Hey folks, Harry here - pulling his hair out cuz I have to wait till friggin May to get my SIN CITY action figures! ARGH! I want now! And I want Neca to get the rights other films like MURDER,MY SWEET and MALTESE FALCON and KISS ME DEADLY and CHINATOWN and WHITE HEAT and BODY HEAT and KEY LARGO and THE KILLERS. Then I could pretend all these films took place in the same thematic universe on my NOIR shelf! Sound chips with the voices of Bogie and Bacall, Dick Powell and Mike Mazurky, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, Mary Astor and Kathleen Turner... Sigh... I just want toys of everything... cuz, it'd be so cool! Anyway - here's Jess and Jeff from Figures.Com from time to time as there's a cool film with cool toys, they'll be sending in articles with an exclusive image or two. Guys... get on this Film Noir Line, will ya?
Sin City: Where Red Shoes Run, Blue Cars Speed, and Yellow Blood Flows
by: Jess C. Horsley and Jeff Saylor (www.Figures.com)
NOIR. The dictionary defines this 40's film genre as tough and bleakly pessimistic. Frank Miller defines it as tough and bleakly pessimistic... on steroids. BIG HONKIN' steroids. Hell, Miller beat the shit out of the word until it talked and coughed up a name -- SIN CITY, locale of lies and lust, booze and broads, greed and guns. A gritty graphic novel world run by frenzied comic fans - until now. Thanks to director Robert (Desperado, Spy Kids) Rodriguez, Frank Miller himself, a classic scene shot by Quentin (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) Tarantino, a cast made of stars, and collectible toy maker NECA – all of us can bask in the beautiful brutality that is Sin City.
"You're making a big mistake, pal. A big mistake."
You can’t call yourself a comic fan without having read at least something by Frank Miller. His work stands out as some of the most successful and popular ever written and drawn. From the historic Greek tale in "300" to a government-run Superman fighting an elder Batman in "The Dark Knight Returns," Frank Miller has told stories with amazing characters, and in the process become astonishingly popular.
Labeling Miller can be tough. A true visionary, he impressed fans with his work on "Daredevil," as he did with Dark Knight in "Batman: Year One." And let’s not forget (although some of you might want to) his screenplays for "RoboCop 2" and "RoboCop 3." But Miller’s latest job as “tour guide” of Basin City blows them all away. Sin City the movie rolls all his work into a big fat bomb bursting with coolness.
"Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything."
Walk into your local theater and you'll be introduced to some of the most hard hitting, take-no-shit movie characters ever. Marv (played by Rourke) is an ex-con with a heart of gold and fists of lead, seeking retribution for the murder of his dream woman, Goldie (played by the gorgeous Jaime King). Based on the Sin City graphic novel “The Hard Goodbye," the film adaptation of this story flows like blood, pulsing in quick spurts. The fast-paced action scenes allow us a look inside not only director Rodriguez’s mind, but also Miller’s, appearing as a confessional priest who pushes Marv a little too far. Marv’s “hard goodbye” takes him from the low-life bars and churches to hotels and whorehouses, seeking clues into who caused Goldie’s death. Goldie, the fabulous whore, triggers a sense of surreal beauty in the film, as she appears as one of the only “color” characters throughout the story. Goldie is one of the few pretty faces among a mass of brash ugliness.
Marv is one of the most difficult characters to define in Sin City. His no-nonsense, I’d-rather-kick-your-ass-than-talk-to-you attitude hardly seems the proper fit for a film “hero,” though few would define his actions as heroic. Miller and Rodriguez’s treatment of him fits -- the hardass warrior whose fragile psyche is filled with a need for gas cans, lead pipes, hatchets, hack saws, and “Gladys,” his trusty pistol.
Sin City isn’t Camelot and Marv ain’t no King Arthur. But if King Arthur did come to live in Sin City, his name would be Hartigan and he’d do anything for his Guinevere, named Nancy Callahan. Played by Jessica Alba, Nancy stars as the innocent stripper in Miller’s story “That Yellow Bastard.” The contrast between the black, white, and yellow on screen makes Yellow Bastard, played by Nick Stahl, seem more monster than human, allowing the audience to automatically realize the difference in character roles. Bruce Willis literally becomes Hartigan and we get an amazing sense of his reality— an honest cop with a need for duty, striving for justice in a corrupt town. When Hartigan is framed for Nancy’s kidnapping, his loyalty to truth (and to Nancy) stays clear and he protects her the only way he knows how. Squaring off against Willis’s Hartigan is someone many would consider the most powerful actor in Sin City, Powers Boothe. As the corrupt and evil Senator Roark, Boothe shines in one of the best film monologues in modern film history. The intensity, hate, and intent are focused on one thing: the destruction of Detective Hartigan. When, finally, Hartigan begins to destroy The Yellow Bastard, we feel as if King Arthur has truly slain a dragon; a child-molesting pedophile with a knack for getting away with criminal activity and teenage girls.
When "The Big Fat Kill" appears on screen, the audience is finally able to fully settle into Sin City, where red shoes run, blue cars speed, and yellow blood flows. Clive Owen masterfully plays the one-time photographer turned whore-friend Dwight, whose girlfriend Shellie (Britney Murphy) has a vicious boyfriend Jackie Boy (Benicio Del Toro) who “needs” killing. After the whores of Old Town find themselves in a major fix, it’s up to Dwight to protect them from Manute (Michael Clarke Duncan), the menacing and mysterious, one-eyed mob boss. Gail, the head of Old Town’s whores is captured with amazing reality by Rosario Dawson, whose violent sexiness spews from the screen like blood gushing from a severed limb.
It is during The Big Fat Kill that the film truly captures the essences of film noir. Clive Owen’s narration over the action haunts, and the unreliable narration sets the audience up for what is one of the most impressive stand off scenes in comic, and now cinema, history.
The audience is assaulted with numerous scenes of raw violence (specifically against women) and though creative liberties could have been taken to mask this, none were. Staying true to the comic at the cost of losing some audience members to what some would call “gratuitous violence and nudity," I say let the audience be emotionally distressed and artfully impressed.
Though some of the comic panels have been cut (more for time constraints than their graphic nature), the violence and sex that is Sin City appears on screen in full force. Marv’s parole office, played by the sultry and stunning Carla Gulino, captures the character of Lucille perfectly: the tough yet fragile dame with affection for Marv few could understand.
Bringing to life characters from the page and ensuring comic fans will not only be impressed, but blown away by the reality of the production, is obviously difficult considering how many comic films have failed to fully capture the comic book audience. Sin City does not have that problem. Miller and Rodriguez have not only captured the story of Sin City, but the true feeling of the comic as well. That abrasive feeling Sin City leaves on your soul will make you want to vomit. And then watch it again. And run out and buy the action figures...
"That all ya got, you pansies?"
Where Rodriguez and company were successful in bringing the stark art and story of Sin City to life to the silver screen; toy maker NECA has masterfully captured the characters of the film in plastic. From the mangled mug of Marv to Nancy's curvy assets, NECA's first series of Sin City action figures look as if they were cut from celluloid.
Randy Falk, Product Development Head at NECA and leader of the team for the development of the Sin City figures, said about the process of creating the toys, “Sin City has been a favorite of mine since '92. I never thought anyone could or would bring it to life on the screen, and I have been in awe of what Robert and Frank have done. We started sculpting the action figures in August of 2004 using images from the set of the actors photographed on green screen. We studied every thing we could from the unit photography along with the original graphic novels. We wanted our action figures to look like they could have leapt right off the screen. Robert and Frank gave us some great direction on the details that make the character. For example Hartigan had to have the blowing coat and tie and the squinted eyes. The actors brought Frank's characters to life while remaining true to how they are illustrated, and NECA wanted to do the same when it came time to sculpt the toys.”
While many toy companies resort to high-tech laser scanning to achieve collectible realism, NECA pulled out its arsenal of sculptors to get the job done. Dave Cortes delivers justice to Marv - all 8-inches of hulking badass. Kyle Windrix nails "old man" Hartigan with the best Bruce Willis likeness etched on a fig. Sam Greenwell's Nancy is a fan-boy's wet dream and Ray Santoleri's Yellow Bastard will blind you with nightmares. Uzi-toting Gail (Dave Cortes) and the brick wall of a man Manute (Shawn Nagle) round up this eclectic collection currently hitting select specialty stores in both color and black and white.
"A hardtop with a decent engine and make sure it's got a big trunk."
There's a lot of personality in Sin City. A lot of new action figures to make. No time for the NECA crew to grab a cold one at Kadies Club Pecos or a quickie down in Old Town. NECA's burning the midnight oil working on a second series. Scheduled to slam the streets this summer will be a slew of new Sin City faces including the flesh-eating fiend Kevin (Elijah Wood), "goddess" Goldie (Jaime King), sword swingin' Miho (Devon Aoki) and sexy Shellie (Brittany Murphy). NECA has a few surprises up their sleeve as well, and it ain't a steel pipe. Aside from several new Series 2 figures to be announced at a later date, a massive 18" Marv will be offered. 18-inches of MEAN packed with "Gladys," gas can and motion activated sound. Yeah man, we're talking actual quotes from the movie.
"Settle down Marv, take another pill."
Sin City is many things on many levels. Gutsy graphic novels, a #1 box office motion picture and a line of cool collectibles. It's the new age of noir...and I want more.
