A Reel 20: SIN CITY

“This is blood for blood and by the gallons.” 

This month marks the 20th anniversary of SIN CITY. 

 

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, SIN CITY neo-noir crime anthology, based on Frank Miller’s comic book series of the same name. It adapted the first, third, and fourth books in Miller’s original run; The Hard Goodbye (about an ex-con hunting his lover’s killer), The Big Fat Kill (a P.I. caught in a street war), That Yellow Bastard (an aging police officer and a disfigured killer), and the intro and outro based on the short story The Customer is Always Right.

 

Shot in black-and-white with moments of color, SIN CITY was filmed mostly green-screen, with several scenes shot before any actors had been cast (they were added digitally later). Rodriguez re-created shots from the graphic novel so faithfully he shared a directing credit with series author Frank Miller. 

 

The cast was an impressive ensemble: Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy, Josh Hartnett, Devon Aoki, Nick Stahl, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Madsen, Powers Boothe, Benicio del Toro, Carla Gugino, Rutger Hauger, Nick Offerman, Tommy Flanagan, and Elijah Wood. 

 

SIN CITY released to mostly positive reviews and opened at no. 1 at the box office. Mickey Rourke won a Saturn Award for his performance, and the film would win another Saturn for Best Action Film. A sequel would be released in 2014.

 

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SIN CITY has come to be known as one of the most unique films of this millennium. Starting with the first thing we see: the look. Its vision is unlike anything we’ve seen before or since, and stands as a loving homage to the film-noirs of old. The anthology style of storytelling gives us a reset every 20 minutes or so, but each one is engaging, fun, emotional…and even a little grotesque in a glorious kind of way. 

 

SIN CITY’s uniqueness also comes from what it represents. It arrived in April of 2005. At this time, there was no Marvel Cinematic Universe, STAR WARS had only five films, and HARRY POTTER had only three. This was an era before big-budget franchises became the want and need of audiences and studios, and SIN CITY represents a time when studios, and movie-goers, would take a chance on something new. SIN CITY may have been based on a comic that had been around a while, but it was still fresh, and is the type of film cinema could benefit from embracing again. 

"And after I pull off that miracle, maybe I'll go punch out God."