Sin City (2005) Graphic Novel Neo Noir

 "Walk down the right back alley in Sin City... and you could find anything."

Produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Based on Frank Miller's graphic novels based in and around Sin City. Cinematography and Editing was by Robert Rodriguez. Music was by John Debney, Graeme Revell, and Robert Rodriguez and some of it channels Mancini's Peter Gunn theme. Art Direction by was by Steve Joyner and Jeanette Scott while the Set Decoration was by David Hack and Jeanette Scott.

The film stars Jessica Alba as Nancy Callahan, Makenzie Vega as Nancy (age 11), Devon Aoki as Miho, Alexis Bledel as Becky, Powers Boothe as Senator Roark, Jude Ciccolella as Liebowitz, Rosario Dawson as Gail, Benicio del Toro as Det. Lt. Jack "Jackie Boy" Rafferty, Michael Clarke Duncan as Manute, Rick Gomez as Douglas Klump, Carla Gugino as Lucille, Josh Hartnett as The Salesman, Rutger Hauer as Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark, Nicky Katt as Stuka, Jaime King as Goldie and Wendy, Michael Madsen as Bob, Clark Middleton as Schutz, Brittany Murphy as Shellie, Nick Offerman as Burt Schlubb, Clive Owen as Dwight McCarthy, Mickey Rourke as Marv, Marley Shelton as The Customer, Nick Stahl as Roark Junior, Scott Teeters as Lenny and Benny, Patricia Vonne as Dallas, Bruce Willis as Det. John Hartigan, Elijah Wood as Kevin, Tommy Flanagan as Brian, Lisa Marie Newmyer as Tammy. 

Based on the Sin City neo noir graphic novels of writer/artist Frank Miller. Miller's inspirations were the Classic Bogart and Cagney Hollywood Gangster Films and Noirs that he saw, and the hard boiled novels he read. But he put a reality check in his work to reflect the world around him, life is not black and white but shades of gray. It was not the world of the Comics Code. The first Sin City appeared in Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary Special in 1991. There are probably a couple of dozen of the serialized story out there with recurring characters in not always linear progressing stories.  

The title Sin City is sort of a hard ass/wise guy corruption of Basin City  just like Sing Sing for Ossining, Crooklyn for Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy for Bedford–Stuyvesant.

The film reflects the short stories and vignettes of Sin City. 

The Stories

The Customer Is Always Right (Part I) A high class woman stands at the edge of a penthouse terrace. Reminds you of countless James Bond spy films. A man approaches her. He offers her a tar bar. She takes one he lights it. He tells her she looks like she's running from something. He tells her that he'll save her. They kiss. He shoots her. She dies in his arms. He says he'll never know what she was running from but he'll cash her check in the morning. 

That Yellow Bastard (Part I) On the waterfront. A car pulls up to a wharf. John Hartigan and his partner Bob, Sin City Police Detectives. step out onto the pavement. Hartigan is hunting down child serial killer Junior Roark. Bob is on the take to look the other way John is not. Bob tells John to wait for backup. By that time Roark Junior will have raped and killed little eleven year old Nancy Callahan. John decks Bob and heads out to the shack at the end of the pier.  

John Hartigan winces. He has a bad ticker. Junior takes a shot. It hits. John is winged in the shoulder. He shoots back. Shooting off Juniors ear, hand, and dick. Bob recovered shoots John in the back. John stumbles over to a piling and sits down against it. Nancy crawls into his lap as police sirens get closer.

John: An old man dies a little girl lives, fair trade.

The Hard Goodbye  A dive hotel. A hookers flop. On a heart shaped bed lay a man and a woman. 

Marv: The night's as hot as hell. It's a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town - I'm staring at a goddess. She's telling me she wants me. I'm not going to waste one more minute wondering how I've gotten this lucky. She smells like angels ought to smell, the perfect woman... the Goddess. Goldie. She says her name is Goldie.

On a heart shaped bed lay a man and a woman. Goldie and Marv. Only Marv is still breathing. Marv awakes. Someone has killed Goldie. Sirens getting louder. Marv has been set up. 

Marv vows revenge. Shit is gonna hit the fan. The sound of feet running up the stairs

 Marv: [voiceover] Goldie's dead. I've been framed for murder. The cops are in on it.                         Cop: [knocks on door] Open up! Police!                                                                                                 Marv: I'll be right out.

The rest of the Sin City tales filmed for the screen are The Big Fat Kill, That Yellow Bastard (Part II), and The Customer Is Always Right (Part II). Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller just used panels from the graphic novel for their story boards while a majority of the film was shot against greenscreen. The only studio sets built for the film were Kadie's Strip Bar, Shellie's apartment Hartigan's prison cell, and a hospital set. 

Noirsville

 "A visualization of the pulp noir imagination, uncompromising and extreme. Yes, and brilliant." (Roger Ebert)

A fun film. Neo Noir with a Graphic Novel twist. 7/10