Sure, sure, I talk way too much about It's a Wonderful Life, but this one's obvious!
The movie was pretty good--unquestionably the most stylish adaptation of a comic book ever--although the gnosticism didn't appeal to me... "No exit"--that's my philosophy... every single one of these fuckers spends their life looking for the way out of the narrative--and maybe I would too, if I believed that Pottersville was all there is... but, of course, I don't...
loved the line about punching out God, though! Melville would be proud...and you know--I really like Brittany Murphy ("eyes on the stage pilgrim"...)
The problem is that, while Pottersville is an amazing example of noir style used in the service of a truly complex narrative... Sin City merely wallows in its own mesmerizing noirness, and that's always fun, but not particularly thought-provoking... I did like the stuff about Marv worrying that he might be conjuring up the perfect bad guys in order to cathect his psychosis upon...but there's no follow-through on that, unfortunately--unless you stretch Willis' speech about punching out God into a Mevillean critique of everything the film tells us about the protagonists' relationships to the power structure...
the film portrays the "old man that dies" as far luckier than the "young girl that lives"...and that's just psycho, from my point of view!
I'll probably never watch it again, but I'm glad I saw it...and it was worth the five bucks...
Article comments
1 - Angie
I saw this last night and thought the show was excellent. It's definitely one that will be added to my dvd collection.
2 - RJ
Hey, if you only pay five bucks to see a movie in the theatre, consider yourself lucky! :)
3 - Uriel
Please, someone, explain for me: How can a popular movie serve up an intimate look at a conversation between a scared, tearful 11-year-old girl and the pedophile planning to rape and kill her (even as he softly assures her he "just wants to talk")?
Sure sure sure, I realize it's an awesomely "stylish" movie; and I know all about the movie industry's wonderful vibrancy, and America's proud traditions of freedom, and the American people's native common sense, bla bla bla.
Still. How can a society be so incredibly stupid as to stand by and watch its young feed on such noxious shit?
4 - Phillip Winn
That scene provides one of the few glimpses into an actual good vs evil scenario. The pederast gets what is coming to him, even at the cost of great personal sacrifice of the Bruce Willis character.
It's a movie. The scene builds tension, because we know enough about the city in which this whole thing is going down to know that things could turn out very, very badly. The tension is finally relieved in a positive way, but the point is that the tension is there because the girl is the one sympathetic unspoiled character in the whole thing.
Do you think that young people are going to resonate with the pederast aka the Yellow Bastard? Really? I could see a bit of emulation of a few other characters, especially Clive Owens', but not Nick Stahl's.
5 - SFC SKI
Speaking of 11 year olds, why would any parent bring their young kid to see this movie? I am always amazed when parents bring their kids to violent movies in lieu of getting a sitter.
6 - Phillip Winn
No, no, the 11-year-old is a character in the movie who later grows up to be the girl from Dark Angel. The viewers are specified as "young," but not 11.