Frank Miller's Sin City DVD Review

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Title: Frank Miller’s Sin City

Region: One

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

Feature length: 124 minutes

Extras: Behind The Scenes Featurette and Sneak Peeks

Languages: English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound and English and French Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Subtitles: English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 28

Sound: DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound

Year of Theatrical Release: 2005/DVD Release: 2005

Theatrical Distributor: Dimension Films

Home Video Distributor: Dimension Home Video

MPAA Rating: R

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

A few months ago I came across an old bookmark from a Manhattan comic book shop I went to many years ago and on one side was the listing of various comic book series titles in their various logo like styles and what struck me immediately was that nearly every single title listed had been made into a live action feature length motion picture. Two that struck me right away were “HellBoy” and “Frank Miller’s Sin City.” Shot entirely on the digital backlot of Robert Rodriguez’ Troublemaker Studios in Texas, “Frank Miller’s Sin City” is the latest in a long line of feature films to be shot using high definition digital cameras instead of film. At this point so 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,” are being shot in HD that it is almost no longer a big deal to discuss especially since it is already so common place for films to be produced on celluloid and then enhanced using digital technology like “Jason X” that shooting in HD seems more practical since it actually cuts a step and is less expensive than film. 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 and 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 already 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 anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio presentation of Dimension Home Video’s DVD edition of “Frank Miller’s Sin City” is absolutely flawless and beautiful to behold. It is almost unthinkable that someday high definition discs will make transfers like this look like VHS in comparison. That is how good the picture quality on this DVD is. More than any other film I have ever seen, this is literally a graphic novel on screen and not just another comic book adaptation. The picture quality is matched by the incredibly well mixed and exciting English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Soundtrack, which has a farther range and more aggressive beat to it than the English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack counterpart. A French Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as Spanish Language Subtitles are encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options too.

“Frank Miller’s Sin City” is made up of three 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 and 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. The third and final story in the film 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, but may be reinserted for a future home video edition because Rodriguez and Miller supposedly shot all of the elements from the books so they could choose later what would be cut for the theatrical release. So with “Sin City 2” already in pre-production, one can reasonably assume a more definitive DVD release may follow in the next year or so. A short behind the scenes featurette (8:32) with interview clips featuring Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, and Rosario Dawson is the only bonus material related to the film on this disc. There is also a reel of sneak peek trailers (5:14) featuring “Mind Hunters”, “Spider-Man: The ’67 Collection”, “Lost: The Complete First Season” and “Desperate Housewives” that can also be viewed individually. The main menu is animated with scenes from the film that change into actual pages from the graphic novels while the subsequent menus are all standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.

A UMD-Video for PSP edition is also planned for release day and date with the DVD-Video counterpart when “Frank Miller’s Sin City” debuts at retailers on and offline courtesy of Dimension Home Video. The DVD releases will have four exclusive and collectible cardboard outer sleeves featuring various characters from the film too.

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