Sin City (2005) Neo-Noir Brilliance from Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller
“An old man dies. A young woman lives. A fair trade”
First things last, my two decade’s old original DVD of Sin City has a completely different running order to the extended and recut version released in 2009, so whereas this is the latest and unrated edition of the film’s running order:
The Customer is Always Right (Part I)
That Yellow Bastard (Part I)
The Hard Goodbye
The Big Fat Kill
That Yellow Bastard (Part II)
The Customer is Always Right (Part II)
my DVD copy begins with That Yellow Bastard (47 minutes), The Customer is Always Right (9 minutes), The Hard Goodbye (40 minutes) and The Big Fat Kill (44 minutes)
and I only stress this at this early juncture should there be any Sin City or Robert Rodriguez purists out there reading this!
So to Sin City we go and Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s black and white neo-noir movie adaptation of Miller’s graphic novels where revenge is in the air, violence is high on the agenda and almost everybody is above the law. A stellar ensemble cast far too numerous to mention in full but which includes Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Michael Madsen and Benicio del Toro are supplemented by cameo roles from Elijah Wood, Nick Offerman, Rutger Hauer and Michael Clarke Duncan (among many more and as highlighted in my elongated passage and dissection of “The Customer is Always Right” below) in a noir movie that remains difficult to adequately describe other than a comic book bursting into violent life with characters who pun intended bleed through each chapter and Jaime King and Scott Teeters playing two separate but inter-connected roles. Although in black and white, colour plays a major role here too as a scene will be illuminated by the changing of a character’s eye colour or a neon bar sign, the red brake lights of a car or particularly, in a violent saga such as this, blood is liberally sprayed but not always in red and often a dull off white yellow.
Continuing on a fractured theme, here is a brief synopsis of chapters 1, 3 and 4 and a more fuller dissection of “The Customer is Always Right” to close and one more interesting side issue to note, each chapter, whether 9 minutes in length or 40, concludes with a full, cinema length closing credits crawl before the start of the next chapter. A film within a film if you will.
“That Yellow Bastard”
“Detective John Hartigan” (Bruce Willis) is mere days away from retirement and although an aging cop with a bad ticker, has a golden heart full of love for the inhabitants of Sin City he’s paid to protect and a heart full of vengeance for the criminal underbelly that taints its dirty streets. Defending 11 year old “Nancy Callahan” (Makenzie Vega) from serial child killer “Ethan Roark Jr” (Nick Stahl) Hartigan is full of bullet holes and full of an eight year prison sentence for being set-up to take the fall for the crimes of a US Senator’s son and now free and still defending and protecting the life of a now 19 year old Nancy (Jessica Alba), he has vengeance on his mind, a dame to kill for, and a yellow bastard to send directly to hell.
As the title of this 47 minute long chapter would suggest, yellow is the predominant colour and not just for the titular “bastard” Hartigan is meting out bloody revenge upon. For the blood in this scene is largely in that strangely off white colour as described above, with the only other colour in the longest chapter of the film reserved for sporadic dashes of red blood on a face, the red brake lights of a car, red and green neon signs at Kadie’s Bar or the pale blue cowboy chaps of a dancing, adult Nancy and objection of everyone’s affections and someone’s protection, especially Marv.
“The Hard Goodbye”
Quickly framed for a murder he didn’t commit, “Marv” (Mickey Rourke) embarks on a killing spree to escape the non-justice of Sin City as he seeks his own final and just retribution for the killing of a prostitute that leads to every level of corruption this dirty city has to offer. A cannibal killer “Kevin” (Elijah Wood) is under the protection of the Roark family and in this chapter “Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark” (Rutger Hauer) and after eliciting the help of the dames in Old Town, the man with a penchant for other people’s coats, sneaking home to look out for his Mum and for a face full of white plasters, feeds Kevin to the dogs before meeting his own ultimate and final demise.
A much more colourful chapter (in every sense) than the two that preceded it, Marv’s white plasters stand out as much as Rutger Hauer’s green eyes, his beloved Goldie’s hair and particularly her bright red dress and red heart-shaped bed beautifully framed from above.
“The Big Fat Kill”
My least favourite chapter of the four, but what a 44 minute chapter! Another protection and revenge mission, this time for “Dwight McCarthy” (Clive Owen) as he protects “Shellie” (Brittany Murphy) from the abusive attention and intentions of “Lieutenant “Jackie Boy” Jack Rafferty” (Benicio del Toro) who after Dwight and “Miho” (Devon Aoki) have finished with him, is a barely alive “Pez Dispenser”. As Dwight so perfectly states: “Deadly little Miho” and as I will rather more crudely remind you: Don’t fuck with Miho! This is far from all as Dwight is also under the protection of on/off girlfriend “Gail” (Rosario Dawson) who commands the dames of Old Town is a chapter ending gun fight with a bunch of invading mercenaries and poor old Jacky Boy is about to lose his head once and for all!
Blue eyes. A golden eye. A red car. A blue car and blue trainers. And all under the guest direction of a certain Quentin Tarantino.
“The Customer is Always Right”
From “THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT” in blood red capitals against a black background we fade in to an overhead shot of Sin City, a young lady in a bright red dress striding purposely to a guard rail on a balcony overlooking the black and white city below. The scene’s first narration begins:
“She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree”
As the camera angle changes to capture the lady in the red dress, known simply as “The Customer” (Marley Shelton), the self explanatory narration continues from “The Salesman” (Josh Hartnett) approaching her from behind:
“I let her here my footsteps. She only goes stiff for a moment”
Offering the customer a cigarette, the camera angle changes to one behind The Salesman as we see only the second sliver of colour in the entire scene, and a striking red lipstick to match the customer’s beautiful red dress and through a plethora of short, sharp camera angle changes, The Customer confirms she’s bored with the party inside and The Salesman, well, he only came to the party to see her. “I’ve watched you for days” he says confidently, before “You’re everything a man could ever want” as he compliments The Customer on her face, her figure and her voice. Flicking his silver zippo to light her cigarette, he also remarks on her eyes which instantly turn green as he does so, before returning to a duller grey fitting the black and white palette of the film. Smiling, The Customer turns her back to The Salesman as she asks playfully “What is it you see in my eyes?”. After a beat he replies with a “crazy calm” and although he can’t see her change of expression, as he continues with “you’re sick of running”, The Customer’s smile has been replaced with a faraway stare and although she’s “ready to face what she has to face”, she agrees she doesn’t want to face it “alone”. Turning to face The Salesman, his narration continues as the pair kiss, framed in a beautiful silhouette:
“The wind rises electric. She’s soft and warm and almost weightless. Her perfume a sweet promise that brings tears to my eyes. I tell her that everything will be alright, and that I’ll save her from whatever she’s scared of and take her far, far away”
As the narration has continued, the brief silhouette image has been replaced by a side-on angle of The Customer and The Salesman and as The Customer nuzzles into The Salesman’s shoulder she looks directly at the camera. He gently kisses the top of her head as rain falls steadily around them before they share a tender kiss and as the narration continues and “I tell her, I love her”, The Salesman mouths this in time with the narration as he shoots her with a silenced pistol. As the dying Customer rests heavy in the arms of The Salesman, rain pouring down in Sin City, his narration continues:
“The silencer makes a whisper of the gun shot”
Beautiful change of camera angle now, from above and looking down upon The Salesman cradling The Customer in her blood red dress as the narration continues once more:
“I hold her close until she’s gone. I’ll never know what she was running from. I’ll cash her cheque in the morning”
The camera now zooms upward and in a circular manner around the entirety of the city below as “SIN CITY” is displayed in large blood red bold capitals against a black background.
Fade to Black.
From the fade to black we dissolve to a young lady by the name of “Becky” (Alexis Bledel) walking a hospital corridor talking on her mobile telephone to her Mom, her right arm in a sling. As she reassures her Mom that the car accident had nothing to do with Sin City (and her eyes turn a bright blue), her fracture is a “clean break” and “it should be right as rain in no time” as she stops by an elevator. Entering the elevator and still talking to her Mom on the telephone, Becky’s eyes turn blue again as she turns her head slightly to see a doctor reading his notes before she faces the now closed door of the elevator. As the camera now focusses on the doctor he takes off his glasses and it’s clear that he isn’t a doctor at all but The Salesman.
Cue his continuing narration:
“Turn the right corner in Sin City, and you can find anything”
As The Salesman offers Becky a cigarette (and her eyes turn blue as her face fills with dread), he completes his narration:
“Anything”
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon