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Sin City is a 2005 neo-noir anthology film based on the graphic novel series of the same name, directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodríguez.

Though Miller (Creator of the Sin City comics) did not literally direct the film, Rodriguez gave him a directing credit because his visual style was so influential on the film's final appearance. When the Director's Guild of America refused to recognize Miller as a bona-fide director, Rodriguez refused to compromise, and resigned from the Guild so that the joint credit could remain. Additionally, Quentin Tarantino is credited as "Special Guest Director" because he directed one scene in the movie.

The movie was released in cinemas across the U.S. on April 1, 2005 by Dimension Films.

Originally, creator Frank Miller did not want to release the movie rights of Sin City because of his bad Hollywood experiences in the early 1990s with the second and third RoboCop movies.* However, director Robert Rodríguez shot a "proof of concept" short film of the Sin City story The Customer is Always Right (starring Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton, who gave their services to Rodriguez as a favor); Miller approved of the footage, and gave the rights to Rodriguez. Rodriguez states on the DVD's "Behind The Scenes" feature that the short film was used to convince the actors he wanted to appear in the film; most of whom were quite impressed. An interview with Bruce Willis on the DVD confirms this:

"I started watching it, and about a minute in I said, 'Hang on a second, hit pause' - I said, 'Whatever else I see on this I just want you to know that I'm in. I want to do this'."

The short film was eventually used as the opening of the finished film.

The movie is primarily based on four Sin City stories:

The movie also includes a short epilogue written exclusively for the movie by Rodriguez and Miller.

The film was noted throughout production for Rodriguez’s plan to stay faithful to the source material, unlike most other adaptations. Rodriguez stated that he considered the film to be “less of an adaptation than a translation.” * As a result, there is no screenwriting in the credits; simply “Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller.” There were several minor changes, such as dialogue trimming, new colorized objects, removal of some nudity, slightly edited violence and minor deleted scenes (Although the Extended Cut has more scenes from the books). Rodriguez, in his DVD commentary, explains most of these changes were required due to the reality of shooting a live-action film.

Sin City was screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival in competition. While some felt having an American film based on a violent comic book being screened for competition was inappropriate, the film was well-received at the festival and won Robert Rodriguez the Technical Grand Prize for the film's "visual shaping." *

Plot

The film does not take place in chronological order; it takes place through several different timelines. It opens on a balcony, overlooking the highlights of Basin City, otherwise known as Sin City, a grimy, violent and corrupted city of endless pain and sadness. The Customer (Marley Shelton), a woman in a red dress, steps onto the balcony and is greeted by The Salesman (Josh Hartnett, also known as The Colonel and The Man), who offers her a cigarette and embraces her before shooting her.

The story then moves to a different part of Sin City, where we meet aging cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis), an honest man who will be retiring as soon as he rescues pre-teen Nancy Callahan from the hands of child molester Roark Junior (Nick Stahl). His partner, Bob (Michael Madsen), unsuccessfully tries to stop him, as do Shlubb and Klump, two of Junior’s bodyguards.

Hartigan chases Junior to a dock and shoots off his ear, arm and genitals. Bob arrives and shoots Hartigan in an attempt to stop him, ending in the near-deaths of both Junior and Hartigan, leaving Nancy in tears.

The story then cuts to Marv (Mickey Rourke), a hulking thug of a man, who has just fallen into bed with Goldie (Jaime King), a beautiful goddess of a woman. They make love, and after three hours, Marv awakens to find Goldie dead next to him. He realizes he has been set up when he hears the police coming down the street, and once they arrive, he fights them off.

He stops to visit Lucille (Carla Gugino), his parole officer, who unsuccessfully tries to convince him not to hunt down Goldie’s killer. He goes to Kadie’s Bar, a sleazy saloon he often visits. He takes several shots before two hitman arrive and take him to a back alley. He kills one and tortures the other to find out who sent them.

From there, he works his way through the ranks, torturing one crook after another to find out who’s behind the whole scheme. It brings him to a priest (Frank Miller, making a special cameo), who informs him that the Roark family is behind the whole thing. Marv kills the priest and moves on, but as he is about to leave, a woman who looks almost exactly like Goldie shows up, hits him several times with her car and shoots him before taking off.

Marv drives to the Roark family farm, where the answers will hopefully be revealed. He fights off a wolf and is attacked by Kevin (Elijah Wood), the cannibalistic hitman who murdered Goldie. He knocks Marv out with a sledgehammer and locks him in the basement. When Marv awakens, he finds the mounted heads of girls on the wall, as well as a nude Lucille, who is in shock after Kevin severed and ate her hand.

Lucille informs Marv that Goldie was a prostitute. Marv breaks out of the basement with Lucille, just as various officers arrive. They kill Lucille and Marv dispatches them with a hatchet. He also learns from the captain that the operation all leads to Cardinal Roark (Rutger Hauer), the brother of Senator Roark. Marv reflects on his confused state and decides to find some evidence before murdering the Cardinal.

He goes to Old Town, a section of Sin City owned and enforced by prostitutes. The Goldie look-alike appears, wounds him and ties him up, where he is interrogated by several prostitutes. The look-alike is Wendy, Goldie’s twin sister. After realizing Marv isn’t the one who has been killing prostitutes, they let him go.

Marv plans to return to the farm and murder Kevin. Wendy goes with him, and Marv tells her about how Goldie was the perfect woman. Arriving at the farm, Marv knocks out Kevin before severing his arms and legs. The wolf then feeds on him before he is decapitated. Marv drops off Goldie and takes the head of Kevin to Cardinal Roark.

Cardinal Roark reveals that eating bodies gave Kevin religious satisfaction, claiming that he could feel the touch of God. Roark had then joined in, and prostitutes were easy targets because nobody missed them after their deaths. However, Goldie was the exception, and her murder sprung the series of events. Marv then kills Cardinal Roark before his guards riddle him with gunfire.

Marv is healed before he is tortured but doesn't sign a confession until the threat of the murder of his mother forces him into signing a confession. He is sent to death row, and on the night of his execution, Wendy visits him to make love. Afterwards, he is executed by the electric chair.

The story then moves to Dwight (Clive Owen), a private investigator with a new face. His girlfriend, Shellie (Brittany Murphy) is having trouble with her ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro), an abusive drunk who has stopped by tonight to beat her once again. Dwight dunks his head in the toilet before disappearing, leaving Jackie Boy and his buddies to wander off on their own.

Followed by Dwight, they go to Old Town to look for a woman to spend the night with. They find Becky (Alexis Bledel), a young and inexperienced prostitute. Dwight watches them alongside his on-and-off lover Gail (Rosario Dawson), the leader of the other prostitutes. Miho (Devon Aoki), a skilled assassin, is walking along the rooftops to watch Jackie Boy and his friends.

Becky refuses to get in the car, so Jackie Boy pulls a gun on her, causing Miho to swoop down and mutilate him and his friends. Once they are dead, Dwight realizes that Jackie Boy was a police officer. For years, the prostitutes have held an uneasy truce with the police, and the death of Sin City’s finest will ignite a turf war and result in the death of dozens.

Dwight takes the bodies to a tar pit for disposal. Jackie Boy’s corpse sits in the front seat with him, and Dwight hallucinates that Jackie Boy is still alive and taunting him. Once at The Pits, Dwight is shot by an Irish mercenary. Back in Old Town, Gail is grabbed by Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan), the leader of the mercenaries. One of the prostitutes has informed them of the murder, and now the mercenaries are swooping in to collect the evidence and conquer Old Town.

Back at The Pits, the mercenaries realize that Dwight isn’t dead, just as he jumps up and shoots them. A grenade is tossed, rocking Dwight and the vehicle into the tar. Mercenaries collect Jackie Boy’s head as Dwight sinks, but he is rescued by Miho. They chase down the terrorists and get in another shoot-out but also retrieve the head. They return to Old Town, where Gail is being tortured and Becky is revealed to be the informant. Everyone moves to the back alley, where Dwight is waiting for them. He trades the head for Gail, and arriving on the scene are the dozens of Old Town prostitutes, who slaughter the terrorists and shoot Becky in the arm (Even though she escapes).

The story then cuts back to Hartigan, who is currently in a hospital. Meeting him is Senator Roark (Powers Boothe), who talks about power and tells him that Junior is in a coma, his body being repaired. Hartigan is going to be framed for Junior’s actions, and if he says otherwise, anyone who knows the truth will be killed.

Hartigan is sent to prison, where Nancy sends him letters every Thursday for eight years. Then her letters stop coming until her severed finger arrives in an envelope. Desperate to get out, Hartigan confesses to the crime and is released. His search for Nancy leads him to Kadie’s Bar, where a nineteen year-old Nancy (Jessica Alba) is dancing sensually for a crowd (In the background, Marv can be seen drinking). Realizing that she was never hurt, he also realizes that Junior has followed him here, now transformed into the hideous Yellow Bastard.

Hartigan and Nancy leave the bar and drive to a motel. During the ride, Yellow Bastard appears and tries to shoot them. They lose him and go to the motel, where Nancy confesses her love to Hartigan before the Yellow Bastard arrives. He hangs Hartigan from a noose and holds Nancy at a needle. He leaves Hartigan for dead, but Hartigan is able to break free and, with the help of Shlubb and Klump, find out where the Yellow Bastard is going: The Roark family farm.

At the farm, Hartigan takes down several guards (And not noticing Kevin) before hearing Yellow Bastard whip Nancy in the farmhouse. The two of them walk down to meet Hartigan, who fakes a heart attack before stabbing, castrating, and then pummeling the Yellow Bastard to death.

Nancy and Hartigan say goodbye. Alone, Hartigan realizes that the death of Yellow Bastard will cause Senator Roark to act again, and will probably result in the death of Nancy. He commits suicide, it being the only way Nancy can escape the wrath of the Roarks.

The last scene moves to the hospital, where Becky is talking to her mother after the shoot-out. As she enters the elevator, the Salesman appears, who asks her if she would like a cigarette.

Filming techniques

This is one of the first films (along with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Casshern, and Immortel (Ad Vitam)) to be shot primarily on a "digital backlot". The movie employed the use of the Sony HDC-950 high-definition digital camera, having the actors work in front of a green screen, that allowed for the artificial backgrounds (as well as some major foreground elements, such as cars) to be added later during the post-production stage. However, it should be noted that three of the sets on the film were practical (i.e. constructed by hand). They were:
  1. Kadie's Bar, where all of the major characters make an appearance at least once.
  2. Shellie's apartment. The front door and kitchen are real, while bathroom and corridors are artificial.
  3. The hospital corridor in the Epilogue. Although the first shot of walking feet was done on greenscreen, the corridor in the next shot is real. The background becomes artificial again when the interior of the elevator is shown.

While the use of a green screen isn't noteworthy, the use of high-definition digital cameras is. The combination of these two techniques makes Sin City (along with Sky Captain, which was produced the same way) one of the few fully digital live action motion pictures. This technique also means that the whole movie was initially shot in full color, and was converted back to high-quality black and white. Colorization is used on certain subjects in a scene, such as eyes, lips, or clothing. The movie was color corrected digitally and, as in film noir tradition, treated for heightened contrast so as to more clearly separate blacks and whites. This was done not only to give the film a more film noir look, but also to make it appear more like the original comic. This technique was used again on another Frank Miller-adaptation, 300, which was shot on film.

Trivia

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Sin City (film)".

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