After opening day�
My wait is over. I actually took many of the pictures that anyone can find online and saved them into a file and made a screen saver out of them. So I have seen the pictures, the photographs of this visually beautiful film over and over again. While sitting in the theater, I thought about all I have read about the film, thinking about every scene and all of the different lines that I awaited to be delivered. However, I did not know who would say the lines exactly, since I had not known all of the characters. I only knew the names and the faces�not being able to fit them together. I knew the actors.
The movie was black and white, yes, but it had little dabs of color here and there. Instead of interesting characters, which this movie definitely had, the colors were each character�s signature. It was their colors. Like the quiet hooker who�s eyes were blue. This was how we remembered her, even though we knew what she had looked like. In color, people look less different somehow. We say the Japanese all look the same, well they can say the same about us.
There were three stories, The Yellow Bastard, which was the last story, the Big Fat Kill, the second story, and A Dame to Die For, I believe. Now if I have gotten the title on that last one wrong, please excuse me, I have never been a fan of the comics. In fact, what I believe is called �A Dame to Die For,� was the only comic book, ahem, excuse me, graphic novel, I had seen. I looked through it and read over the scene where Marv has sex with his Goddess. That is a beautiful scene and fulfills any expectations for nudity, which I was not planning on seeing. The film contained a lot of, and very graphic, violence. Robert Rodriguez, the editor as well director of the film, sets up a different feel to this film which differs from all other movies. Not just the old fashioned look of the film and camera angles that also look old fashioned, but the feel for violence. In some movies, such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino�s directing has gotten him in trouble for his violence. His violence seems a lot worse somehow, right? Well, that just goes to show how the feel of this movie and its need for violence differs. In this, you�re expecting violence, and it doesn�t bother you, even though there are heads chopped off, hands shot off, and hookers biting others.
The movie looked beautiful and it was a lot of fun to watch, completely entertaining, very different, exciting as well as brutal. You get what you expect and more. You get a different kind of violence, so much fun to watch, even though it is so nasty. Damn, I say it, the film was very brilliant. Rodriguez has done it again, but I went in there to never come out unless I was satisfied. I was.
It was good, old fashioned entertainment, the kind where you don�t have to think about it, but it�s the kind you don�t get anything from. Maybe that�s not a good thing, but you get�entertained. You are entertained, and that�s all I ever ask, and that�s all anyone should ever ask, for movies take you to another place, such as Basin City, for a couple of hours. Then you have time to think about what you saw, your entertainment.
9/10 stars. Replay value: 7/10 stars. Overall, on the action scale: B+.
~~spoilers of scenes from here on~~
It starts out with the view of the city, dark, until a woman with a red dress walks out. Josh Hartnett�s voice over talks about the woman in beautiful description, and we, the audience, likes this woman. They kiss in what looks almost like animation, where the black and white picture is effected quite a lot by computer to show what looks like came right out of the Sin City pages. I jumped in my seat when the �whisper� of the gun killed her. The camera lifts up above the city until we can see �SIN CITY� in red letters. In a normal comic book style beginning credits, we are shown Frank Miller�s drawings and the actor or actress who portrays them in alphabetical order.
~~
Little Nancy Callahan is caught by evil rapist we know as Yellow Bastard, however he isn�t yellow yet. The yellow is there as a symbol, but the villain is not yet deformed into Yellow Bastard. A tired cop with a heart problem beats down the badguys with a pole, and gets to who will become Yellow Bastard on a dock by the water. Bruce Willis is Hartigan, the cop who is there to protect Nancy Callahan, a little girl. He shoots Nick Stahl�s hand off, not allowing the villain to use his gun on Bruce�s cop. Hartigan takes away both of his weapons�the gun�and then puts a bullet in between his legs. Little Nancy Callahan is free, alive, and okay. She is able to run away, grow up to become a stripper, in the bar scene which plays a familiar song. The bar�s music comes from the preview of �Get Carter.� I recognized this, because I was thinking about it earlier. �Get Carter� has Mickey Rourke in it opposite star Sylvester Stallone. Interesting to me, but maybe I�m the only one who would ever make that connection?
~~
She smells like angels ought to smell. She�s a Goddess, giving Marv what he can�t even pay for, a satisfying fuck. Mute killer, Elijah Wood in a role that I could never imagine him wanting, kills Goldie as Marv sleeps with her. Marv goes around town to find the killer, but for now is just out for questions. He escapes the police and runs to a bar. The bar, a strip club shows teasing Jessica Alba on stage. Marv goes around to question, going as far as dragging a guy on the road with his car. He finds Elijah�s character, in a creepy house in Basin City, with the help of Goldie�s twin sister, played by the same actress, who beats him up before trusting him. He doesn�t hurt women, which is why he let her beat on him, even though he could so easily get out of the ropes he was tied in. Which he did.
He takes Goldie�s sister to the creepy house, using a hatchet to fight off some guards. The hatchet goes through their helmets, in between their legs, and gets him through, but Elijah�s character sees him, and sneaks up on him, something Marv doesn�t let someone do. Marv is caught, and finds his naked parole officer, someone we have been introduced to, naked. She is in a room with women�s heads on the wall. That�s what Elijah does with his victims, hookers. Goldie was a hooker. He, Elijah, eats the women, and displays their heads.
Marv rips out a metal window, and runs after the mute cannibal. He visits a priest, played by Frank Miller, who tells him about the barn where Goldie's killer is.
He goes after the mute cannibal, handcuffing him to his own arm. Marv looks at him, with every scratch covered with a white bandage, and says �I got you now,� and ties him to a tree. Without letting Goldie�s sister watch what he is going to do with him, he knocks her out. The camera backs away from Elijah�s smiling face to reveal his arms and legs were cut off, and his dog, starts at him, biting him. Marv, however, finishes the job himself, and takes Elijah�s head to the Priest. Not Frank Miller, since Marv berid himself of that one through the confessional, which almost seems like a trademark in Rodriguez movies, which have many scense take place through a confessional. The priest was the one who called the cops, who Marv escaped from right after getting out of his apartment where Goldie was dead.
He kills the priest by, what looked like, ripping his throat out. Yet, he is still shot by so many cops who shoot him down. Black out.
Mickey Rourke, who plays Marv, breathes in his voiceover, narrating descriptions as he does what he does. He asks why they couldn�t�ve just killed him. It�s funny that he�s still alive after all of this. It sucks, though. He is sentenced to death row, being framed for Goldie�s murder. Goldie�s sister visits him in jail, and tells him to call her Goldie, even though he gets �confused� with their names anyways, and called her Goldie anyway. They sleep together in his cell, calmly and quietly before he gets the chair.
Blood pours out of his mouth after they�zap him.
He wakes up �Is that all you got?�
He is zapped again, ending the first story.
~~
Benicio Del Toro plays Jackie Boy, trying to talk his way into his ex-girlfriend�s room, who we have already been introduced to, in the bar scene with little Nancy Callahan dancing on stage. Clive Owen was also already introduced in that scene, with Brittany Murphy, the waitress, checking him out. Now Owen, who plays Dwight, is in Brittany Murphy�s room, and he offers to protect her from Jackie Boy if she let them in. She refuses to let them in with Dwight there, so he walks to the bathroom, and is then forced to let Jackie Boy in.
He punches her after speaking with her, and then goes to the bathroom. What luck. Dwight beats Jackie Boy to his knees and stuffs his head in the toilet, after Jackie Boy made the mistake of not flushing. This, however, is just a warning. Dwight follows the scared Jackie Boy out into Basin City, to see if he hurts any more girls. He finds the one with the blue eyes, and drove beside her trying to get her into the car. Dwight is ready to kill Jackie Boy before Rosario Dawson, playing Gail, comes out to stop him.
The hookers control their streets, armored with guns and revealing leather lingerie. Another hooker, who fights with two swords and a throwing piece of metal that looks like a Nazi sign, comes to fight off Jackie Boy. After his hand is shot off and his men are sliced up, his gun barrel is plugged. He fires at Dwight, but the gun explodes and the top of the barrel flies back into his head. He�s still alive, which was another thing I loved about this film, as brutal and violent as the violence was, people lived through it. This was another technique the directors used for the audience to get used to the violence. None of it seemed to hurt anyone, so we didn�t feel the need to close our eyes at anything. We could take it, we liked the violence.
Jackie Boy has parts of a gun sticking out of his head, and describes what he�s feeling, he can�t see, and then he can�t hear. Dwight tells her to finish him�for God�s sake. Instead of chopping his head off, though, she makes him into a Pez dispenser.
Uh oh, Dwight finds Jackie Boy�s badge. He was a cop! The hookers have to protect themselves from the law now to keep alive. Michael Clarke Duncan plays a badass cop who beats Rosario Dawson�s Gail around. Gail speaks with the girl with the blue eyes, who backstabbed her by talking to Michael Clarke. Gail bites at her ear, ripping part of her ear off. This takes place just before the hilarious arrow comes in through the window and right through one of the henchmen. This joke was funny, but I�m afraid it was taken too far. The arrow stuck in the guy, the guy looked down at the arrow, and said �Hey, look at that, check this out�� It was funny, it became old, then it was unfunny�until another arrow came in through his head. That made it worth it.
The police chase after Benicio Del Toro�s head, which Clive Owen�s Dwight has in his car. Clive Owen and Del Toro drive off together, but of course Del Toro is dead, right? In Dwight�s mind, he can still hear Jackie Boy talk. This scene was also really funny and well done, with many colors changing around the car. This was the scene that was directed by Quentin Tarantino in a guest director cameo�whatever you wanna call it. Jackie Boy�s neck is sliced, but he�s talkin� away to Dwight. Benicio Del Tory acts this scene out very well, I thought, comically talking with a slit throat.
Dwight gets the head of Jackie Boy, puts a bomb in it, and trades the head for Gail. Michael Clarke Duncan gives Gail back to Dwight, and looks at Jackie Boy�s head just before it explodes, not quite killing him. But he wasn�t the one holding the head, I don�t believe. The sky is read, and Michael Clarke Duncan looks up at a bunch of guns held by hookers on the rooftops. The slaughter, or, the Big Fat Kill, ends the second story leading back into�
~~
�Bruce Willis� story about protecting Nancy Callahan. After getting out of jail, we have been introduced to the Yellow Bastard, who has been looking for Nancy ever since she escaped from him 8 years ago. Bruce Willis is in jail until he admits being a child molester, almost framed for what Nick Stahl, who plays Yellow Bastard, did. His �hell of a way to end a partnership� was between Michael Madsen, one of the coolest actors playing a not so cool guy, but that�s how he works. Not many of his characters are really that cool, he�s just cool. Although, I think his Reservoir Dog role was really really cool.
Michael Madsen puts Bruce Willis in jail, and is back to get him out.
Bruce Willis drives back to find Jessica Alba�s Nancy, and finds her as a stripper at a bar. Seeing the Yellow Bastard, who followed him, makes Willis� cop suspicious. He doesn�t know who the Yellow Bastard is yet. Hoping that Nancy hasn�t seen him yet, he tries to draw Yellow Bastard�s attention outside, since Yellow Bastard doesn�t know what Nancy looks like since she�s all grown up now. But�Nancy sees him, and runs to him into a kiss.
They run off together to a hotel after Yellow Bastard chases them in a car. All of the car scenes look almost too fake, but animated, although it didn�t bother me too much. The whole film was shot in front of green screen using HD cameras. All of the motion was computer generated. When people walked, sure it looked real, but they were really only walking on a treadmill.
The car chase leads to an interesting narration of how people who take so many shots are in too big of a hurry to really hit anything. Hartigan takes his time with one shot, and hits Yellow Bastard, which causes the villain to crash, tipping his car over.
The cop and the stripper drive to a hotel.
Nancy tells Hartigan that she�s in love with him. She tried other boys, but she was already in love�with him�for all 8 years that he was in jail for her. She sent him letters every week, and that�s what kept him from killing himself. Bruce Willis� voice over is pretty cool, I think, his character is different, more edged. His voice in the beginning of the film stood out to me more than the end, somehow, but I liked it. Bruce Willis is one cool guy. Somehow, he�s one of my favorite romantic leads in movies. I like his love scene from Pulp Fiction as much as I like his story with Nancy.
The cop, Hartigan tries keeping Nancy�s hands off of him. She�s just a kid, old enough to be her grandfather. She�s in love, and wants him, and in this scene, they kiss. He can�t, he pulls away, and takes a cold shower to help him keep his hands off of her. This scene had a good idea there with sexuality, but ends with Yellow Bastard catching up to them in the hotel.
Yellow Bastard hangs the cop in front of Nancy when he injects a drug into her neck, letting Hartigan hear his voice and this brings memories of the first scene back. The cop was on his toes on a table until the Yellow Bastard kicks it from under him, and takes Nancy. The screen blacks out. �No��
Hartigan strengthens his neck and kicks his legs back and forth until he breaks a window, and grabs a piece of glass from the window � cutting himself loose. He goes after the Yellow Bastard, who is whipping Nancy, trying to make her scream. Yellow Bastard likes it when little girls scream. However, Nancy is �a little too old for� him, but he�s wanted her for 8 years, since Hartigan took her away from him. She flashes a knife in front of her, and is about to make her scream with that until he hears shooting outside.
Some of the officers, the same officers from Elijah Wood�s house, come up behind Hartigan, with Bruce Willis responding by shooting them, �Good advice,� a line that was similar to �Thanks for the advice� from Die Hard. Of course, I don�t remember exactly what they said in this film to get that response.
Bruce Willis walks into the barn where Yellow Bastard holds Nancy, throws her aside, and takes his knife out. All of a sudden, Willis� cop is too weak to fight him off, and the Yellow Bastard is able to kill him, finally�but no�
�Sucker,� Hartigan punches Yellow Bastard to the ground, and rips his genitals out, taking away both of his weapons again. Of course, in the beginning, he only shot them, but now the yellow skin rips out of him, and yellow blood squirts out. Then, in one of the coolest badguy deaths, Hartigan punches the Yellow Bastard�s face until he is only punching at brains.
He and Nancy are back together, and he lived long enough to keep her alive, his mission is done�or is it? After killing the Yellow Bastard, there are still badguys who will come after Nancy�or at least with Hartigan alive. I didn�t quite understand why�but�
In the same 2D shot that looks like animation, Bruce Willis� white figure lifts the revolver in front of his head, and his brains fly out the back of his head. For Nancy.
~~
The girl with the blue eyes walks through a hospital. This reminded me of �Desperado,� with the end being in a hospital. �Desperado� is also directed by Rodriguez. The girl with the blue eyes walks into the elevator with a man behind her. He lifts up his head�and Josh Hartnett offers her a cigarette. Will he kill again? The girl with the blue eyes deserves it, since she is the one who got Gail in trouble.
Although I wasn�t really a fan of the comics, I still liked and appreciated the movie. It had a different look and feel to it, and it was damn good. I would love to see it again.
| | Back to Top
Quote of the Day: