Spirited Away

03 January 2009

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Dashing across snow laden rooftops, a silhouette of a man is visible, his bright red tie flapping in the breeze. He speaks of the city as his source of energy as he jumps like a cat between the ties, chimneys and narrow lines between buildings. This man is The Spirit, on another crime fighting swoop.

One of the founding characters in US comic book history, The Spirit has been newly adapted into a new film (imaginatively titled 'The Spirit'). Although you may not have heard of him - he has hardly appeared in new stories since 1952 - his reputation and legacy precede him.

The Spirit is a suave, daring and sophisticated character - almost irresistible to ladies, a key part of many of his stories - the most recognised work by comic pioneer Will Eisner.

He says: I re-wrote Silken completely to reflect something I saw in Scarlett, which was blindingly obvious but I hadn't see many directors use - which was her sense of comic timing, her rye humour

He is a masked crime fighter with a hidden identity who avenges his city against mobsters and criminals. His disguise is scant, only wearing a small mask around his eyes with a dark suit, fedora hat and red tie.

While the character may sound familiar (The Spirit debuted around the same time as Batman), there are a subtle differences in tone, character and style between the two masked crimefighters which set them apart from each other.

The film adaptation of 'The Spirit' is also a solo directorial debut from comic book artist Frank Miller - who gained experience in film craft through his input on the 2005 adaptation of his comic series 'Sin City' - which is, to date, the most faithfully styled and revered comic adaptation in celluloid.

The move from drawing to directing is a big leap for Frank. He previously got a taste for film direction on 'Sin City', which he created with veteran filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, but 'The Spirit' sees him helm the entire project for the first time - a brave move.

Frank reckons the transition to working with actors came fairly naturally to him though, saying: "When I first worked on Sin City I was completely taken off guard by how much I fell in love with actors."The moment was on the first day of the shoot when Marley Shelton walked up to me with her big, big eyes and said, 'Why would I hire anybody to kill me?' and I talked to her for about 30 seconds and realised I was saying things to her I'd never said to anybody. And she went out and her performance was quite good. So when I went and kicked Robert and said 'I'm in'."'Sin City' the movie owes much in conception and style to the original 'Spirit' comics and is an acknowledged heavy influence on Frank Miller - so much so, when initially asked to direct 'The Spirit', he was unsure he could handle its legacy."I was asked to be the director and at first I thought I was too daunting, so I refused," says Frank: "But then, after three minutes of careful thought I decided I didn't want anybody else to touch it."The resulting film is a vision of 'The Spirit' filtered through Frank's unique film noir style. While it remains faithful to the original storylines it bears many trademark Miller touches. This has caused controversy among hardcore fans of the comics, who argue 'The Spirit's groundbreaking take on styling and narrative - which frequently defied genres and was very much the personal vision of Eisner - will be suffocated when under Frank's treatment.Frank, however, defends his vision - saying he wanted to bring the comic, which was last originally published in 1952, up-to-date, and introduce its characters to a new generation of fans.Frank said: "I set about exploring what I perceived as Will's intent, but wanted to create something new and exciting, vigorous - not some stodgy old piece of memorabilia. I wanted to do something with modern technology that was as adventurous as Eisener was with his vision."Although the storyline of 'The Spirit' is a closely guarded secret, it will not tell the hero's story from his beginnings. The character is a former detective called Denny Colt who mysteriously died and has come back to life as The Spirit - who is played in the film by 'The Good Shepherd' actor Gabriel Macht.The Spirit takes on crime in the urban landscape of the fictional Central City (based on New York), and is silently acknowledged and supported by a Police Commissioner named Dolan. He lives in a cemetery and survives on money he makes from capturing villains. The Spirit also never uses a gun, only fighting hand-to-hand, frequently referring to the city as a source of his power.The Spirit has many nemeses over Central City, but the most renowned is The Octopus - portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson in the film - a wily criminal mastermind and inventor who gained his nickname because he is involved in seemingly every criminal activity in the city.In the comic version of 'The Spirit', The Octopus is only ever shown as a pair of distinctive gloves, but this is expanded to a complete character in the film. Frank says one of the main stories he used for inspiration when scripting the film was 'Showdown with The Octopus' from 1947 - a huge fight between the two characters.Describing the fight scenes between his character and The Spirit, Samuel says: "It's more like cartoon action, or cartoon violence. We hit each other with big things and get up; we shoot each other with big guns and still get up. It's 'ouch', but they're alive, so it's fun. We had gigantic props - six and seven-feet wrenches."The other major aspect to the plot - as is apparent to anyone who has seen any trailers for the film - are its female characters.Frank Miller has recruited, in Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes, actresses who are not only building to the apex of their careers but some of the hottest property in Hollywood, and widely regarded as two of the very sexiest US stars.Eva Mendes - who plays Sand Saref, The Spirit's childhood love who has turned to crime -acknowledges the sexual presence of the women in the film, but says they are anything but shrinking violets, which was part of the appeal for her.Eva said: "To play such an amazing femme fatale role as Sand Saref, playing a woman who's killed pretty much all of her husbands - maybe it's something strange about me, but it turns me on in a weird way."I love comic book films but a lot of the problem I have is the female characters are always a version of a damsel in distress. In this film, there's nothing like that - they are empowered, strong females who use everything they have to get what they want."I think they're really the backbone of the story, so I don't think women will be bored, just watching a lame interpretation of what a woman is."Closer to The Octopus is Scarlett Johansson's character, Silken Floss - who acts as secretary and regulator of the criminal mastermind's fancies."The Spirit loves women and women love him, and its one of those things where he gets drawn into their wiles and guiles," explains Samuel L Jackson. "Whereas this one [points to Scarlett Johansson] pretty much controls me."The Octopus goes off on tangents and she kind of pulls him back to the ground, or tells him: 'why are you out being crazy and talking about killing people and taking over the world when the bills need to be paid?' "In the Eisner comics Silken was a nuclear physicist and surgeon operating on her own, but Frank says he was so smitten with Scarlett after meeting her he altered Silken Floss especially for her.He says: "I re-wrote Silken completely to reflect something I saw in Scarlett, which was blindingly obvious but I hadn't see many directors use - which was her sense of comic timing, her rye humour."So I took that and I thought OK, the character is kind of a repressed astrophysicist, but how did she spend her 20s? And I thought Scarlett would be perfect, and in the course of working with her, I had all the joy anybody could have working with a young silken Floss."Frank's modern-yet-somehow-classic film-noir style is visually akin to a moving comic book, and his films blur the boundaries between what's drawn and what's real, with all sets and most props being completely created from Computer Generated Images (CGI).'The Spirit' even contains an entire underwater scene - something Eva Mendes was dreading because she admits she can't swim - created entirely in the studio, It also made some stunt scenes very complicated to perform.The end result has created much anticipation among fans of the superhero genre but also plenty of clashes. Dissenters say the results appear to too closely resemble 'Sin City', and the film features far too much of Frank Miller's influence. Those defending 'The Spirit' hail what they've seen as an exciting new take on the character and a step forward, by crossing it with Frank Miller's dystopian cityscapes.Either way 'The Spirit' promises to be a largely original and visually fantastic work, flowing with beautiful girls, smouldering dialogue and comic book action. Frank's still in the nascent stages of his career, but he's developed a very original way of adapting comic books for the big screen. The Spirit is certainly safer - as he says - in his hands, as a man familiar with Eisner's work and the legacy he has to live up to, than any other Hollywood director. Let's hope the film can meet the standard he's already set for himself.'The Spirit' is in cinemas now.By Andy Tillett.

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