From the first time I saw the trailer for Sin City I was hooked. The visual style and the subject matter immediately intrigued me and I rushed out and purchased book one in Frank Miller’s “Sin City” just to see what I was looking forward to. Little did I know that was exactly what I was going to get.
Robert Rodriguez has taken Frank Miller’s graphic novels and brought them to life on the big screen, literally. If you have not yet browsed our photo gallery you should take the chance as you will notice that Rodriguez did his best to make sure that each and every scene looked exactly as it had in the comic, and this is what gives this movie its flare.
From stark black and white to violent fury, Frank Miller’s ink is translated into live-action and the dialogue you find in the book is the dialogue you will find in the film, and the actors chosen to tell this story couldn’t have been better.
Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Benicio del Toro, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Nick Stahl and so on and so on are just a few of the names chosen by Rodriguez to tell this story and tell it they did. Diving directly into this city of sin, a city running rampant with criminal activity, this large group of actors was able to take on roles some of them have never played before, and will most likely never play again, as prostitution, murder and violence is known as the norm.
This dark material is equally countered by several one liners of comic relief, which will not only relieve the audience from the violent nature of the film, but also gives this world a bit of realism despite its unrealistic nature.
If I was to complain on any one thing it would have to be the use of voice over, but to lose it would be to lose what Rodriguez was ultimately going for with this venture. As the dialogue from the graphic novel is completely lifted from the pages, so is the narration used to tell the story.
Each bit of narration is told by the character featured on screen and the voice over is used in approximately 75 percent of the picture and for you movie nitpickers thinking of narration as the burden that brings down a film you are going to be extremely upset, but for those of you looking for a truly pure adaptation of some excellent material you will be extremely satisfied as Frank Miller’s telling words are not compromised for a second.
Sin City is a revolutionary film in every way. Visually stunning, daring, violent, intriguing and extremely entertaining. This is a film Robert Rodriguez should be honored for as he stuck to his guns, made the movie he wanted to make and made sure source material, that is revered by all who have read it, was not in any way treated without respect. In doing so he created what is already certain to be one of my top films, not only of 2005, but of all time.
