Submitted by James Richard Armstrong II 
(Apr 12, 2005)Frank Miller’s Sin City
A bevy of visual stimulation is peppered throughout this latest Rodriguez "translation" of Frank Miller’s comic book Sin City.
EXT. SHIP DOCK—NIGHT
This film has somewhat paralleled the film Pulp Fiction in style as to use vignettes to tell the story, and then intertwine the characters and their stories. We start out with detective Hartigan (Bruce Willis), and his standoff with Roark Jr. /Yellow bastard (Nick Stahl), who is holding 11-year-old Nancy Callahan (Mackenzie Vega) hostage. Roark Jr. is the son of Senator Roark (Powers Booth) and has a nasty propensity for sexually assaulting and murdering little girls. This scene sets up the entire story and shows the audience the police in the morally bankrupt town of Basin City are all on the take, when Hartigan’s partner, Bob (Michael Madsen), decides to shoot his partner because Hartigan, who isn’t on the take, wanted to kill the evil Roark Jr., but since Bob is on the payroll of the good Senator, he cannot let that happen.
CUT TO: TITLE CARD OVER BLACK—SIN CITY.
Marv (Mickey Rourke) plays an out of control badass that has been set up to take a fall by the evil powers that be in Sin City, only they didn’t know who they were setting up. This character, in my opinion, is by far the most intriguing and dynamic character of the film. With a mixture of comedic one-liners and overwhelming comedic violence, Rourke’s character is a joy to watch. Rutger Hauer (Cardinal Roark) had a small cameo in the film and didn’t provide much punch. The same can be said for Bruce Willis’ character. Either that or Mickey Rourke was so dominating that he swallowed up every other performance… except for one that is.
CUT TO: OLDE TOWN GIRLS
EXT. DARK STREET—NIGHT
Benicio Del Toro (Jackie Boy) pulled his weight in this film. He plays a corrupt Sin City police detective that had a crew of other crooked cops that liked to run around and cause havoc with the drug dealers and prostitutes of a cordoned off part of Basin City. This part of Basin City was given to a group of badass, take no prisoners prostitutes, by the corrupt establishment, and let them be their own pimps. They have an agreement with the police in Basin City, handle their business without harming or stepping on the toes of the overall corruption of the city or have it shut down by the cops, and then let the pimps take over as they did in the past. Of course, this harmony gets interrupted when Jackie Boy and his band of misfit cops decide to try and entice one of the prostitutes to come and join their party. When she declines his invitation, the groups of criminal cops get belligerent and that’s when all hell breaks loose.
WE CUT:
BACK TO REVUE
I liked this film, but I would have cut two scenes in this film that were about fifteen minutes long a piece, mainly because they were too long and I felt they were unnecessary to the plotline. Other than that it was very well done. Quentin Tarantino also had a hand in this film, which is very obvious if you pay any attention to detail in the film. The visuals were outstanding also. Especially when you see a beautiful woman walking toward the camera, and everything on the screen is in black and white, except for her lipstick and hair, which are both bright red. This accentuates the background even more and gives the watcher a sense of duality. I suggest seeing this film a couple of times, because there will invariably be things that you will miss the first time around, as I did. Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino should do more films; they are definitely at the top of the heap when it comes to abstract filmmaking today.
FADE OUT: TITLE SHOT—RUN CREDITS
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(22 ratings)