Blu-ray Review: Sin City (2005) -- Recut, Extended, Unrated 2-Disc Edition

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A.K.A. Frank Miller's Sin City

To hear Frank Miller explain it, the creation of Sin City was one he undertook for the most selfish reasons in deciding to build a comic book around all of the things he enjoyed drawing the most such as fast cars, hot babes, and more. And of course, to match the images with the tone, it would all be carried out in the style of film noir complete with a Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane feel of hard-boiled insanity lurking around every dark corner.

Although, truth be told—we’re all united by taste and art is the greatest bridge upon which to build a relationship-- so with the unrelenting passion of super fan and digital filmmaking genius Robert Rodriguez who damn near stalked Miller down (contacting his editor, agent, and lawyer Godfather style), Miller realized he’d found a like-minded artist who was turned on by and tuned into the exact same things.



Flash-forward more than a decade and—eager to prove his worth and mettle for the material—Rodriguez invited Miller out to his very own Troublemaker Studios in Texas for one day to run a “test.” Humoring Rodriguez by obliging to visit-- all the while wondering what on Earth a filmmaker could accomplish in a single day—Rodriguez managed to round up A-list talent like Josh Hartnett with the plea of “I don’t have the rights; help me convince Miller” to shoot what is now the opening sequence of the film as the old-fashioned, handsome Hartnett startles a beautiful blonde on a rooftop, mistakes her into trusting him for a smoke and embrace before she’s left dead for reasons unknown.

Needless to say, Miller was dazzled and honored by just how incredibly faithful Rodriguez was to his material as the two collaborated as co-directors on one of the most surprisingly visceral, visually spectacular cinematic works of 2005—complete with one mini-macabre comedy sequence filmed by guest director Quentin Tarantino-- whom Rodriguez hoped to seduce with technology as a gateway drug to encourage QT to move from film stock to all-digital filmmaking. It didn't work but boy, did Tarantino have fun as he's all over the Blu-ray and commentary tracks.

Joking that despite the enormity of the three men’s egos they were still able to get along, Miller stated that he wouldn’t have relinquished the rights to Sin City if he hadn’t had the opportunity to help direct. Throwing out the idea of a screenwriting credit and even alienating the Director’s Guild of America by Rodriguez’s incredible vision and determination to bring Miller in on the same level, he decided he didn’t want to simply make a movie of the comic but instead use the medium of cinema and turn that into the comic since at their core, he argues that they’re very similar mediums that both use still images.

The best evidence of this theorem you can see below in the aforementioned rooftop scene beginning with Miller’s drawing, the use of the green screen during production, only to digitally transform the background in the post-process to the startling and riveting finished product.





Relishing in every opportunity to be as deliciously twisted or lurid as possible—watching the film again today on Blu-ray, a few years after seeing it for a paper I wrote on modern day neo-noirs in film school—it dawned on me that for those who were disappointed by the Grindhouse film undertaken by Rodriguez and Tarantino with their respective contributions-- Planet Terror and Death Proof respectively--Sin City is the answer.

Moreover, you can see how well all the time spent watching "grindhouse" movies in the ‘70s was put to use in this alternatively exploitative and disturbing yet compelling and mesmerizing contradiction of a trashy masterpiece.

Although the second disc of this astounding Blu-ray transfer gives the filmmakers the opportunity to present the complete unrated, recut and extended version of the film which adds on a little more than twenty minutes and gives you the opportunity to watch the individual stories unfold one at a time with four specific breakdowns—aside from the Hartnett cameo that opens and closes the work-- essentially the film can be broken down into three distinct stories all directly pulled from Miller’s series of graphic novels.

A cross between vintage film noir with a bit of the old west spirit thrown into the mix (and not simply just in the scene with exotic dancer Jessica Alba whipping up the crowd with her lasso)-- the film’s characters who populate the eponymous Sin City aren’t presented to us in the traditional white hat/black hat or good guy/bad guy Hollywood standard, instead showing us the evil and the good side by side and on both sides of the law as in the case of the film’s standout storyline.

This finds Bruce Willis’ dedicated cop John Hartigan ignoring his doctor’s orders and warnings about angina in order to save eleven year old Nancy Callahan from the clutches of a sadistic pedophile, who is incidentally the son of a powerful politician. When his partner turns on Hartigan and leaves him for dead-- pinning all crimes involved on Hartigan-- he gets locked up for eight years trading his freedom to save the beautiful little girl he’d rescued who sends him weekly letters under the pen-name of “Cordelia” until one day they suddenly stop.

Fearful that she’s either grown too old to write pen pal letters to the cop that had saved her life or that something has happened to Nancy—and not knowing which thought is worse to Hartigan who states that her written words were the only thing that kept him from killing himself—he confesses to the crimes he didn’t commit and ventures back into the dimly lit, dicey streets to hopefully rescue Nancy once again.

Of course, by this point in the nonlinear narrative that jumps around with characters and storylines that overlap and blend together unexpectedly, we’ve realized that Nancy is none other than the beautiful Jessica Alba who has fallen in love with her childhood hero. But, unfortunately endings are never traditionally happy in the world of noir and especially not in the realm of Miller’s Sin City as the same themes of love, loss, and revenge are woven throughout the other tales.




Featuring a nearly unrecognizable Mickey Rourke as the battered Marv who falls in love with the angelic “perfect woman” Goldie-- a one night stand to whom he awakens to find dead,-- he tears throughout the city in order to avenge the woman he considers his true love, enlisting the help of others including his tough but tender lesbian parole officer Carla Gugino who maternally reminds him to take his anti-psychotic medication without which he has a tendency to hallucinate.

Worried that he’s been led down the wrong path by his own mind playing tricks on him, Rourke’s Marv gets far more than he bargained for when he starts down a horrifying maze of bloodshed, insanity, cannibalism, conspiracy, and mad science that are far beyond his worst nightmares.

In the fascinating but a bit overly long and meandering middle storyline that boasts a ridiculous number of gifted actors including Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Alexis Bledel and others—the tone changes from darkly comic to terrifying as the talkative, flirtatious barmaid, Shellie (Brittany Murphy) tries to stop her married, old abusive boyfriend (Del Toro) from busting down her door where she’s presently with her new one (Owen).

And despite the fact that Del Toro has brought along a group of heavy-hitters with weapons, we all know that the man who should’ve been James Bond can easily take ‘em down as Owen chases them off into the night, venturing into Old Town which is coincidentally run by the women of the night who look after their own and exact their own brand of justice.

When things get out of hand and Del Toro’s character is killed before they discover his profession as a police officer, Owen and his ex—the dominatrix styled Rosario Dawson—begin preparing for an all-out war. Not willing to let the mafia or the cops take Old Town from the women, Dawson and her motley crew of nubile, scantily clad but deadly divas strap on guns, ropes, and ammo in a standoff that lasts far too long when a double-cross enters the equation and too much time is spent explaining what we’re seeing in a way that would’ve benefited from tighter editing.

While the men are mostly out for the kill whether it’s in the name of love, revenge, or insanity (and sure enough the second disc boasts an interactive "killing" game) and the women are either damsels in distress or vixens—essentially, the work is a depiction of violence at its most primal and carnal. Additionally, it's one that never shies away from its exploitative tendency (repeatedly on display throughout the oeuvre of Robert Rodriguez from the most over-the-top sex scene in Desperado and beyond) but despite this, the film keeps you watching for the sheer audacious aesthetic appreciation of the groundbreaking techniques employed in its creation.

Primarily filmed in black and white with flashes of color whether it’s in a woman’s blue eyes, red lips, a dress, blonde hair, blood, or the personification of evil in the form of the monstrous “Yellow Bastard"-- Sin City is that rare film you find yourself wanting to turn away from but realize you’re unable to do so since you’re riveted by this wholly creative, free-wheeling, yet painstakingly precise world concocted by Miller and Rodriguez.

While Disney’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Miramax have managed to nail down the Blu-ray format to an exact science with recent releases, they’ve truly outdone themselves in what has to be the second most impressive Blu-ray of the year, closely following their amazing restoration and multi-disc presentation of Pinocchio.

The level of clarity in the sound and picture makes Sin City honestly a film that looks much richer on Blu-ray than it did in the theatre as it was originally filmed with high-definition Sony cameras, so its move right into 1080 pixels helps reaffirm that for Sin City’s origins as a digital picture, “there’s no place like home” on Blu-ray.

While in these economic times, I’m usually pretty cautious in recommending readers upgrade from DVD to Blu-ray unless there’s a marked difference in quality or features viewers truly want-- I have zero hesitation this time around in advising you to move directly to Blu without passing go.

Having fun with the format itself and equipping the film with D-Box motion control along with three different audio tracks (including commentary and one Austin Audience Reaction track), you’re also given the opportunity on the first disc alone of utilizing the “Cine-Explore” feature that incorporates behind the scenes extras into the viewing experience itself.

Giving viewers the freedom to watch the individual stories separately on the second Blu-ray in their longer, uncut forms—Rodriguez continues with his grand tradition of loading discs with some truly first rate bonus features such as his short “15-Minute Film School,” along with a surprising inclusion of a “10-Minute Cooking School.”

While some of the extras are fun but not quite necessary like the cooking lesson and Willis rocking with his band—the making-of-featurettes are all quite interesting breaking down the film from the costumes, special effects, props, to interviews and play-by-play recollections with Miller, Rodriguez and Tarantino such as in the one I cited at the start of this review, “How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller To Make The Film.”

Although unfortunately as filmgoers master the art of digital technology and that irresistible green screen that makes anything and everything possible and unfortunately sometimes making films feel a bit cooler, artificial, and uninvolving like the beautiful but vacuous recent Miller release The Spirit-- in Sin City it feels absolutely essential in transferring the comic to the screen.

Therefore, it makes one even more excited for the 2010 announced sequel as surely Rodriguez’s wizardry and penchant for digital invention will have the opportunity to climb even greater heights five years after the first film was made.

Blu-ray Review: The Spirit (2008)

On Blu-ray & DVD 4/14/09

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If renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz made a comic book movie, it would probably look a lot like Frank Miller's The Spirit. However, Miller's fingerprints are all over the work which marks his first solo directorial effort, after having collaborated with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on Sin City (note: Blu-ray review forthcoming) and Zack Snyder on 300. In fact, based on the earliest previews alone-- I initially thought that footage of The Spirit were really clips from the upcoming Sin City 2.

Featuring some of the most gorgeous and talented actresses currently working in the field of cinema today including Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Paz Vega, Sarah Paulson, and Jamie King-- graphic novel author and artist, the innovative Frank Miller thoroughly relishes in Comic Book Hall of Famer Will Eisner’s original 1930s creation that centered on an everyman hero with a signature red tie and black eye-mask who leaves a string of broken hearts in his wake as he fights for the justice of his true love—Central City.

In the luscious Blu-ray featurette “History Repeats”—just one of several excellent behind-the-scenes featurettes that also give you a history lesson on the world of comics (regardless of what you may have thought of the film), we take an invaluable and knowledgeable insider’s look at the origins at Eisner’s “Urban Zorro” styled 1938 newspaper comic that gave the young man unprecedented power while still in his twenties to ditch the idea of three or four panel imagery in lieu of seven full pages every week.

And with his decision not to make a Superman like ultra-strong superhero, he wanted to go with an everyman--possibly one that most male readers could identify with as Eisner’s protégé Frank Miller jokes that the veteran comic book innovator worked so hard, he seldom had the pleasure of female company so in order to get by, he sublimated by drawing an endless parade of extremely sexy, powerful women all magnetically drawn to the mysterious crime fighter.

As Miller even goes as far to explain—it wasn’t the drawing of the women themselves that provided the ultimate sensuous thrill but the inking of them-- paying loving care to ensuring that every curve was well defined and it’s a dedication that comes through even more today. This is exceptionally evident as Miller went to extensive lengths (far more than Rodriguez did in Sin City) to guarantee—along with his extremely gifted special effects team—that at all times, the women look unbelievable no matter how much chaos they cause or danger from which they flee. Or to put it another way-- they’re a walking and talking version of a Vogue Magazine layout or Vanity Fair spread shot by Liebovitz as Miller went so far as to film a scene featuring Eva Mendes underwater without any water to ensure the end result is spectacular.

But far more than fetishistic in the pre-James Bond comics that may very well have been (although I'm unfamiliar with the source material)-- thankfully Miller rewrote female characters to make them much richer. In doing so he reworked Sarah Paulson’s Ellen Dolan as a surgeon who literally is the only one who knows the Spirit’s body so well that she can stitch him up whenever he’s injured and crafted a brand new, exceptionally bright and psychologically knowledgeable female rookie police officer (Stana Katic) to work alongside the hard-nosed Commissioner Dolan (Dan Lauria). Likewise, he designed a great role as the easily bored but bright Silken Floss (Scarlett Johansson) to be the brainy sidekick to Samuel L. Jackson’s evil Dr. Octopus.

Yet still-- more than 70 years later in Frank Miller's gorgeous feat of artistry in tackling Will Eisner’s work from a purely visual standpoint, ultimately it is the women in the world of The Spirit that hold our attention the most. Sadly, poor Gabriel Macht who takes on the titular role of a former police officer who returns from certain death to fight for justice is a clinically cool, less-than-interesting and underwritten lead who manages to deliver his great Raymond Chandler like film noir dialogue, even though he’s the least interesting one in the lot.

Of course, this isn’t saying much since—aside from Lauria’s Commissioner, Jackson’s deranged Octopus (who goes from western villain to Nazi in a few unintentionally humorous scenes that just don’t work) and Louis Lombardi’s dozens of identically genetically engineered dim-bulb henchmen—Macht is one of the only men in a world filled with women and feline cats.

However, it isn’t just Macht who suffers but also some of the strongest female characters (i.e. Sand Saref, the police officer, Ellen Dolan, Silken Floss) when a few too many supporting players are introduced as merely distraction causing eye-candy including Jamie King’s Angel of Death Lorelai and Paz Vega’s bizarre Plaster of Paris. And soon, it feels like it’s a circus of gorgeous women suffering from the Joel Schumacher era Batman problem of trying to juggle far too many characters in what becomes a disarmingly beautiful but nonsensical circus.

While undoubtedly, one of the major problems in the work involves its structure as a few surprises about the Spirit’s origin. Namely, new converts to the mythology of The Spirit want to know why he’s indestructible as well as how everyone else still assumes he’s dead save for one individual would’ve probably paid off in a far more emotionally satisfying way had they been revealed a bit earlier or more time had been spent fully fleshing out the tale of the man formerly known as Denny Colt who shortly into the film realizes that his childhood sweetheart turned international jewel robber, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes) is back in town and accused of murder.

Although he stayed extremely true to the heart of the original comic, Miller—who is responsible for ushering in the newer vision of a darker Batman that Tim Burton introduced Generation X to two decades back-- decided he wanted to make the comic more violent and raw than Eisner had back in the day.

While initially Miller walked away from the prospect of helming a big-screen adaptation of the work—the rights of which were acquired by Michael E. Uslan in 1992 (following his successful production of Burton’s Batman)-- finally he changed his mind, deciding that he couldn't bear to “let anyone else touch it,” as the production notes reveal. Thus, in what the producers called “a coup” in bringing aboard the man “who was Will’s protégé, peer, friend and battler partner,” as executive producer Deborah Del Prete of OddLot noted, it honoring Uslan’s promise to Eisner in which—as Uslan recalls-- he “swore to Will that nobody would touch The Spirit-- not a company, not a person -- unless they were willing to respect the property and do it the right way.”

And while the intent and passion is in every single frame as in another behind-the-scenes featurette, one of the CGI wizards note that “every shot was a special effect,” allowing Miller the freedom to use his “graphic notepad” to draw everything he wanted to film and show the actors and crew when they arrived on the set which consisted of an entirely green box with green screens and green props—more often than not, it just feels stale and uninviting.

Still, while it’s hard to feel invested in the over-crowded storyline and the fact that the second half is mind-numbingly slow as it grows stranger and stranger, Miller makes up for the narrative shortcomings with mind-blowing use of color including an emphasis on my favorite color combination of red, black, and white (or in my mind a joke to the comic's newspaper origins and the childhood joke of “what’s black and white and read all over?”).

In the end—a digital masterpiece of just how far you can go with the medium (yet one that also serves as a cautionary tale that plot is far more important than picture and perhaps another writer should have been brought on board)—the Blu-ray heightens the experience of The Spirit in what could be used as a visual moving painting you can simply watch and marvel over (while wanting to put the sound on mute).

Filled with audacious effects that can blend together different elements from different decades giving the film an indefinable sense of time period, and along with Matrix cinematographer Bill Pope play with light by “taking things away” using a “subtle variation that there is barely perceptible background” in some scenes—the sound and picture quality of Lionsgate’s first official Lionsgate Live title (that also features Molog), giving greater interactivity to Blu-ray fans by serving Blu-ray owners updateable and exclusive content “such as commentaries, games, ringtones, wallpapers, trailers, and much more via a series of on-screen notifications and widgets,” is phenomenal.

Moreover, it elevates the work despite its shortcomings much like Twentieth Century Fox’s Blu-ray of Max Payne did as well. Likewise it boasts a digital standard edition copy of the film that’s compatible with both Mac and PC for use on your portable devices. And another plus of The Spirit that I’m hoping will catch on with other studios in regards to Blu-ray releases is a completely customizable menu set-up that allows you to adjust its effects as well as the inclusion of bookmarks under the Special Features menu that makes it a bit easier to navigate than some other overly complicated presentations.

Additionally, it also contains an alternate storyboard ending complete with voice-overs by stars Samuel L. Jackson and Gabriel Macht as well as a greater in-depth look at working in an entirely digital “Green World” and more historical features about Miller and Eisner as well as commentary for the feature from Miller and Deborah Del Petre.

And while the film failed to match the importance of screenplay with the art--exceeding far beyond our wildest expectations with Miller’s extraordinary artwork and beautiful way he captures the women of Central City—at just 108 minutes, it’s much easier to digest than the bloated, extreme, misanthropic and even chillier Watchmen, made by his 300 co-director Zack Snyder.