Frank Miller's Sin City Theatrical & Recut - Extended - Unrated Versions Blu-ray Disc Set Review

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Title: Frank Miller’s Sin City: Theatrical & Recut – Extended – Unrated Versions

Media: Blu-ray Disc

Regions: A, B, C

Genre: Live Action Comic Book Noir Adaptation

Stars: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke, Jamie King, Clive Owen, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Madsen, Carla Gugino, Powers Boothe, Rutger Hauer, Josh Hartnett, and Michael Clarke Duncan

Writer: Frank Miller

Based On The Graphic Novels By: Frank Miller

Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino

Directors: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez

Theatrical Cut Feature length: 124 minutes

Recut – Extended – Unrated Feature Length: 147 minutes

Disc One Extras: Cine-Explore BD Exclusive Feature, Commentary with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, Commentary with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Audio Track Featuring A Recording Of The Austin Audience Reaction

Disc Two Extras: Kill ‘Em Good Interactive Comic Book, 15-Minute Film School, All Green Screen Version, The Long Take, Sin City: Live In Concert, 10-Minute Cooking School, How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller To Make The Film, Special Guest Director Quentin Tarantino, A Hard Top With A Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City, Booze, Broads and Guns: The Props of Sin City, Making The Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up, Trench Coats & Fishnets: The Costumes Of Sin City, Theatrical Teaser & Trailer

Languages: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Sound and Spanish Language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles For The Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Two-Disc Blue BD Case

Sound: DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2005/Blu-ray Disc Release: 2009

Theatrical Distributor: Dimension Films

Home Video Distributor: Dimension Home Video

MPAA Rating: R/ Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

Shot entirely on the digital backlot of Robert Rodriguez’ Troublemaker Studios in Texas, Frank Miller’s Sin City was shot using high definition digital cameras instead of film. Back in 2005, many films that include the second and third episodes of George Lucas’ Star Wars Saga as well as last year’s Sky Captain And The World Tomorrow, shot in HD and the technology has since made for many, the idea of actually using film to shoot a movie, a novelty. When I was a film school student we often used video instead of film in directing workshops because it simply was cheaper and more practical. However we shot on film in other classes because video had nowhere become as sharp as the HD cameras used today. I still remember my student film. All it was to guys playing chess and one guy imagining what would happen if he wins and his opponent was a sore loser. The film was shot in black and white 16mm with no sound and ran only a minute and a half and it cost me $500 dollars to produce and that was not only cheap compared to other student films produced in that class, it was also made back in 1990. I can only imagine what it would cost to make a little nothing film like I made today using real 16mm film stock instead of digital video.

I imagine depending on where one may choose to study filmmaking, they must all be using some sort of digital video as well as traditional celluloid because it really is more efficient, especially when one is just learning and experimenting. I mean so many things can and will go wrong when one undertakes making a film that aside from traditionalists and a few very well established Directors that simply have no interest in digital filmmaking, I believe the use of HD on both the big and small screens is simply an economic inevitability no studio executive or filmmaking auteur will be able to deny. So while I’m jumping ahead of myself here, it only seems natural to point out that the 1080p high definition widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation of both versions of Dimension Home Video’s Blu-ray Disc edition of Frank Miller’s Sin City is absolutely flawless and beautiful to behold. This is a movie that was made for Blu-ray before it ever became commercially available. That is how good the picture quality is. The picture quality is matched by the incredibly well mixed and exciting English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack, which great range and aggressive beat to it. A Spanish Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also encoded onto both discs along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded as options.

Frank Miller’s Sin City is made up of intertwining stories adapted from his graphic novel series of the same name along with a short opening piece featuring Josh Hartnett that begins before the opening credits and serves as a bookend before the closing credits too. In one story, Mickey Rourke plays Marv, a brute with a big heart that searches out the killer of his beloved companion Goldie (Jamie King). Set up to take the fall for her death, Marv goes up against crooked cops and twisted officials to avenge her death and hopefully clear his name. His journey leads him to a remote farm where an acrobatic cannibal serial killer with claws awaits him. The second story features Clive Owen as Dwight, the heroic, but brutal protector of a group of no nonsense prostitutes that police themselves in the Old Town section of Sin City. When the girls take out a violent undercover cop and his gang, Dwight agrees to dispose of the bodies so that a truce between the working girls and the police won’t be broken. However a stoolpigeon among the ranks of the Old Town girls has already alerted opportunists in organized crime who are out to get the head of the dead cop so the truce can be broken and the mob can move into and takeover Old Town. Quentin Tarantino directed a sequence in this story. Another story features Bruce Willis as Hartigan, the last good detective in Sin City who vows to protect a stripper (Jessica Alba) from a deformed pedophile serial killer with political connections.

Director Robert Rodriguez stuck so close to Frank Miller’s source materials that he not only used the graphic novels as storyboards, but he claimed no writing credit and even quietly left the DGA so Miller could share in the film directing credit. While the film is extremely close to the graphic novel series that it was based on elements from the stories were edited out for pacing. However a longer uncut and unrated version of the film is featured on the second Blu-ray Disc and presents the stories in a more chronological fashion than the theatrical cut.

The first disc containing the restored theatrical version of Frank Miller’s Sin City contains two feature length audio commentary tracks. One featuring Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller discussing the adaptation of the graphic stories into a feature film and the changes made therein and there other features Rodriguez with his friend and Special Guest Director for the film, Quentin Tarantino that is informative and lively. Complimenting the commentary with Rodriguez and Miller in the BD exclusive Cine Explore option that enables graphic novel and concept art as well as other items referenced in the commentary to appear on screen and makes the experience as a whole, more engaging.

A ton of featurettes make up the bulk of the extra value materials, many carried over from the DVD release that includes shorts on how Rodriguez convinced Miller to make Sin City into a movie and then how he got Tarantino involved and got his feet wet in digital filmmaking. There are three companion featurettes that are basically summed up as how the props and makeup were found and or created for the film, including the cars and creature effects, weapons, costumes, etc.

Another exclusive element is an interactive comic narrated by Mickey Rourke and also featured are another of Rodriguez’ signature fifteen minute film school demonstrations, a look at raw footage as it looked with just the green screens, a look at Tarantino’s guest directing sequence, footage from a live performance with Bruce Willis and his band that Rodriguez shot in HD as well as the theatrical teaser and trailer in high definition wrap up the bonus features in this two disc set.

Frank Miller’s Sin City: Theatrical & Recut – Extended – Unrated Versions is available now on Blu-ray Disc at retailers on and offline courtesy of Dimension Home Video.

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