I return now to the impetus of this project. I had seen Sin City several times and always liked it. I loved the high style and bleak subject matter. The highly stylized nature of the film always afforded a different viewing. I imagine the film would be a pleasure to watch without any sound. In watching the film a few more times I began to notice that Sin City seemed to exhibit nourish qualities. Certainly, the obvious choice to shoot in black and white made it easy to harken back to the glory days of film noir, when color was an expensive option. I began to explore the possibility that perhaps Sin City might qualify for classification as a film noir. At one point in the film, Marv (Mickey Rourke) explains that “walk down the right back alley in Sin City, and you can find anything.” I found film noir in Sin City.

In looking at the conclusion of Neale’s chapter on film noir he lists, somewhat off-handedly, the features of film noir:

The use of voice-over and flashback, the use of high contrast lighting and other expressionist devices, the focus on mentally, emotionally, and physically vulnerable characters, the interest in psychology, the culture of distrust marking relations between male and female characters, and the downbeat emphasis on violence, anxiety, death, crime and compromised morality (2000).

Some critics have been shy about making the conclusion that Sin City is in fact film noir by simply stating that the film contains some noir elements, but ultimately shying away from the bold inclusion into film noir. In looking at the criteria from Neale it seems that Sin City not only qualifies, but might be the quintessential film noir. Sin City contains not just many of those qualities, but exhibits all of them. I will go through each element individually and place it in its Sin City context.

The use of voice-over not only exists, it’s pervasive. In many ways it can be seen as the heart of each story. Voice-over seems to be most relevant in the Marv storyline. Through his narration, the audience learns valuable information that is necessary in order to fully understand the story. Most importantly, the voice-over narration provides the viewer with Marv’s thought process. We understand his actions, however rash they may be. It lets us know that Marv is not merely a vigilante but a man who understands the consequences of his actions. In the film, Marv is very close to killing somebody but he knows that he is not absolutely sure if this man is the culprit. He understands that he has a mental condition and that the condition might affect his comprehension. He even says that “you can’t kill a man without knowing for sure you ought to.” This is interesting given Marv’s reputation thus far. Nevertheless, Marv does his homework. He does his research and makes sure this is the man responsible for the death of Goldie (Jaime King). Ultimately, it allows the audience to feel confident that Marv is a good guy. He knows what he is doing. He knows why he is doing it. And he has checked his information through multiple sources. The voice-over does not merely exist. There is important character information given in these voice-overs.

The use of high contrast lighting is obvious in a predominantly black and white film. If the only colors are black and white there is nothing if not contrast. The high contrast is achieved through chiaroscuro techniques and I will reference of the opening scene of film: the scene with The Customer (Marley Shelton). The Customer is standing on a balcony looking out toward the city. The Man (Josh Hartnett) walks toward her. The scene is mostly lit from party happening in the building and its bright lights shine on the two characters. The Man walks toward The Customer and he is almost completely in silhouette – an unknown black figure walking toward an unknown woman. The lighting is so intense that each possible shadow is pronounced. Each strand of hair is visible. Each character has half of their face completely obscured by shadow. There is extremely fast falloff. Additionally, there is the background of the city itself. The only light seems to be coming from lighted windows. They illuminate their target and only the target. Immediately adjacent to the target, there is only shadow.

The focus on mentally, emotionally, and unstable characters is so applicable to Sin City it almost feels like Neale must have written this about the film itself. As I mentioned earlier, Marv has a mental condition. In fact, his mental condition is medical. There are pills for his condition. Through his voice-over we learn that he has trouble concentrating and cannot think straight. He even mistakes another woman for Goldie. Marv is certainly mentally unstable. With regard to emotional instability, I think it is related to mental instability and thus, Marv also exhibits emotional instability.

As far as physical instability, the character of good cop Hartigan (Bruce Willis) fits the description. He has a medical condition as well, except this is one dealing with the heart. His condition does not allow him to do his job to the best of his ability. Sometimes he cannot support his own weight. Sometimes he cannot lift his gun: something very necessary for a cop, or anyone in Basin City (the official name of the metropolis).

The interest in psychology is somewhat of a peripheral issue given that the connections to psychology are inferred with Marv’s mental condition as well as Dwight’s (Clive Owen) hallucination with Jack Rafferty (Benicio del Toro). It may not be as relevant as some of the other elements Neale describes but issues of psychology are definitely present.

The culture of distrust between men and women might be the most difficult element to place in Sin City. The culture of distrust is best shown in the example of the dynamic between Old Town and the rest of the metropolis. Old Town is run by a gang of prostitutes who has a truce with the police force of Basin City – a trade of profits for complete control of Old Town. The girls also function as their own police officers. Because of this truce, the Basin City police department has no official jurisdiction over Old Town. Even if cops are trailing a fugitive and the fugitive enters Old Town, the cops no longer have any rights to follow. The fugitive then comes under the jurisdiction of the prostitutes and their method of administering justice is more severe.

The downbeat emphasis on violence, anxiety, death, crime and compromised morality seems like a plague running through Basin City. Violence is omnipresent in this film. The violence is even heightened and somewhat comical. Rafferty has the barrel of a pistol lodged into his head. A cannibal Kevin (Elijah Wood) has his limbs removed by Marv. Another gangster has the top half of his sliced off. The crime aspect is apparent because everyone in the film either is engaged with a gangster or is one himself. The compromised morality element is the most interesting. Certainly, all the characters have their own sense of morality. Instead of the term morality, I like using the term justice. The protagonists of each storyline, Marv, Dwight, and Hartigan all administer justice. Marv seems content on killing his way to his target. Dwight’s moves seem more calculated and he seems to want to avoid killing at all costs. Hartigan takes on the role of a more conventional hero figure – saving his lover from the villain. The audience believes that is his only purpose left in life. If he saves Nancy (Jessica Alba), he has achieved his goal. Even though violence is a thread running through each of the storylines, each seems to have a happy ending. Even though Marv is executed, there is no remorse for Marv. He, like Hartigan, has accomplished his goal of finding Goldie’s killer. Dwight has secured Old Town for the prostitutes. Hartigan has saved Nancy. Although each ending feels relatively positive, there is no sense that Basin City has been saved from all the evil that plagues the city. The violence, crime, and death show no signs of slowing down. Old Town will still be ruled by the prostitutes and Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) will continue to be corrupt the unassailable.

I also want to return to those elements that Schrader identifies: 1) Scenes are lit for night, 2) oblique, vertical lines are preferred to horizontal, 3) the actors and setting are given equal lighting, 4) compositional tension preferred to physical tension, 5) intense attachment to water, 6) use of romantic narration, and 7) complex chronological order. I would also like to discuss these in terms of Sin City because these elements are positioned more in the arena of stylistic aesthetic.

In Sin City, there are no daytime sequences. Every scene is shot at nighttime. The narrative eliminates the need for lighting to code the time of day.

The use of oblique and vertical lines is most notable in the storylines of Marv and Hartigan. For Marv, there are two instances where vertical lines are used. The first is in a bathroom. There is tile on the walls and the grout is emphasized. The grout creates somewhat of a checkerboard effect, but the intensification of the vertical lines is present. In the second instance, Marv is looking out a window with metal bars. The best use of vertical lines is in Hartigan’s jail cell. The cinematography helps intensify these lines as well. We are given a top-down view of the jail cell exaggerating the effect of the jail bars – the vertical lines.

The equal lighting effects are seen throughout the film and this effect is aided by animation. At times, a character can blend into the background, but there are also times when a character is meant to be contrasted with the background images.

There is at least one instance in the film that exhibits compositional tension over physical action and that is a scene involving Dwight and Shellie (Brittany Murphy). Dwight has his gaze firmly fixed on Shellie’s front door – toward the enemy on the other side. Shellie is prancing around the apartment and speaking, but the camera remains focused on Dwight and his stare with the front door. Dwight is engaged with the tension in front of him while Shellie is bouncing around the room.

The attachment to water is an interesting aspect because it is not something typically thought of when thinking about film noir. However, it does apply to Sin City. Schrader says that “docks and piers are second only to alleyways as the most popular rendezvous points,” (1972). Rain factors into all the narratives with the ever-present rain, but since Schrader specifically mentions piers and docks, I will mention here that Hartigan has a confrontation with an enemy on a dock. Marv drives a car of a dock (the same one?). Even though Dwight is technically driving a car to the tar pits I think the connection to water is apparent here as well. The connection is interesting because water is a fluid entity, constantly wavering. It can be used as an analogy for the psychological and physical states of the protagonists – wavering between going over the edge emotionally and attempting to restrain themselves. Water represents the liminal zone – an in-between place.

I have already described the use of romantic narration when addressing the voice-over element from Neale’s definition and I will not go into detail here.

While I wouldn’t say that the chronological order of events is complex, the order of events in Sin City is disjointed. The film begins with The Man, and transitions into Hartigan’s storyline, moving to Marv’s, then to Dwight’s, and finally returning to Hartigan’s narrative. The storyline’s also have characters that appear in other narratives with Shellie and serving as the link between all three main stories.

In summation, it seems that Sin City is, without a doubt, film noir. The story has many noir elements, both in visual and narrative aesthetic. Because Sin City seems to neatly fit into two critics’ lists of noir elements, Sin City can be classified into the genre of film noir. As critics have explained, the film noir period seems constrained to a particular time period: the forties and fifties. While I disagree with the critics that genres must transcend boundaries, Sin City seems to address this issue inadvertently. The stories display traits (vintage cars, vintage clothing) that make it possible for the story to exist in an earlier time period – perhaps one more conducive to film noir. Roger Ebert brings up an interesting point in his 2005 review:

Which brings us, finally, to the question of the movie’s period. Skylines suggest the movie is set today. The cars range from the late 1930s through the 1950s to a recent Ferrari. The costumes are from the trench coat and G-string era. I don’t think “ Sin City” really has a period, because it doesn’t really tell a story set in time and space (2005).

Sin City seems to understand the genre for which it is aiming. It places itself simultaneously in the classic period of film noir and in a contemporary world. It knows what the critics have said about the genre and the film seems to fit so neatly in the genre; a genre so unstable.