hints of film noir in Sin City

Sin City began with a single act of violence- a man killed a woman with one shot from a silenced gun – but by the time I reached the final scene, I was covering my eyes and screaming when I realized Hartigan was ripping off the man’s (or alien’s?) genitals and smashing through the man’s skull with his fist. I can remember only a few scenes of the film in which all of the characters survived – usually multiple characters were killed during any altercation, so I was constantly anticipating the moment when a knife would stab someone in the throat or body parts would be blown off by guns. I mostly disliked the film and I was relieved when it finally ended.

When I broke the film down into some notes, I could see the relationship between this film and a classic film noir in some of the themes of police corruption and the unclear motives or sense of morality of several main characters.

When I stepped back from the graphic violence, I could also recognize some interesting parallels in the structure of the film involving an individual searching for a murderer or rapist because other authority figures had the wrong man or intentionally avoided the situation. One of the first characters on a hunt for a killer was the big ugly guy in love with a woman called Goldie. She was killed before he awoke in the morning and, even though she was already gone, he was determined to find her murderer. In the end, he was accused for her death and killed by the electric chair. A second man also found himself responsible for attaining justice for his love interest, a prostitute named Gail and the benefit of the other hookers in that section of the city. He and his lover both survived. The final storyline that matched this theme followed the retired police officer Hartigan who was put in prison for the rape of the young girl he saved from the serial rapist. He and Nancy fell in love when they were reunited, and only he could stop the alien-man from trying to attack her again. Nancy survives but he kills himself in the end.

These three narratives used an idea similar to film noir in which a man knows the truth about a crime and uses his own means to take care of the situation – working against or simply without the police.

Overall, it was difficult to even notice these broader ideas because the amount of violence and sexuality was overkill and the sense of chronology was confusing. Every female character was completely sexual, most were dressed like strippers and some were completely naked. Essentially, I was tired of seeing breasts and butt-cheeks. The chronology of the film confused me and prevented me from understanding the connection between certain events and characters. When the film returned to the story of the retired officer, suddenly we were back in time and characters who were already killed were sitting at the bar in a strip club. This made me question the timing of other events in the midst of the film because nothing was necessarily chronological. Events could occur without reference to time or even the purpose. Maybe I would have enjoyed the movie more if I understood it, but I doubt it.