Sin City review

[browngirl]

Hmmm. WD and I saw it Monday, and I'm still not entirely certain what I think of it.

I think the film's creators succeeded at what they meant to accomplish. And it was visually stunning, mostly well acted, and appropriately set in New Jersey.

What they *did* set out to do though, the stories they wanted to tell.... I'm not sure, in the end, that I should have let those stories into my head. I just...

...I dislike it when authors create characters as plot devices rather than people with their own agency. This movie very deliberately made women, all the women, into such characters. Not every character can be so fleshed out as to be clearly the latter than the former, but an entire *class* of characters? Hrmn.

I enjoyed it while I was watching it, because I do have a thing for urban seediness and because I can easily suspend disbelief, but I think it left a bad taste in my mouth.

For example (and this is Just One Example), let's take the ladies of Old Town. As we're told when we meet them, they're prostitutes without pimps and with guns. Sounds cool and liberated, right?

But one thing I've learned this past year of writing fanfic, is that one can't tell the audience one thing and show them another. The above's what the voiceover tells us, but when trouble actually arrives, the women immediately turn to and listen to the male protagonist of the piece. And while the prostitute who betrays the others is captured and the implication is that she wll be killed, the male cop who shoots his partner and was going to shoot a little girl ends up being forgiven/ok because he does something good for his partner later.

I dunno. I don't expect everything to have 'feminist sensibilities', or what I think people generally think of think of as feminist sensibilities'. But the universe of this movie all but defined women as not having agency, as being only acted upon, and that weirds me out from an *artistic* standpoint even before I get to reacting to it from a sociopolitical one.

That said, hey, many of the men and all the women are gorgeous, and the visual design is amazing, and Jessica Alba wiggles wonderfully, and Elijah Wood gets to kick ass and be really really creepily evil. So, hey.

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I don't expect everything to have 'feminist sensibilities', or what I think people generally think of think of as feminist sensibilities'. But the universe of this movie all but defined women as not having agency, as being only acted upon, and that weirds me out from an *artistic* standpoint even before I get to reacting to it from a sociopolitical one.

Note: I haven't yet seen the movie.

I think part of it is a constraint of genre. Miller's Sin City was, as near as I can figure it, an attempt at doing a modern hard-boiled noir series, and, even when updating it, you bring along with it certain tropes of the genre. This doesn't, of course, invalidate any of your objections to it...I imagine you'd feel the same way about the stories written by Marlowe and Hammitt. Just musing on where it probably comes from.

BTW, it's really good to see you posting more again. :)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I think part of it is a constraint of genre. Miller's Sin City was, as near as I can figure it, an attempt at doing a modern hard-boiled noir series, and, even when updating it, you bring along with it certain tropes of the genre. This doesn't, of course, invalidate any of your objections to it...I imagine you'd feel the same way about the stories written by Marlowe and Hammitt.

Dashiell Hammett, you mean, as in the author of The Thin Man and its sequels? With Nick and Nora?

Nora has more agency than I do, and she's fictional!

I've seen this comment in many discussions on the movie, actually, that what those of us with qualms about it are reacting to is the genre. I'm not a noir *buff*, but I enjoy a good noir every so often, and have seen many with dynamic female characters, and I enjoy seediness (and sex!) so that didn't offend me. No, I really think it *is* the way Frank Miller writes about women; I remember this feeling of unease from when I read The Dark Knight Returns. There's something kind of weird there.

BTW, it's really good to see you posting more again. :)

*blush* Thanks. I doubt I'll ever return to my previous levels of babbling, but here I am.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

I have two words for Sin City: Devon Aoki.

*goes off to drool in the corner*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Is that the young woman who played Miho?

Mmm, the cast featured many lickable folks, yes it did.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes indeed, that was the young woman who played Miho. Who now plays nightly in my dreams...

*wibble*

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the 4th paragraph, I was already wavering because of the violence. Think I'll take a pass on this one.

[dicotomygrrl.livejournal.com]

I think part of your feminist issues with Sin City, Has to do with the particular stories they picked for the movie, when you read all the books and get the full overview and background on all the characters it becomes less of an issue. *huggles*

[dlevy.livejournal.com]

And even with the stories they chose, I believe they cut a crucial scene from the book when Dwight starts barking orders at the ladies of Old Town and Gail totally calls him on it, saying something like "Who the hell are you to come in here and order us around? That's not how Old Town works..." But then she starts calling him on events from "A Dame To Kill For" which was not included in the film, so maybe they had to cut it.

The DVD release will apparently include not only the theatrical cut, but also shorts of each story in the order they appeared in the books, with all the missing scenes back in. Should be interesting to see if that makes the women seem stronger.

[eleccham.livejournal.com]

Er, that line was in there, though. She just didn't continue with the other events, etc.

[dicotomygrrl.livejournal.com]

No, I think the part your refering to *is* in the movie, but unless you have read "A Dame to Kill For" you wouldn't understand what she is talking about and she goes into it more in the book as well, so I guess you are right. I'd be currious to see how much reading the books would change browngirl's mind, though. Thanks for the tip on the DVD, I'm looking forward to it (not like I wasn't going to get it when it came out anyways! )