SIN CITY - Blu-ray review

Note: the main review is by John, and since Jim agreed 100 percent with John's assessment, he added to the end of the review and included details on the Blu-ray edition.


"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything...."
--Mickey Rourke, "Sin City"

The 2005 film-noir thriller "Sin City" from Dimension Films, originator Frank Miller, and directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino created a minor sensation around the country, an essentially old-fashioned black-and-white gangster flick with an episodic "Pulp Fiction" flair and decidedly graphic, contemporary action. But it was also a little hard to follow, and its initial bare-bones DVD presentation did little to satisfy its most-demanding public. So here is the promised two-disc special edition, recut, extended by twenty-three minutes, and unrated, along with the original theatrical version and a host of extra features. If there's anything more its fans could want, short of a whole different picture, I can't think what it might be.

First, though, a word about the movie, and I would be remiss if I didn't begin by providing a warning and a disclaimer. "Sin City," rated or unrated, as its name implies is an extremely violent and profane film. Its indulgence in blood and gore is endless and unrelenting, glorying in murder, mayhem, mutilation, decapitation, cannibalism, torture, and the destruction of every body part, public and private, you can name. Yet it manages to engross the senses from the first minute to the last. It is not a film for your Aunt Martha from River City. It may not even be a film for you. Indeed, I find it bemusing to note that since the movie's release, it has been assailed by any number of self-proclaimed critics who have denounced its violence, the very same people who no doubt praised the excessively brutal liberties taken in Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." Go figure. Nevertheless, for those folks who are forewarned and, thus, forearmed, "Sin City" can be a load of fun.

Based on stories in the graphic (comic-book) novels of writer Frank Miller, 2005's "Sin City" is noir to the nines. Robert Rodriguez directed the film ("El Mariachi," "Desperado," "From Dusk Till Dawn"), and also shot and edited it, with co-directing help from Miller ("Robocop 2," "Daredevil," "Elektra") and Quentin Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction," "Kill Bill"), without whose pioneering "Pulp Fiction" this present film would probably never have been made.

"Sin City" is, therefore, a movie based on a series of comic-book adventures, which in turn were inspired by writers Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane as well as Hollywood's film noir of the forties and early fifties. But it's like nothing the mystery writers or the Hollywood studios ever produced. Instead, it's like the horror-thriller comic books of the late forties and early fifties that were so brutal, so violent, that the comic-book industry finally enacted a form of self-censorship that lasted for decades. With "Sin City" there is little self-censorship. Every act of madness imaginable is presented in graphic detail.

Of course, there is nothing so harsh depicted in "Sin City" that hasn't happened in real life a hundred, a thousand, times over. Think of the Holocaust, the world's multiple serial killings, the brutality of everyone from the ancient Persians to the modern Nazis. Yet it's seldom that we see such acts committed to the screen for the benefit of sheer "entertainment." And make no mistake about, "Sin City" is entertaining. But while its on-screen violence may seem at first blush repulsive and extreme, it is the kind that one cannot take seriously. It's comic-book violence; it's exaggeration for the sake of amusement and nothing more. It's Wile E. Coyote being blown to smithereens for the umpteenth time and getting up and going at it again. No, the violence doesn't have the balletic grace of movies like "Enter the Dragon," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hero" or "House of Flying Daggers"; nor does it have the sheer kinetic energy of the killing sprees in "Kill Bill." What "Sin City" does offer are some lively and imaginative-looking (if intentionally clichéd) characters; a steady, exciting, sometimes riveting pace; a macabre sense of humor; and, most important, a highly original "look" based on a very old noir concept.

As we would expect, the plot of "Sin City" involves comic-book heroes and villains, pulp-fiction caricatures grounded in the old-fashioned ideals of good and evil. It's just that in this case, the film being as dark as it is, good doesn't always prevail, at least not in the sense we're used to.

The movie contains three basic stories (discounting a brief introductory section that sets the tone for the rest of the film), all of them loosely connected. The first and best of the lot involves a huge, Neanderthal brute named Marv, who is pursuing the murderer of his only true love. Marv is the latest incarnation of Raymond Chandler's Moose Malloy from "Farewell My Lovely," here wonderfully embodied by Mickey Rourke wearing a prosthetic forehead, nose, and chin that turn him into a veritable living hulk. Marv may be a crude, cartoonish beast who stepped right out of a comic book, but he would never hurt a woman; and when somebody kills the only girl he ever adored, Goldie (Jaime King), nothing will stand in his way of revenge. It's good to see Rourke back in a starring role again, even if we can't quite make out who he is under all the makeup. And it's good to see sweet-faced Elijah Wood as the evil "Kevin," a character so foul I don't even want to think about the things he does to people.

The second story of importance is about an aging police detective, Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who's about to retire but wants to clean up one last case before he does. He's determined to put a pedophile-killer (Nick Stahl) behind bars, even though the killer is the son of a U.S. Senator (Powers Boothe), who protects his son from on high. Moreover, Hartigan is equally determined to save the life of a girl, Nancy (Mackenzie Vega and as the character grows older, Jessica Alba), who is the killer's latest victim. Hartigan is your typical hard-ass good guy, as honest as the day is long and as tough and resolute as they come. Naturally, he's a stereotype; he's supposed to be a stereotype; all of these characters are stereotypes, which is why we love them. Willis seems born to play the part, although it isn't much of a leap of acting ability for him. Probably the best role in this episode, however, is that of the miscreant, a sickly, gnomelike eunuch referred to in the closing credits only as "Yellow Bastard."

The third story concerns a character most like those of old Hollywood film noirs. Clive Owen plays Dwight, an antihero that Robert Mitchum might have portrayed in the old days. Indeed, Owen even looks like Mitchum from "Out of the Past." This is also the segment that discredits the notion put forth by some of the film's detractors that it's entirely sexist. This segment is about a gang of women prostitutes who defend their turf with their lives (and with the help of Dwight, although they don't really seem to need him). Maybe Miller threw in this chapter to balance out all the women who die in the other sections of the film. Anyway, the women are a rough-and-tumble crew, whose most lethal assassin, Miho (Devon Aoki), uses swords the way Tarantino likes women to use swords. Just an old-fashioned family film, filled with girls next door. If you happen to be a member of the Manson family and live next door to the Playboy mansion. This segment is also notable for Benicio Del Toro spending most of his time with a gun in his head. No, not a gun to his head, but a gun literally in his head.

Nor should we overlook the film's dark comedy, without which the film would be a rather tedious chore. The stories may be superficially grim, but I assure you they are most often done up in good humor, too, with a lot of intentionally funny stuff going on. When Dwight confronts an evildoer in a bathroom, and the hood tells him, "You're making a big mistake, pal," Dwight replies, "Yeah, you already made a big mistake yourself. You didn't flush," and pushes the guy's head underwater. Later, when Dwight needs to carry a load of corpses for disposal, he asks his lady friends for a "hardtop with a decent engine, and make sure it's got a big trunk." But I liked the scene where a baddie gets shot in the chest with an arrow and just stands there looking at it as it extends through his back, wondering what in the heck just happened; then he gets shot with an arrow to the forehead and his face reflects an expression of "Hey, this just ain't my day."

Lastly, there's the "look" of the film, which is probably its biggest asset. The stories may be deliberately old-hat, the characters exaggerated, and the violence excessive--subjects that might warrant criticism, to be sure--but the film's overall appearance is above reproach. It looks exactly like the artwork from the graphic novels upon which it's based. Along with Robert Altman's movie version of "Popeye," Miller's "Sin City" is without a doubt the best translation ever of comic-book images to the big screen.

Rodriguez has been a vocal fan not only of Miller's books but of digital photography, so by combining them here he was able to fulfill two ambitions. Additionally, the director shot everything in a studio against blue screens, later adding the background material digitally. In this regard Rodriguez's technique is similar to that used in "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," also filmed digitally against blue screens at about the same time as "Sin City." In any case, I usually don't care much for digital photography because it not only doesn't have the resolution of traditional print film, its relative lack of grain seems to flatten out the picture; but in the case of "Sin City" and "Sky Captain," I liked the results. Both movies mean to capture a flat, comic-book effect, and they succeed.

"Sin City" is particularly effective in its use of black-and-white photography to recreate the appearance of Miller's graphic novels. And it serves the purpose not only of reminding one of the books but of deepening the menace of the stories' noir atmosphere (so dark that here literally everything happens at night). Then, to set it off, the B&W is punctuated occasionally with snippets of color: a red dress here, splashes of blood there, or, most effectively, the only character entirely tinted, the "Yellow Bastard." Intersperse the B&W with dabs of color, add a few actual animations, present each frame as though it were set in a comic book, and you've got the look and feel of Miller's graphic novels down pat.

OK, now I don't mean to leave readers with the idea that I think the film is perfect or that it will please every discerning viewer, even the most ardent admirers of the comic-book material it's based on. If the film suffers at all, it is from four things: (1) It's too long. At over two hours I found it dragging by the end and all of its stylistic devices beginning to lose their impact from overuse. (2) Its comic-book mentality is obviously shallow, which doesn't allow for any serious development of its characters. So we get exactly what the graphic novels intended--two-dimensional heroes and villains as noted above. (3) Its voice-over narration, also in keeping with its comic-book origins, can be a further burden when combined with the movie's excessive length. And (4) it's got so much violent action throughout the stories that the violence creates a cumulative numbing effect, eventually desensitizing us to the very shocks that are supposed to be so enthralling.

None of which are serious enough faults to keep "Sin City" from being mostly entertaining. I may not have fallen as completely under the movie's spell as many other viewers, but "mostly entertaining" is good enough for me to look forward to another visit to this "City" whenever possible.

And to that, Jim would add that the acting is darned good, too, and so tonally consistent with the comic book style that one probably has to credit the directors here too.

Video:
This film was shot on a soundstage using green screens and a digital camera, with digitalized backgrounds added during post-production. The result, especially in 1080p, is an amazing visual comic book experience that really highlights the style, and the images pop out with such 3-D effect that it's easily going to be one of the Blu-rays people pop into their players to show skeptics that Hi Def is really capable of. Two versions are provided here: the original theatrical, and the recut/extended/unrated version which adds 23 minutes. Well, more like half that, since that count includes new beginning and end sequences. But there's a scene added to each of the main stories that fans should appreciate. Both versions are presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, and the AVC/MPEG-4 transfer is a clean and crisp one that has no visible defects. Plain and simple, it's a striking picture, and the visual style--a washed-out black-and-white with spot color--was made for Blu-ray. Miller and Rodriguez really capture the look of the comic books, and "Sin City" has never looked better.

Audio:
The audio is a perky English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit) that's as stellar as the video. Whether it's a line of soft-spoken dialogue or one of the many effects, "Sin City" really rocks the speakers and distributes the sound nicely over all six channels. There's an additional audio option in Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, but I can't imagine watching without hearing the distinctive voices that the actors provide and reading subtitles instead (which, in addition to Spanish, are also available in English SDH).

Extras:
You would have thought that the Blu-ray would have repeated all the features from the previous two-disc DVD release, but that's not the case.

Disc one does contain the regular theatrical-release version of the film with the same three audio commentaries as the previous release, however. The first (2.0) is with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, who tell us about some of the things that went on behind the scenes while directing the film. They talk a lot at first about how Rodríguez convinced Miller to do the film at all. Then they explain the occasional use of color and the dark humor in the picture. It's nice having the story's creator here and hearing how they were trying to be as faithful as possible to the books. The second commentary (2.0) is with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, with a little help later on from Bruce Willis. Here, the men talk mainly about the technical aspects of the filmmaking. Rodríguez explains that he shot the opening scene before he even had the rights to the story, making it in order to persuade Miller of his good intentions. Later, Tarantino tells us that he was inspired by Italian horror-thriller director Dario Argento to create his color scheme for his little segment. The third commentary (5.1) is composed of audience reaction at the movie's Austin première. Basically, you sit in the audience with them and hear what they say and listen to their laughter and applause and screams. I guess it's for people who don't like to watch movies by themselves.

A couple of short features turn up missing, and instead of the "Sin-Chroni-City Interactive" from the DVD there's Cine-Explore, a Profile 1.1 picture-in-picture feature that combines video commentary plus PIP shots of the original graphic novel and footage of the green screen work. In truth, though, this is a sophisticated and fun way to watch the film that beats the pants off of Sin-Chroni-City.

Disc two is where things really start to vary. It contains the new, recut, extended, and unrated version of "Sin City," with the additional 23 minutes tagged on. What you get are full-length, expanded cuts of each individual episode presented as separate short films, each complete in its own right. In a brief introduction, Rodriguez explains that you can watch the stories all at once or separately at your own leisure rather than their being intertwined as one long story as they are in the theatrical release. Incidentally, the correct chronology, he tells us, is actually "That Yellow Bastard," "The Customer Is Always Right," "The Hard Goodbye," and then "The Big Fat Kill." Don't expect a lot of changes in the stories, though; the additional bits and pieces don't amount to as much as you might expect, and nowhere do the filmmakers tell you exactly what was added. Each of the four episodes now sports its own title screen and closing credits, which take up some additional time. I liked the new "Mom" scene in "The Hard Goodbye," and "That Yellow Bastard" appeared to have the most newly added material, including an expanded character, but none of it seems to amount to very much.

As with the previous release, there's Robert Rodriguez's "15 Minute Film School," really twelve minutes, wherein we find out how the director created the various film effects, cast the characters, etc. Here too is Rodriguez' "All Green Version" of the movie, where the whole film is speeded up to less than 10 minutes, with nothing but green screens behind the actors. It's weird but captivating and not a little educational, too. Here as well is "The Long Take," a 17-minute section that shows us the entire shooting of the scene Tarantino did with Owen and Del Toro in the car together, with all the takes. Fourth is "Sin City: Live in Concert," nine minutes with Bruce Willis and his band the Accelerators playing the song "Devil Woman" at Antone's night club. Then, as though we hadn't gotten enough of Robert Rodriguez, we get a six-minute segment called "Ten-Minute Cooking School" wherein the director shows us how to make "Sin City" breakfast tacos. By the time you're finished with all this stuff, you may not want to see Robert Rodriguez ever again.

Missing features from disc one turn up here. The first of these is "How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film," five minutes with Miller and Rodríguez again talking about how they got together on the project. Next is a seven-minute bit, " Special Guest Director, Quentin Tarantino," in which Tarantino talks about his part in filming a segment of "The Big Fat Kill." After that is "A Hard Top With A Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City," seven minutes with Miller, Rodriguez, and Cecil D. Evans, the transportation consultant responsible for getting together the vintage 1950s' cars used in the film. "Booze, Broads & Guns: The Props of Sin City" is next, ten minutes with prop master Steve Joyner, plus Rodríguez and Miller again and others, talking about the knives, guns, clubs, and such in the movie. Following that is the nine-minute featurette " Making the Monsters: Special Effects & Make-Up," with special makeup effects supervisor Greg Nicotero and others on how all of them decided on the look of the characters. Finally, there's "Trench Coats and Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City," nine minutes with Nina Proctor, the costume supervisor and others discussing the characters' garb. Then there's a teaser and theatrical trailer.

The big Blu-ray exclusive is "Kill 'em Good," an interactive comic book feature that gives viewers the chance to interact with the comic book. But given the sophistication of video games these days, it's the kind of feature that wears out its welcome fairly soon. Don't look for the paperback copy of The Hard Goodbye that came with the two-disc DVD, because it's another of the features that's MIA.

Bottom line:
As John observed, "for all its excesses--and "Sin City" wouldn't be "Sin City" without them, the film is enormously fascinating, mostly entertaining, and always a delight to the eyes and ears (if not always to the stomach)." And it's even more mesmerizing in High Definition.