Must See Movies: Sin City

04-09-2008 10:55

Based on the graphic novels "The Hard Goodbye", "The Big Fat Kill" and "That Yellow Bastard" by Frank Miller have possibly been the most faithful big screen adaptation of a comic book in recent times.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez Sin City striking film noir infused with fantasy, taking place in a world where it is eternally nighttime and everything is drenched in rain and violence.

Using a unique combination of silvery black and white digital photography with occasional flashes of bright colour for dazzling punctuation, Rodriguez employs green screen techniques and paints a backdrop around each scene, using Miller's co-direction as his cue to match the original setting as closely as possible.

Three stories weave together, occasionally overlapping. With lines delivered flatly in the hard-boiled style of Raymond Chandler, these tales are about crime, love, loss, and being preternaturally tough.

Mickey Rourke plays the fearlessly lovestruck Marv, a trenchcoat-clad beast who falls in love with prostitute Goldie (Jaime King) only to find her murdered by a demonic cannibal (Elijah Wood).

In another segment, Bruce Willis plays Hartigan, a rogue cop with a "bum ticker" whose goal in life is to save Nancy (Jessica Alba), an innocent stripper, from a murderous rapist (Nick Stahl).

The third segment stars Clive Owen as a detective caught between murdered cop Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) and a slew of lethally dangerous vixens lead by Gail (Rosario Dawson).