantly. The cast is an amazing collection of cult figures (Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Michael Clarke Duncan, Elijah Wood and many others), and the film doesn’t seem to be limited to any particular era. The images might be from a graphic novel, but they conveniently seem to come from a dream.

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