Sin City

[rhondacrockett]

Yeah, it finally opened here. (It feels like you guys have been talking about it since January lol.) So I went out last night to watch it.

The pacing and the overblown narration took some getting used to, and for Marv's section of the movie I felt like I was being rushed through the story, but when I settled into it I had a good time. I liked Becky, the blue-eyed goth hooker, and Marv of course *pets him* Like Kill Bill, the violence is overblown, hyper-stylized and clearly impossible to replicate in real life. You just sat back and marvelled at these amazing pictures. The audience laughed out loud at one point because they'd pushed the hyperviolence so far, it had become funny. It didn't disturb me until afterwards, when I put on the Kill Bill soundtrack, read Wilfred Owen poems (pretentious, moi? ^.~) and thought about it too much.

There was one thing that did chill me at the time. It still chills me now, thinking about it. The Irish mercenary in the sewer, talking about how he prefers explosives to guns. My first thought was, "He's ex-IRA, isn't he? He's talking about planting bombs for Republican terrorists over here."

I'm not mentioning this out of any sense of offense or insult, though I suspect some people in this country will take it that way. But that one throw-away line, that once you've seen bits of people flying through the air you can't go back to just shooting holes in them, spoken in a thick Irish brogue, chilled and horrified me more than any of the other violence either portrayed or mentioned on screen. And I was immediately curious to know: did this resonance occur to Rodriguez or Miller? Was it a deliberate reference to very real (very local) acts of violence, or was it an accident which only audiences in Northern Ireland and the Republic (and possibly some people in certain towns in England) would pick up on? I would like to put that question to them. I'm also curious to know: did this occur to any of the Americans on my friends list, who saw this movie back in April?

A similar argument could be made about the swastika imagery used in Dwight's part of the movie: placing swastika-shaped throwing stars in the hands of a Japanese killer, and putting a neo-Nazi under the command of a black man. Although that confused me more than chilled me.

My end verdict: it's good, but I don't know whether it's something I'd want to see again or not. Although I am tempted, if only to pick up the lines of those crooks with "delusions of eloquence". They had great lines and I can't remember any of them now!

Comments

[musewrangler.livejournal.com]

I just assumed the Irishman was meant to be ex-IRA. It's one of those stereotypes that very few people seem to take offense to, unfortunately. It didn't bother me anymore than if the mercenary had been from the Middle East, but I suspect the detail would have resonated more strongly with me if I were more directly affected by either terrorist movement.

We have a pub down here that's owned by Irish people, and while most of the menu is pretty standard, it includes a sandwich called the Belfast Bomber. I've always found that one to be a bit offensive. It'd be like me opening an American-style diner and having a 9/11 special. o_O

[rhondacrockett]

I'm inclined to give the sandwich a twisted smile rather than be offended. Similarly I wasn't offended by the reference to the Troubles, but it gave a frisson to that line which I didn't find in the rest of the film. What I think people will find offensive is not that he's ex-IRA, but the context of it: paralleling real atrocities with the pulpy violence of the movie which is clearly meant to do nothing except entertain us with impossibilities. Ditto with the swastikas.

(And I did wonder how the scene would have played in the US if it had been a Middle Eastern guy talking about watching buildings collapse.)

[moonbug.livejournal.com]

I'm sure Frank Miller is aware of the symbolism he puts in his stories, but I don't personally understand the use of swastikas.

As for the IRA bomber, I think you were just meant to hate him completely and enjoy his death.

[rhondacrockett]

Oh yeah, there's no doubting he's a bad guy and deserves to die. Maybe what I'm really narked about is that Miho kills him too quickly lol. Like I said, it's a throw-away line, which I've blown out of proportion because I live here.

It wasn't until today I remembered that the Japanese were the "other" enemy in the Second World War. At the time I was like, "Uh, aren't those Nazi symbols? She's not very Ayrian, is she?"

[moonbug.livejournal.com]

I still don't remember ever seeing an image wherein the Japanese used a swastika. But if you were to read the graphic novels, you'd see the swastika in a few other random places, like off the belts and earrings of the other prostitutes.

I also sometimes wonder if Frank Miller means to say that all symbols other than money have lost their meaning in Sin City.

[dava.livejournal.com]

It said in the comic that the group of Irishmen were ex-IRA who'd hired on as mercenaries, but I noticed that detail was glossed over a bit in the film. The comics were written in the early 90's. Neither Frank Miller nor Robert Rodriguez is British.

The swastika is also an Asian symbol, and was most definitely not Nazi symbolism. You'll find swastikas in a lot of manga books, for instance. Sometimes, when those books are reprinted in English, they'll print a big disclaimer at the beginning explaining the Asian history of the mark.

[rhondacrockett]

Aaaaaaaaaaaah! I knew the swastika wasn't Nazi in origin, but I get confused on where it came from originally. It's a good luck symbol or something, isn't it?

That clears up the IRA issue. I was just curious if they meant their audience to make the association or if they just had an Irishman who happened to like blowing things up.

[dava.livejournal.com]

The symbol is part of many cultures. Yeah, I think it's supposed to be lucky in Asian cultures.

I think a lot of artists have been using the swastika almost as a form of protest. They don't think an ancient symbol should become taboo just because some idiot misappropriated it in the 1930's. :P