Sin City

Sin City is a neo-noir that was released in 2005 which features an all-star cast consisting of Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen and many more. This film was an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City. This movie focused on three separate stories that took place in BaSIN City. These stories all shared some key elements without most of the characters even realizing it. The first story starts the movie off but is quickly cut off by the second story and is not continued until after the third story is complete. This first story involves officer John Hartigan who is one day away from retirement. Hartigan is after a serial child rapist who is the son of a powerful senator. His partner tries to talk him out of taking action and risk getting killed, but Hartigan is determined to save a young girls life and knocks his partner out. He makes his way to the building where the girl is being held and after beating and killing several henchmen, corners the rapist and shoots him. The girl is safe and free but Hartigan's partner awakes and shoots him. He goes down and viewers are unsure if he survives. At the end of the movie this story reconvenes and concludes the conflict started at the beginning.

The second story involves a low life thug name Marv who is enticed by an attractive blond haired woman named Goldie. After a long night together, Marv awakens to find that she is dead and the cops are already on their way to frame him for her murder. He quickly escape their attempts to arrest him and sets out to find out who really killed her. Marv brutally works his way up the criminal ladder and finds that the Roark family is responsible for Goldie's murder. He now has to face many other adversaries such as a ninja-like killer and crooked cops and risk his own life in order to find the real person behind Goldie's murder.

The third story revolves around a barmaid, Shellie, who his trying to fend off her ex-boyfriend. She secretly has another man, Dwight, staying with her and is afraid that Jack, her ex, will kill them both. Dwight roughs up Jack after he and his crew enter Shellie's apartment and sends him away after nearly drowning him in his own piss. Jack and his crew then head to Old-town for a night out on the town. Dwight follows them knowing they are up to know good. Dwight's history with Old-town catches up to him as soon as he gets there when an old lover Gail confronts him. Jack and his friends, meanwhile, are harassing another young prostitute and end up pulling a gun on her. The girls then take swift action in killing these men who are threatening their rules and way of life. Unfortunately after they kill Jack, they realize that he is a hero cop and that the police will start a war with Old-town if they find out one of their own has been killed by the girls. It is then up to Dwight to try and dispose of the body before anyone finds out and save Old-town from having riots all over again.

This film is very unique and is definitely in a class of it's own. The color style in which it was filmed was also very unique because it was almost in a negative film fashion with added colors on specific people or items. This film follows some of the major elements and themes of film noir such as moral ambiguity and shifty alliances. Other reoccurring aspects are trenchcoats (which are worn by every main character in the movie), repeated slapping, an ex-cop on a mission, rain and or water is often present, and lighting. The oblique lighting and shadows used create a film noir feel while the angled vertical lines give it an aspect of modern film. This movie differs from a typical film noir, however, in the sense that it does not have a femme fatale but rather has women that act as opposites. The women in this film are always loyal to the main characters and are concerned with the hero's safety more than their own. This film also requires the viewer to almost suspend their ideas of reality and disbelief as the characters seem borderline supernatural. The theme of vengeance is strong throughout the film and adds to its film noir aspect. This movie also is not set in any particular time period as many different aspects of different historical eras were incorporated. For example: some characters used pay phones, others use large mobile car phones, and still others use tiny modern cell phones.

Overall, I enjoyed this film and it's uniqueness. As far as whether or not this movie can be classified as film noir is still hazy. In some aspects it clearly follows the standards of film noir while in other ways it contradicts them. It definitely captures the theme of film noir but creates a style of its own in doing so. The moral ambiguity in this film is rampant, but the lack of a femme fatale proves disappointing. I believe that this film could be cautiously considered a film noir.