Sin City; a groundbreaker of HUGE proportion.
by Joe De Matteo

HUGE

Sin City explodes on the screen with a fury and terror that will glue you to your seat, and then have you jump up from it.  Sin City is a masterpiece in the annals of Graphic Novels to Film. 

Robert Rodriquez is the Robert Oppenheimer* of the “Sin City Project;” he is the genius behind Sin City the movie: the director, screenplay writer, producer, cinematographer, composer, and editor.  Sin City, the movie, is the sum all of the full body of Rodriquez’s previous work and experiences; no one else could have created this extraordinary film.  Part of his genius is his respect for the work that came before him, and obviously, the people that did it.  He is like the master sculptor who respects and honors the clay or stone he works in.  

Frank Miller, creator of Sin City - its lives and times, also has directing credit for the film.  And boy is it obvious.  Quentin Tarantino – what can one say about Tarantino, his name is an adjective – has directed a portion of the film as well.  These two facts are another credit to Rodriquez’s genius, for at first viewing, none of the 7 HugeReviewers that I saw the movie with could tell who did what.  I’m sure, or not, that after some other viewing each will find his or her own signpost that will lead him to believe that, “this is Tarantino’s work,” or, “this is Miller.”  Maybe the wow factor is what keeps us from seeing the brick and mortar behind the art.  That leaves the questions of, how many viewings will it take to stop being wowed?  Or is the wow factor the art itself: the graphics, the film craft?

The acting and the actors.  I am a Bruce Willis fan.  I can't think of anything he’s done that I don’t like.  His comedy is great (The Whole Nine Yards, Death Becomes Her, Bandits…), he is the consummate action/adventure light-comedic hero (the Die Hard series, Fifth Element…), and his serious acting is always convicting and never cookie cutter.

Mickey Rourke gives a great performance.  His narrative ability is absolutely excellent for this film.  This is one of his best roles; Marv is a mighty and astounding character; his screen presence is!  And that screen presence is all Mickey Rourke.  Not the make up, the shooting, but the power of Mickey Rourke himself. 

Basin City, and Old Town are place I love being in - through the magic of film only.

The use of color: The Wizard of Oz opened the eyes of a generation to the informative quality that the movement between black and white, and color could have.  When we saw OZ as a world in color, while Kansas had been a black and white world, we instinctively knew that, “we weren’t in reality anymore, Toto.” 

Certainly, at the time The Wizard of Oz was shown in color and black and white, the body of film since the 1800s was black and white; color was still in the early days of its evolution.  However, it quickly got to the point that when a new movie came out in black and white, the general public couldn’t understand why someone would do that. 

"Art?" 

"Color is more artistic than black and white."

As more of us became enamored with the art of film craft we instinctively understood the communication abilities of the use of color.  Even if we couldn’t articulate this knowledge, we viscerally, in our gut, understood what was being communicated to us. 

From Woody Allen to Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic we have moviemakers communicating, storytelling via color.

In Sin City the use of color is at times shocking.  The opening scene is in black and white; enter screen bottom a woman walking toward screen top; black and white, clad in a beautiful, red shimmering gown.  She turns and her lips are a deep, outstanding red.  Vibrancy against...?  Sin City.  She is of Sin City, but represents something, some state beyond it.  Enter a man.  He narrates.  He is black and white, as is the quality of his voice. 

Wonderful. 

"WOW! is the only way to describe Sin City; a groundbreaker of HUGE proportion"

Yes, The Wizard of Oz opened our eyes to storytelling by the use of color, and of black and white. 

But maybe it took Paul Simon to tell us in “Kodachrome.”  He said…oh, hell, this is what he said:

If you took all the girls I knew

When I was single

And brought them all together for one night

I know they'd never match

My sweet imagination

*Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan Project that produced two Atomic Bombs, “Little Boy” “Fat Man,” which were dropped on Japan in 1945, driving Japan to surrender, thus ending the war in the pacific and saving an estimated one million Allied lives.