The Movie
Auteur Robert Rodriguez had quickly established a name for himself as an innovator, from his first film (the still-engrossing low-budget El Mariachi) through his blockbuster family fare, but with the Spy Kids trilogy behind him and another hit proving elusive, he surprised everyone by announcing he would adapt Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novels for the big screen. Perhaps just as shocking, Miller--a living legend writer/artist in the comic book world--would direct alongside Rodriguez, with a little help from Quentin Tarantino and an all-star cast. All this for a little-known series of crime noir comics brimming with graphic violence, nudity, and neither a cape nor a superpower in sight.
The two-hour feature film weaves together three full-length tales and a short story, for a more cohesive night at the movies. That version is presented on Disc One, while Disc Two breaks them back out into their original standalone editions with restored scenes. The separate stories are shown in the order they occur--That Yellow Bastard, "The Customer Is Always Right," The Hard Goodbye and The Big Fat Kill--not the order in which the comics were first released. It all began with Marv (here magnificently embodied by Mickey Rourke), a homicidal lug with a heart of... well, maybe not gold, but something decent, and damned-near indestructible. Miller manages to find nobility in the unlikeliest places, and his voice and storytelling are never more unapologetically entertaining than when he sets up shop in Basin City.
Also check out Joe Lozito's original movie review of Sin City.
The Picture
Sin City was captured on high-definition video both as a cost-reducing measure but also to expedite what would be massive post-production: Color would be removed and manipulated, and the live action would be composited with computer-generated backgrounds and other bold graphics. This technique was astounding in the DVD age and holds up remarkably well in the era of Blu-ray. The 1.85:1 panel... er, frame is packed with fine detail, some shots achieving near-perfection. The really tricky bits with delicate shadows or gradation are twitchier than I would like, but the occasional wash of video noise could almost pass for film grain. The high-contrast, mostly black-and-white imagery can reproduce stunningly on the right TV. The recut versions of the stories over on Disc Two were not finished and matched perfectly to the rest of the movie, but neither are there glaring inconsistencies.
The Sound
Fans, filmmakers and critics spoke often of the movie's ability to put us inside Frank Miller's gritty, action-packed world, but seldom does the audio receive its proper credit. This is a seamless 360-degree 5.1 mix, now in crisp, mighty DTS-HD Master Audio, aggressive when it wants to be with frequent car chases and guns blazing, plus the intermittent explosion, while rain falls like a curtain behind us. The music, a lively collaboration by John Debney, Graeme Revell and Rodriguez himself is a brand-new character in all these stories, and it pounds with its own hypnotic heart. Hell, even the menus are in Linear PCM 5.1 with discrete surrounds and crazy levels of bass!
The Extras
Most of the special features from the two DVD releases are preserved here, with some fresh meat tossed in for extra thrills. On Disc One, twin audio commentaries pair Rodriguez first with Miller then with Tarantino, almost as if the different cohorts are working the opposing halves of Rodriguez's fertile brain. A third audio option adds the spirited audience reaction from a screening in Austin, Texas into the 5.1 mix, surely a source of pride for the directors and the kind of bonus we rarely get on home video. The Cine-Explore experience combines the Rodriguez/Miller track with elaborate picture-in-picture, at times a multi-level presentation of unfinished green-screen footage, corresponding comic book panels plus covers and photos. This is a very different animal, as sometimes we can't even see the final film beneath all of the alternate windows. The D-BOX motion code is also provided for folks so equipped in their home theaters.
Disc Two archives the featurettes from the "Recut, Extended and Unrated" DVD edition, all in their original standard definition. The title of each pretty much clues us in so we can jump to what interests us most: "How It Went Down: Convincing Frank Miller to Make the Film" (six minutes), "Special Guest Director: Quentin Tarantino" (seven minutes), "A Hard Top with a Decent Engine: The Cars of Sin City" (seven-and-a-half minutes), "Booze, Broads and Guns: The Props of Sin City" (eleven minutes), "Making the Monsters: Special Effects Make-Up" (nine minutes), and "Trench Coats & Fishnets: The Costumes of Sin City" (seven-and-a-half minutes).
Then there is almost an hour of "Rodriguez Special Features" with his own unique flair, again standard-def, all worth a look. "15-Minute Flic School" sums up his challenges here, the raw "All Green Screen Version" is a hoot even at eight times normal speed, "The Long Take" reveals Tarantino's process, "Sin City: Live in Concert" celebrates the cast and crew's musical side, while "10-Minute Cooking School: Sin City Breakfast Tacos" is downright mouthwatering. Not included are the Sin-Chroni-City interactive feature from the deluxe DVD and a fairly generic behind-the-scenes featurette from the single-disc release.
New to the mix is the "Kill 'Em Good" motion comic with some of the star voices, great new audio and the chance to control the action in certain basic ways via the remote, such as steering Marv's getaway car, tipping exotic dancer Nancy on stage or fighting crooked cops. The controls are a little confusing but the studio's effort here was unexpected and interesting.
Final Thoughts
This is the kind of classic pulp drama we too seldom see, heavily stylized and strikingly faithful to its source material, probably more than any comic book adaptation before or since. I'm thrilled to finally see this movie on such a technically proficient Blu-ray, quite the value too considering the multiple versions and generous extras. Wrap yer mitts around this one, and don't let go.
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