Sin City

In an effort to avoid giving away the plot of Band of Brothers, I will address Sin City instead. Dad, get working on those Bands of Brothers. It seems to me they've been in your queue for like a year now, and I will not postpone my comments forever.

First of all, let me put out a disclaimer on this one: this film should not be seen by anyone with a faint heart. The "R" rating is quite deserved, as the violence is second only to Kill Bill Vol. 1, in my opinion (though like Kill Bill, it's stylized in such a way that it looks less realistic, and is therefore not as jarring as it would be otherwise). There's also a decent amount of sexual content, including some nudity, so be warned. I know I said I wouldn't concern myself much with this kind of film assessment, but in this case I want to make sure that people know I'm not recommending the film by reviewing it. Anyone I would recommend this film to has undoubtedly already seen it, so use your judgment.

That said, Sin City is a difficult film to analyze from a Christian perspective. In terms of the film's entertainment value, it's nearly flawless. Robert Rodriguez has done excellent work before (Desperado had some great action sequences), and I put him on par with Tarantino, except without the bizarre and unnecessary sex scene tarantino likes to throw in, though Rodriguez isn't a saint in that area either. However, the world depicted in the film has a bizarre morality, in that it's almost entirely survivalistic. Of the main characters in the film, only Bruce Willis's character is truly a good guy, though the audience gets the sense that Mickey Rourke's character is probably misunderstood. Clive Owen is a badass, but not a particularly moral guy. I think this setup has interesting ramifications, but I'll get to them in a bit.

The first and most obvious selling point of Sin City is the visual presentation. This seemed to be one of the selling points of the film, according to the previews, and it does not disappoint. In a style similar to Sky Captain..., the film was shot mostly in front of a green screen, and then all the scenery was added digitally. For the most part, this method works incredibly well, though at times it seems to me like the characters are cutouts in front of a backdrop. Of course, since this film is a graphic-novel-adaptation, the prospect of characters being cutouts is actually not that different from the source material.

And ultimately, that's what this movie is all about: staying true to the source material. According to an interview with Rodriguez (www.ign.com, it shouldn't be hard to find), no one even wrote a proper screenplay for the film. Instead they worked directly from the books, down to copying the framing of individual cells for the film (IGN also has a side-by-side comparison of the film and the books, and the resemblance is astounding). The reliance on computer effects largely made this adaptation possible, as I understand that even the lighting on the characters was added in post-production.

The film also has an interesting use of color, as bits and pieces of the characters often have a primary color attached to them. I'd have to watch the film again to decide what was the motivation behind the color choices, but, if nothing else, it's great to look at. I don't know if this color scheme is used in the books at all, as I actually thought the books were completely black-and-white, but either way I think it adds rather than detracts.

So the visual aspects of the film are more or less top-notch, but as I said in my introduction, the film is more interesting in terms of its themes. Basin City, as depicted in the film, is almost completely devoid of order. Its political and religious leaders are completely corrupt, and the police force is just another army with its own motivation. Everyone is out for himself, and for the most part nobody seems concerned with what is right or wrong, with the exception of Willis and, to an extent, Rourke and Owen. The city seems to be populated by relentless and selfish violence, and one can't help but wonder how the city manages to continue to exist at all.

While I'm certainly glad that I do not live in such a moral vacuum, I can't help but wonder what kind of a man I would be if I did. I think the most interesting concept that arose in my mind after watching this film is the interplay between complacency and prosperity. Basin City is a place where life is hard for everyone, and in such an environment, I think, a person is forced to be honest. In reading a lot of the literature that I've read this semester, much of which being focused on the nature of man and morality, the concept of supply and demand seems paramount. For example, people are less likely to fight when there's enough food to go around, but the minute things get scarce, people start getting killed. Therefore, in a place like the one depicted in Sin City, it may not be that people are necessarily any more evil than they are here in modern America, it's just that there they are unable to hide behind wealth and luxury. Men use violence to get what they want/need, and women do what they have to to get the same. Sin City may very well be an accurate depiction of the human condition, once the trappings of modern human society have been removed.

It is also that much more impressive when a good man rises from the din in Basin City, since he has to break with soceity to be good, rather than simply conform. In modern America, everyone is all smiles and sunshine to his neighbor's face, but "breathes murderous threats" in his mind. We're all nice to each other because it's the thing to do, and hence our lauded morality is, in some ways, just a fashion statement. It seems telling to me that people often describe violent criminals as "such nice guys" in their private lives. It seems that, in a America, if a man can convince everyone that he's a nice guy, then it doesn't matter what goes on inside his house, as long as it stays there. In Basin City, most people can't afford the farce.

I guess Sin City speaks volumes to me about how little civilization actually does for the souls of men. While the film is brutal in its depiction of man, it's also pretty accurate. It seems to me that, for all our ideas about "higher moral standards" and "personal betterment," a staggering portion of us are still happily trotting down the wide road to destruction. The fact that it's all sunshine and smiles until the end doesn't change the fact that the end is darkness and death.

I'll probably get back to Band of Brothers next, though I'm not quite sure. Again, leave me any comments you might have, and pass this blog on to anyone you think might be interested.