If there’s one good thing about capitalism it’s that competition for our money encourages progress.
Kill Bill shocked a lot of people but it also brought back our nostalgia for the hyper-stylized drama of the kung fu action movies of the seventies. The message was clear- presentation is everything, and we’re bored.
This isn’t to imply that Kill Bill started anything. Not really. Quentin was building on the backs of directors who had gone before him, and he was completely unapologetic. He pointed it out, in case we might miss it.
He also carried our current trend forward. He demanded cinema break new stylistic ground. He joins ranks with the Wachowski brothers, Francis Ford Coppola and less succesful attempts like Canadian Todd McFarlane‘s Spawn movie. Together with obvious innovators like George Lucas they are trying, through cinematographic style and digital effects, to find new ways of communicating their stories to an audience that has seen too many movies.
This is a fabulous time to be alive. Everything is new again and we have the luxury of time to appreciate it. Old geezers and religious windbags will decry the decadence of society and the collapse of morality and if you’re going to be honest you have to admit they aren’t wrong. But while civilization rots from the inside we’re getting some stunning visual art.
Along comes Frank Miller, who gave us back our love of Batman. He originally penned Sin City over a decade ago, and miraculously ended up writing and co-directing the movie. Until recently distribution giants wouldn’t dream of letting an author touch a film treatment.
A lucky few of us met Robert Rodriguez through an obscure movie called El Mariachi, which went on to become such a strong cult classic that it spawned a sequel we’ve all rolled our eyes at, Desperado and the really reaching Once Upon A Time In Mexico (which is itself a nod to Once Upon A Time In China And America).
Rodriguez has always been keenly aware of style, using it to carry cliched stories into the realm of art. From Dusk Til Dawn being the obvious example.
I’m certainly glad he ended up at the helm for Sin City. His appreciation for a saturated stylistic approach meant he could collaborate with Miller and guest director Tarantino to outrageous effect in this project.
For the first time you really do get to see a comic book come to life. And everybody is aware of it. In fact you may see Sin City for no better reason than that.
Not that Rodriguez and Miller were content with that. There is considerable fuss over the appearance of a notorious symbol not once but twice. One of the anti-heroes employs shurikens in the shape of… what?! Swastikas? Surely not. And in fact they are not swastikas. But what about the villain with the swastika tatooed on his forehead? Well, the forum thread covers that as well. Does that mean it was good judgement to use the symbols anyway? Well, here we are talking about it, so you tell me.
And people will talk about this movie for a good long while. It’s important. The dialogue is cheesy, but it’s supposed to be. The violence is ultra, but it’s supposed to be. The stories are simplistic, but they’re supposed to be. The mood is extremely dark and fatalistic. Well, it’s supposed to be. And because we’re all tired of cliches we can truly appreciate when someone has the clever cojones to punch a hole through them all and make them fresh again.
i liked it!