Frank Miller’s Sin City

When Sin City was first released in theatres I did not join the stampede at the box office. All I really knew about the movie, besides its R rating for violence and its adaptation from the graphic novels, was that Rory from Gilmore Girls, Alexis Bledel, was featured. Even that was not enough to spark an interest. Despite my six years invested in seeing her through high school and college, I had no real desire to see cartoon violence come to cinematic life or Rory come of age. Even after I heard raves from my friends and critical accolades from the professionals, the film had not made it to my short list. Holding nothing back and in the interests of full and fair disclosure, it was a film I had made a conscious decision to avoid. I did not look forward to having to watch it and I was not disappointed. If I had happened upon it on TV, I definitely would have changed the channel after the first few minutes.
Don’t get me wrong, I found the film to be visually stunning. It is quite a stimulating production. I just have not made the adjustment to being assigned to watch films and being required to approach them intellectually. The world of films has been a rare protected domain over which I previously exercised complete autonomy of selection and in which I gave full reign to emotions. I need to disengage emotionally and assume a dispassionate aesthetic stance in viewing films. To become film literate, I need to be desensitized to film violence. Maybe a steady diet of Clockwork Orange and Pulp Fiction would do the trick.
In terms of multimodality, Sin City definitely appeals to many senses. Sin City is not just a visual experience. It’s images, sounds, smells textures, and tastes, all wrapped into one sensation-filled package. Your ears drink in the characters’ narration of their own stories while your eyes feast on the action. The use of narration in such fashion was reminiscent of Orson Wells’ The Third Man. The sense of smell is evoked as Marv continues to repeat that Goldie “smells like angels ought to smell.” Lighting effects create tactile responses to the textures depicted. Even in black and white, a dress could be seen to sparkle. Taste was not ignored; cannibalism figured into the story. The movie had a distinctly sensual orientation..
While the black and white imagery evoked the world of film noir, there was a new media twist. Certain characters were “branded” with a specific attribute and a special color denoting that particular attribute whether shoes, eyes, lips, or an article of clothing. It was an effective way of focusing attention on the characteristics framed by color.
Although different directors were involved in creating the different sequences of the story, it was the nonlinearity of the narrative rather than the multiplicity of directors that contributed to the fragmentation of the storyline. Like Crash and Love Actually, it would be a film for which a second viewing would better elucidate the complexity of intersection between the lives of the various characters. On first viewing, the overlap between and sequence within the different stories is difficult to follow.
However impressively Sin City stimulates the senses and challenges the intellect, it is not a film I would choose to watch again until my brain has gained mastery over my gut and I can watch scenes of extreme violence with more detachment.