''Sin City'' (also known as ''Frank Miller's Sin City'') is a 2005 American neo-noir

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

anthology film An anthology film (also known as an omnibus film, package film, or portmanteau film) is a single film consisting of several shorter films, each complete in itself and distinguished from the other, though frequently tied together by a single theme ...

produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. Much of the film is based on the first, third, and fourth books in Miller's original comic series. ''

The Hard Goodbye "The Hard Goodbye" is the first story in the American ''Sin City'' Comics series. It was serialized, as "Sin City", in the comics anthology ''Dark Horse Presents'' by Dark Horse Comics and named "The Hard Goodbye" in the trade paperbacks. It was ...

'' is about an ex-convict who embarks on a rampage in search of his one-time sweetheart's killer. ''

The Big Fat Kill ''The Big Fat Kill'' is a five-issue comic book limited series published by Dark Horse Comics in November 1994–March 1995. Plot Inside her apartment, a frightened Shellie is comforted by Dwight - with a new face since the events of '' A Da ...

'' follows a private investigator who gets caught in a street war between a group of prostitutes and a group of mercenaries, the police and the mob. ''

That Yellow Bastard ''That Yellow Bastard'' is a six-issue comic book limited series, and the sixth in the ''Sin City'' series. It was published by Dark Horse Comics in February–July 1996, It follows the usual black and white noir style artistry of previous S ...

'' focuses on an aging police officer who protects a young woman from a grotesquely disfigured

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. The intro and outro of the film are based on the short story "The Customer is Always Right" which is collected in ''Booze, Broads & Bullets'', the sixth book in the comic series. The film stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast t ...

led by Jessica Alba,

Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and producer. He has garnered critical acclaim and numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen ...

Brittany Murphy Brittany Anne Murphy-Monjack (; November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009) was an American actress and singer. Born in Atlanta, Murphy moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and pursued a career in acting. Her breakthrough role was as Tai Fras ...

Clive Owen Clive Owen (born 3 October 1964) is an English actor. He first gained recognition in the United Kingdom for playing the lead role in the ITV series ''Chancer'' from 1990 to 1991. He received critical acclaim for his work in the film '' Close ...

, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, and Elijah Wood, and featuring

Alexis Bledel Kimberly Alexis Bledel ( ; born September 16, 1981) is an American actress and model. She is known for her role as Rory Gilmore on the television series ''Gilmore Girls'' (2000–2007), and Emily Malek in '' The Handmaid's Tale'' (2017–2021) ...

, Powers Boothe, Michael Clarke Duncan,

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama '' Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include ''He Got Game'' (1998), ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

Carla Gugino Carla Gugino (; born August 29, 1971) is an American actress. After appearing in ''Troop Beverly Hills'' (1989) and ''This Boy's Life'' (1993), she received recognition for her starring roles as Ingrid Cortez in the ''Spy Kids'' trilogy (2001� ...

, Rutger Hauer,

Jaime King Jaime King (born April 23, 1979) is an American actress and model. In her modeling career and early film roles, she used the names Jamie King and James King, which was a childhood nickname given to King by her parents, because her agency alread ...

, Michael Madsen,

Nick Stahl Nicolas Kent Stahl (born December 5, 1979) is an American actor. Starting out as a child actor, he gained recognition for his performance in the 1993 film ''The Man Without a Face'', co-starring Mel Gibson. He later transitioned into his adult ...

, and Makenzie Vega among others. ''Sin City'' opened to wide critical and commercial success, gathering particular recognition for the film's unique color processing which rendered most of the film in black and white while retaining or adding color for selected objects. The film was screened at the

2005 Cannes Film Festival The 58th Cannes Film Festival started on 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Twenty movies from 13 countries were selected to compete. The awards were announced on 21 May. The Palme d'Or went to the Belgian film '' L'Enfant'' by Dardenne brothers ...

in competition and won the Technical Grand Prize for the film's "visual shaping". A sequel also directed by Miller and Rodriguez was released in 2014, '' Sin City: A Dame to Kill For'', but failed to match the critical and commercial success of its predecessor.

Plot

"The Customer Is Always Right (Part I)"

The Salesman walks onto a penthouse balcony where The Customer looks out over Basin City. He offers her a cigarette and says that she looks like someone who is tired of running and that he will save her. The two share a kiss and he shoots her; she dies in his arms. He says he will never know what she was running from but that he will cash her check in the morning.

"That Yellow Bastard (Part I)"

On the docks of Sin City, aging police officer John Hartigan tries to stop serial child-killer Roark Junior from raping and killing his fourth known victim, eleven-year-old

Nancy Callahan Nancy Callahan is a fictional character from the graphic novel series ''Sin City'', created by Frank Miller and based on "Dirty" Harry Callahan by Harry Julian Fink and R. M. Fink. She first appeared in "The Hard Goodbye" before becoming a more ...

. Junior is the son of Senator Roark, who has bribed the police to cover up his son's crimes. Hartigan's corrupt partner, Bob, tries to convince Hartigan to walk away; Hartigan knocks him out. Hartigan, fighting pain from a bad heart, heads into the warehouse where Roark Junior is holding Nancy. Hartigan confronts Junior and shoots off his ear, hand and genitals. Bob, now recovered, shoots Hartigan in the back. As the sirens approach, Bob leaves and Nancy lies down in Hartigan's lap. Hartigan passes out, reasoning his death is a fair trade for the girl's life.

"The Hard Goodbye"

After a one-night stand, Marv awakens to find

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in ...

has been killed while he slept. He flees the frame-up as the police arrive, vowing to avenge her death. His

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

parole officer, Lucille, advises him to give up, for Marv may have imagined it all due to his "condition". Marv interrogates several informants, working up to a corrupt priest, who reveals that the Roark family was behind the murder. Marv kills the priest. As he leaves, Marv is attacked by a woman who looks like Goldie, which he dismisses as a hallucination. Marv goes to the Roark family farm and is subdued by the silent stalker who killed Goldie. He awakens in the basement to find Lucille has been captured after looking into his story. She tells Marv that the killer is a cannibal named Kevin and that Goldie was a prostitute. They escape the basement, but Lucille is shot by a squad of corrupt cops. Marv kills the cops except for their leader, who reveals Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark arranged for Goldie's murder. Marv goes to Old Town, Sin City's prostitute-run red-light district, to learn more about Goldie and is captured by her twin sister, Wendy, whom he previously dismissed as a hallucination. Once he convinces Wendy that he is not the killer, the two return to the farm where Marv traps and kills Kevin. He confronts Cardinal Roark, who confesses his part in the murders. Kevin was the cardinal's ward; the two men ate the prostitutes to "consume their souls". Marv kills the cardinal. He is then shot and captured by his guards. Marv is nursed back to health. Corrupt cops threaten to kill his mother to get him to confess to killing Roark, Kevin and their victims. He is sentenced to death in the electric chair. Wendy visits him on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution ...

and thanks him for avenging her sister. Marv is then executed.

"The Big Fat Kill"

Shellie is being harassed by her abusive ex-boyfriend Jackie Boy. Her boyfriend Dwight McCarthy violently warns him to leave Shellie alone. Jackie Boy and his cronies drunkenly drives to Old Town. Dwight follows and sees them harass Becky, a young prostitute. Gail, the prostitutes' leader and Dwight's on-and-off lover, also witnesses the scene. When Jackie Boy threatens Becky with a gun,

Miho is a feminine Japanese given name and a masculine Croatian name. It can have many different meanings in Japanese depending on the kanji used. Possible Japanese writings Miho can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *実穂, ...

, a martial arts expert, kills Jackie Boy and his friends. They realize Jackie Boy is actually Detective Lieutenant

Jack Rafferty ''Sin City'' is a series of stories by Frank Miller, told in comic book form in a film noir-like style. Listed below are the major and minor characters. Recurring characters Male protagonists * Marv, a hulking, violent giant of a man, who po ...

of the Basin City Police, considered a "hero cop" by the press. If the cops learn how he died, their truce with the prostitutes would end and the mob would be free to wage war on Old Town. Dwight takes the bodies to a

tar pit Tar pits, sometimes referred to as asphalt pits, are large asphalt deposits. They form in the presence of oil, which is created when decayed organic matter is subjected to pressure underground. If this crude oil seeps upward via fractures, cond ...

, where he is ambushed by an ex- IRA mercenary hired by mob boss Wallenquist. He nearly drowns in the tar before Miho saves him. The mercenary flees to the sewer with Jackie Boy's severed head but Dwight and Miho retrieve it and return to Old Town. Meanwhile, mob enforcer Manute kidnaps Gail. Becky, threatened with the death of her mother, betrays the prostitutes. Manute prepares the mob's invasion of Old Town. Dwight trades Jackie Boy's head for Gail's freedom but the head is stuffed with explosives; Dwight detonates it, destroying the evidence and Gail's captors. The other prostitutes gun down the mercenaries while Becky, injured in the fight, escapes.

"That Yellow Bastard (Part II)"

Hartigan is recovering in a hospital when Senator Roark informs him that Junior is in a

coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...

and the Roark legacy is in serious jeopardy. Hartigan will be framed for Junior's crimes; if he tells anyone the truth, his family will die. A grateful Nancy promises to write to him every week. Hartigan goes to jail, though he refuses to confess. He receives weekly letters from Nancy, as promised. After eight years, the letters stop and he receives a severed finger instead. Hartigan confesses to all charges, leading to his parole. He searches for an adult Nancy, not knowing he is being followed by a deformed, yellow man. He eventually finds her at Kadie's Bar, where she has become an exotic dancer. Hartigan realizes he was set up to lead "them" to Nancy and the two drive away in her car, unaware of the man hiding in the trunk. As they hide in a motel, Nancy confesses her love for Hartigan, who is unable to reciprocate her feelings. The deformed man ambushes Hartigan and reveals himself as Roark Junior, disfigured by years of treatment to regenerate his body parts. Junior hangs Hartigan and takes Nancy away. Hartigan escapes and tracks down Junior to the Roark farm. He fakes a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

, causing Junior to lower his guard. He castrates Junior a second time and kills him. He sends Nancy away on her car, promising to join her soon. Knowing that Senator Roark will never stop hunting them, Hartigan commits

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

to ensure Nancy's safety.

"The Customer Is Always Right (Part II)"

An injured Becky departs from a hospital, talking on a cell phone with her mother. In the elevator she encounters The Salesman, dressed as a doctor. He offers her a cigarette, calling her by name, and she abruptly ends the call with her mother.

Cast

Frank Miller makes a cameo appearance as a priest, while Robert Rodriguez makes a cameo appearance as a member of the SWAT team.

Production

Filming

Principal photography began on March 29, 2004. Several of the scenes were shot before any actor had signed on; as a result, several stand-ins were used before the actual actors were digitally added into the film during post-production. Rodriguez, an aficionado of cinematic technology, has used similar techniques in the past. In

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

's review of the film, he recalled Rodriguez's speech during production of '' Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams'': "This is the future! You don't wait six hours for a scene to be lighted. You want a light over here, you grab a light and put it over here. You want a nuclear submarine, you make one out of thin air and put your characters into it." The film was noted throughout production for Rodriguez's plan to stay faithful to the source material, unlike most other comic book adaptations. Rodriguez stated that he considered the film to be "less of an adaptation than a translation". As a result, there is no screenwriting in the credits; simply "Based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller". There were several minor changes, such as dialogue trimming, new colorized objects, removal of some nudity, slightly edited violence, and minor deleted scenes. These scenes were later added in the release of the ''Sin City'' Collectors DVD, which also split the books into four separate stories.

Music

The soundtrack was composed by Rodriguez, John Debney, and Graeme Revell. The film's three main stories were each scored by an individual composer: Revell scored "The Hard Goodbye", Debney scored "The Big Fat Kill", and Rodriguez scored "That Yellow Bastard". Additionally, Rodriguez co-scored with the other two composers on several tracks. Another notable piece of music used was the instrumental version of the song "Cells" by the London-based alternative group The Servant. The song was heavily featured in the film's publicity, including the promotional trailers and television spots, and being featured on the film's DVD menus. "Sensemayá" by Silvestre Revueltas is also used on the end sequence of "That Yellow Bastard".

Fluke Fluke may refer to: Biology * Fluke (fish), a species of marine flatfish * Fluke (tail), the lobes of the tail of a cetacean, such as dolphins or whales, ichthyosaurs, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and metriorhynchids. * Fluke (flatworm), parasiti ...

's track "Absurd" is also used when Hartigan first enters Kadie's.

Credits

Three directors received credit for ''Sin City'': Miller, Rodriguez, and

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, dark humor, non-linear storylines, cameos, ensembl ...

, the last for directing the drive-to-the-pits scene in which Dwight talks with a dead Jack Rafferty (

). Miller and Rodriguez worked as a team directing the rest of the film. When the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film director, film and television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dire ...

refused to allow two directors that were not an established team to be credited (especially since Miller had never directed before), Rodriguez first planned to give Miller full credit. Miller would not accept this. Rodriguez, also refusing to take full credit, decided to resign from the Guild so that the joint credit could remain.

Release

Home media

The film was released on DVD and VHS on August 16, 2005. Buena Vista Home Entertainment released a two-disc

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

version with DTS-HD Master Audio, which includes a theatrical and extended, unrated, recut of 147 minutes, on April 21, 2009.

Critical reception

''Sin City'' opened on April 1, 2005, to generally positive reviews. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 77% based on 254 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Visually groundbreaking and terrifically violent, ''Sin City'' brings the dark world of Frank Miller's graphic novel to vivid life." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 74 (citing "generally favorable reviews") based on 40 reviews. A 2017 data analysis of Metacritic reviews by Gizmodo UK found ''Sin City'' to be the third most critically divisive film of recent years. Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

awarded the film four out of four stars, describing it as "a visualization of the pulp noir imagination, uncompromising and extreme. Yes, and brilliant." Online critical reaction was particularly strong: James Berardinelli placed the film on his list of the "Top Ten" films of 2005. Chauncey Mabe of the '' Sun-Sentinel'' wrote: "Really, there will be no reason for anyone to make a comic-book film ever again. Miller and Rodriguez have pushed the form as far as it can possibly go." Some reviews focused predominantly on the film's more graphic content, criticizing it for a lack of "humanity", the overwhelmingly dominant themes of violence against women, typically of an exploitative or sexualized nature. William Arnold of the ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was fo ...

'' described it as a celebration of "helpless people being tortured" and "a disturbing gorefest". ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic Manohla Dargis gave credit for Rodriguez's "scrupulous care and obvious love for its genre influences", but noted that "it's a shame the movie is kind of a bore" because the director's vision seems to prevail on the intensity of reading a graphic novel. In a more lighthearted piece focusing on the progression of films and the origins of ''Sin City'', fellow ''Times'' critic

A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

, identifying ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated comedy film, comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall (filmmaker), Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely ad ...

'' as its chief cinematic predecessor, argued that "Something is missing – something human. Don't let the movies fool you: Roger Rabbit was guilty," with regard to the increasing use of digitisation within films to replace the human elements. He applauds the fact Rodriguez "has rendered a gorgeous world of silvery shadows that updates the expressionist cinematography of postwar noir" but bemoans that several elements of "old film noirs has been digitally broomed away", resulting instead in a film that "offers sensation without feeling, death without grief, sin without guilt, and, ultimately, novelty without surprise". ''Sin City'' is described as a neo-noir film by some authors.

Box office

''Sin City'' grossed $29.1 million on its opening weekend in first place, defeating fellow opener '' Beauty Shop'' by more than twice its opening take. The film saw a sharp decline in its second weekend, dropping over 50%. Ultimately, the film ended its North American run with a gross of $74.1 million against its $40 million negative cost. Overseas, the film grossed $84.6 million, for a worldwide total from theater receipts of $158.7 million.

Accolades

Mickey Rourke won a Saturn Award, an Online Film Critics Society Award, a Chicago Film Critics Association Award, and an Irish Film & Television Award for his performance. The film also won the

Saturn Awards The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...

for Best Action Film and Best DVD Special Edition Release. It was also in competition for the Palme d'Or at the

, and Rodriguez won the Technical Grand Prize for the film's visual shaping. Graeme Revell's work in the film was honored with a Best Film Music Award at the BMI Film & TV Awards. ''Sin City'' was nominated at the 2006 MTV Movie Awards in three categories: Best Movie, Best Kiss for

and

, and Sexiest Performance for Jessica Alba, winning the latter. The film also received three nominations at the 2005

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United ...

: Choice Action Movie, Choice Action Movie Actress for Jessica Alba and Choice Movie Villain for Elijah Wood.

Sequel

A sequel, '' Sin City: A Dame to Kill For'', was released on August 22, 2014. Production for the sequel began in October 2012 with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller directing a script co-written by them and

William Monahan William J. Monahan (born November 3, 1960) is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was '' The Departed'', a film that earned him a Writers Guild of America Award and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. ...

. The film was based mainly on '' A Dame to Kill For'', the second book in the ''Sin City'' series by Miller, and also included the short story "Just Another Saturday Night" from the '' Booze, Broads, & Bullets'' collection, as well as two original stories written by Miller for the film, titled "The Long Bad Night" and "Nancy's Last Dance". Actors Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke,

and Jessica Alba all reprised their roles in the sequel, amongst others. Unlike the 2005 original, the sequel was a critical and financial failure.

TV series

Dimension Films is developing a soft reboot of the series for television, Stephen L'Heureux who produced the second film will oversee the series with ''Sin City'' creator Frank Miller. This will be with new characters and timelines and be more like the comics rather than the films. In November 2019, Deadline reports that Legendary Pictures bought the rights for the television series and are developing both a live action and animated series of Sin City with both Miller and Rodriguez in talks to work on the series as executive producers.

References

External links

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