STORY STUDY - MEDIUM: FILM - “Sin City”
“Turn the right corner in Sin City… and you can find anything.”
This week’s post will be about the ensemble neo-noir film, Sin City.
Directed by Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller (with special guest director Quentin Tarantino) and based on the Sin City graphic novels by Miller (there is no traditional screenwriter credit), Sin City tells three stories, along with a prologue and an epilogue.
The three main stories have their own volumes of Sin City graphic novels.
In “The Hard Goodbye,” Marv searches through the city to find who killed the prostitute who was nice enough to sleep with him, leaving behind a trail of blood and death.
In “The Big Fat Kill,” Dwight has to hide the body of detective Jack Rafferty. If he is discovered, then the truce between the Basin City police and the citizens (prostitutes) of Old Town will break, causing a war between the two sides.
In “That Yellow Bastard,” police officer John Hartigan has to protect Nancy from Roark Junior, son of the corrupt senator, Senator Roark. Hartigan saved Nancy from Roark Junior eight years prior, and now, Roark Junior is set out to finish what he started.
Sin City is one of those rare adaptations where the pages of the graphic novel translate seamlessly onto the screen. Barely any changes were made to the story. Rodriguez goes so far as to treat the actual comic panels as storyboards to film the movie.
I should let people that if anyone is planning to watch the film, I should warn you it doesn’t treat women the best ways. There are either prostitutes or damsels in distress, some of which… well… spoiler alert. I’m aware this is a strange thing to mention, but I have come across people who absolutely hated the film based on this factor.
It certainly doesn't help that Frank Miller still continues this trope across his stories after writing Sin City.
I remember wanting to watch this movie because of its ensemble cast and the action seemed cool. There are guns fights, sword slashing, car crashes, and gravity defying leaps.
But for everyone else, turn the right corner, and see it for yourself.
