Sin City: Difference between revisions

Because it is almost exclusively set in and around Basin City's criminal underworld, ''Sin City'' has a number of recurring characters, although the protagonists vary from story to story. Additionally, some plotlines overlap or weave together in subtle ways (''The Hard Goodbye'' and ''A Dame to Kill For'' are both mostly set on the same night, with the protagonists driving past one another in a single scene in both comics).

 

 

 

'''2: A Dame to Kill For''' - Dwight McCarthy, a freelance photographer with a vicious temper, is pissed off when his beautiful ex -- Ava, the dame of the title -- contacts him out of the blue. But his anger is allayed when he discovers that her life has been threatened. With time running out, Dwight must save Ava from her cruel husband and his bizarre manservant. But is Ava what she appears to be, or is Dwight being manipulated into making the biggest mistake of his life?

'''7: Hell and Back (A Sin City Love Story)''' - Wallace is an interesting guy: an artist, a war hero, a short order cook and a lightning-quick fighter. His life is pretty dull, though, until he saves a suicidal woman named Esther and they begin a tentative relationship. In typical ''Sin City'' style, however, Esther is kidnapped and Wallace must pull the city -- and the lives of some of its most privileged men -- apart to get her back.

 

 

The ''Sin City'' film comprised ''The Hard Goodbye'', ''The Big Fat Kill'' and ''That Yellow Bastard'' and was bookended by an adaptation of "The Customer is Always Right", a short story featured in the ''Booze, Broads and Bullets'' collection.

Two more ''Sin City'' films are planned. One of them will include the story ''A Dame to Kill For'', along with a brand-new sequel to ''That Yellow Bastard''. They were originally scheduled for a 2008 release, but appear to have slipped into [[Development Hell]].

 

 

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* [[Actor Allusion]]: When one cop advises another to kill Hartigan without hesitation, they're quickly dispatched and Hartigan quips "Good advice". In ''[[Die Hard]]'', a terrorist who tells John McClane to kill without hesitation is offed, with McClane snarking "Thanks for the advice". Both played by [[Bruce Willis]], lying on his back and shooting upwards both times.

* [[Actor Existence Failure]]: If the second and third movies ever find their way out of [[Development Hell]], they're gonna need a new Shellie... or maybe just [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|a new waitress]].

* [[Adaptation-Induced Plothole]]: The movie moves Dwight's "Most people think Marv is crazy" monologue from ''A Dame to Kill For'' to ''The Hard Goodbye''. This works fine in a standalone movie, but in the comics the chronology of that night is very well fleshed out. Its revealed that while Marv was drinking at Kadie's after Goldie's murder two cops were questioning Shellie about Dwight's whereabouts. At that point in the story Dwight is recovering from events in his own story, so he couldn't be anywhere near Kadie's that night. Furthermore, he underwent plastic surgery which gave Dwight his appearance in the movie but that only happened ''months'' after the events of ''The Hard Goodbye'', at which point Marv {{spoiler|was on Death Row.}} Since ''Sin City 2'' is slated to use ''A Dame to Kill For'' as its lead story they'll have to break from their own continuity or alter the timeline and make the entirety of ''Dame to Kill For'' take place before ''Hard Goodbye''.

* [[The Alcoholic]]: Jackie Boy seems to be one and Dwight is a recovering case.

* [[The Alleged Car]]: Nancy's car. "No one but me can keep this heap running." Also the clapped out banger without enough space for all the bodies or enough fuel to get them to the tar pits and a cop-attracting broken tail-light. Also the battered old VW Beetle from ''Family Values''.

** The ironic thing is, The Heap is a 1957 Chevrolet Nomad, a very desirable car, and the car Dwight is given to ditch at the Pits was a 1955 Ford Thunderbird, both [[Cool Cars]]. Part of Dwight's narration mentions that it once was a [[Cool Car]], but after years of abuse and neglect, it became a clapped out banger at the end of its life.

* [[Anti-Hero]]: Every damned protagonist. Most of them are straight on Type IVs who like to [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]].

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Liebowitcz, the dirty cop. He's as corrupt as any other cop and beats up Hartigan for not ratting out Nancy. Despite this, he is a devoted family man {{spoiler|and is willing to turn on the Colonel, going so far as to kill him}}. In that instance, he's probably the only sympathetic villain in the entire series.

* [[Art Evolution]]: In the first few issues of A Hard Goodbye the characters and backgrounds are drawn with more realistic proportions and with subtler shading, looking more like a standard black and white comic. By the end of the book the art is crystallized into the high-contrast, over-exaggerated, blocky artwork that became the standard of the series.

* [[Asian Hooker Stereotype]]: Subverted. Sure, the only Asian character just happens to be a sex-worker - but so does almost ''all'' other female characters as well. In order to give the Asian character enough of western stereotyping, she is thus upgraded to [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|an Asian sex-worker NINJA]]. It [[Rule of Cool|actually fits the setting perfectly]].

* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The [[Cool Car]]. Lampshaded by Shlubb and Klump.

* [[Backup Twin]]: {{spoiler|Goldie and Wendy}}.

* [[Badass Longcoat]]: Most of the characters wear one and Marv has several. "''That's a damn fine coat you've got there.''" If Marv comes up to you and says this, prepare to die horribly.

* [[Badass Long Hair]]: Wallace is described as a hippy for a reason.

* [[Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop]]: Almost every cop.

* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Dwight fits this at first but he later grows his hair out.

* [[Band of Brothels]]: The ladies are the law in Old Town.

* [[Body Horror]]: Kevin's collection of decapitated hooker heads. Hartigan ripping out Junior's testicles. And several more incidents.

* [[Book Ends]]

* [[Born in the Wrong Century]]: Dwight suggests that Marv would have had a better place in ancient times, as a warrior on the field of battle or a gladiator in the Roman arena.

** Also, Hartigan is the last honest cop in Basin City. He appears to belong to a better age, and follows his own code of morals and honour, when no-one else does.

*** Dwight is quite obviously based on [[Mike Hammer]].

*** Miller was always disappointed in ''[[The Dead Pool]]'' (the movie, not the [[Deadpool|comic character]]) so he wrote what he thought should be the real final case of [[Dirty Harry|Harry Callahan.]] Enter: John Hartigan.

* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Most of them openly admit to being bad guys. Senator Roark and Ava Lord especially. Ava gleefully seduces men left and right for her own purposes and gives out an [[Evil Laugh]] because she knows she can get away with it. Senator Roark openly admits that he killed his wife and gloats that there isn't a damn thing anyone can do about it.

* [[Carnival of Killers]]: ''Hell & Back'' features a guild of assassins.

* [[Cavalry Betrayal]]: When the Federal Agents arrive at the farm, Lucille naturally assumes that they are there to help and yells at them to not arrest Marv, as he's with her. And then they pour literally boxes of bullets into poor Lucille.

* [[Chained to a Bed]]: Blue Eyes chains herself to a bed in order to seduce Wallace. {{spoiler|It doesn't work.}}

** Even the comic gets away with this somehow.

* [[Chiaroscuro]]

* [[Chroma Key]]: Generally quite good in the movie, but a notable "jerkiness" occurs when Miho stabs several people through the head with her sword.

* [[City Noir]]

* [[Comforting the Widow]]: Mort, a mostly honest Sin City cop, tries to do this with Ava Lord and ends up tangled in her web.

* [[Comic Relief]]: Shlubb and Klump are usually the only bright spot in a story if they show up.

* [[Credits Gag]]: Not only done in the movie but Miller manages to pull it off in the comic as well.

* [[Creepy Monotone]]: Manute in the movie.

{{quote|"''She tried to analyze me once, but she got too scared.''"}}

* [[Cut Himself Shaving]]: Marv tells his mother this. (The scene was filmed for [[The Movie]], but it was deleted from the theatrical shot and can be viewed on the recut edition DVD). The scene was also in the comic, of course.

* [[Deadly Hug]]: A few times.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]

* [[Death by Cameo]]: [[Frank Miller]] has a cameo in the movie.

* [[Death by Disfigurement]]: {{spoiler|Lucille}}.

* [[Determinator]]: Just about all of the protagonists, but especially Hartigan could be the poster child of this: sixty years plus and feeling it, survives a heart attack, a hanging and having a revolver emptied in his back at close range. Every one of the incidents and each of the bullets ''should'' kill him, but he just keeps going.

** It has been outright stated that the Yellow Bastard's father does everything he can to save Hartigan, so that he can disgrace him.

* [[Finger in the Mail]]: Hartigan gets a severed finger in the mail instead of his usual letter from Nancy. {{spoiler|Junior couldn't find her, so he tricks Hartigan into tracking her down.}}

* [[Finger-Lickin' Evil]]

* [[Forced to Watch]]: Poor Lucille...

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: As Marv proves, Kevin isn't so tough when he can't hop around.

** When he first meets Dwight, Manute gives him a good kick in the junk.

* [[Guns Akimbo]]: Everyone wielding a gun (i.e ''everyone'') almost always ends up with two of them.

* [[Here We Go Again]]

* [[Heroic Comedic Sociopath]]: Several of the main characters.

* [[MadWorld]]

* [[Magic Realism]]: It's in the crime genre but that doesn't stop it from dabbling slightly with mysticism (Miho, Kevin, the empathic elements of the Farm) or even light sci-fi (Yellow Bastard, the Colonel's operations). There was also the torture technician in ''Big Fat Kill'' who could cause pain with a simple touch. This was changed to Manute in the movie.

* [[Malaproper]]

* [[The Man Behind the Curtain]]: Cardinal Roark.

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Both Senator and Cardinal Roark.

** Technically, Senator Roark appears in two scenes in the comic and the Director's Cut of the movie.

* [[Other Stock Phrases]]

* [[Parental Incest]]: {{spoiler|Such is the case in the short story ''Daddy's Little Girl.'' Although its unclear if they really are related, or its just a fetish.}}

* [[Percussive Prevention]]: {{spoiler|Lucille to Marv and Marv to Wendy}}.

* [[Pistol-Whipping]]: Wendy does this to Marv during his interrogation, and gets lectured on proper techniques by Marv.

** Man, it is surprising to see [[The Lord of the Rings|Frodo Baggins]] playing a [[The Voiceless|mute]], [[Complete Monster|psychopathic]], [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalistic]] [[Serial Killer]].

** Seeing one of the [[Gilmore Girls]] as a prostitute.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Despite all of its many taboos, the comic is pretty [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|tame in terms of language]]. The one and only F-Bomb comes from Lebowitcz when he {{spoiler|shoots the Colonel}} and says, "Make a missing person's case out of this fucker."

* [[Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy]]

* [[Private Eye Monologue]]

* [[Professional Killer]]: Both hitmen and assassins show up. Hitmen are sent after Marv early on in The Hard Goodbye; Shlubb and Klump are specifically described as "low-rent killers" but are often just errand boys for the baddies. Miho and Kevin are used as assassins but they're in it for more than money. The Colonel (''The Salesman'' in the movie) has an entire guild of assassins.

* [[Rocket Jump]]

* [[Rollerblade Good]]: Miho uses this to [[Crazy Awesome|race after a speeding car]] in ''Family Values''.

* [[Say Your Prayers]]: In ''Family Values'', one of the mobsters about to be massacred starts doing this.

* [[Scary Black Man]]: Manute.

* [[Serial Killer]]: Kevin, Roark Jr.

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Shlubb and Klump to the point of having [[Delusions of Eloquence]].

{{quote|'''Hartigan:''' Skinny little Nancy Callahan. She grew up. She filled out.}}

* [[He Knows Too Much|She Knows Too Much]]: Happens to several of the women of the [[Sin City]] verse, particularly {{spoiler|Goldie and Lucille}}.

*** ''The Hard Goodbye'' is the name later given to the first Sin City story. [[Raymond Chandler]] wrote a novel called The Long Goodbye.

*** In ''Hell and Back'' there is a brief narration by Leibowitz's son that is in the style of romance comics from the 50's.

** Marv's profile is almost identical to [[Dick Tracy|Dick Tracy's]] famous profile.

* [[Signs of Disrepair]]: In at least one instance, a now entering sign is shown outside the city "Basin City" with the B and A degraded.

* [[Snow Means Death]]: Hartigan.

* [[Stairwell Chase]]: Marv's escape from the apartment building.

* [[Suicide Mission]]: This is a recurring idea in the comics, where almost every mission is said to be one in which the hero could easily be killed. Considering the [[Anyone Can Die]] structure of the narrative, it isn't far-fetched to believe that they really will meet their end.

* [[Switching POV]]: Every story has a different protagonist but aside from that, there's a brief sequence in ''Hell And Back'' where Liebowitcz's son is the narrator.

* [[The Vamp]]: Ava Lord. Very much Ava Lord.

** Also, Blue Eyes, Mariah, and "Daddy's Little Girl" to a lesser degrees.

* [[Villain Ball Magnet]]: Marv just wants to be left alone but he will always end up in trouble with someone. Usually this is just a drunk bar patron [[Too Dumb to Live|looking for a fight.]] And sometimes it's [[The Mafia|the Roark family]].

* [[Villain by Default]]: Many of the villains.

* [[X Marks the Hero]]: Hartigan is a shining example of this.

* [[You Can Barely Stand]]: Subverted by Hartigan {{spoiler|the first time}}: "''You can't even lift that cannon''" -- "''Sure I can.''"

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[[Category:Hybride Technologies]]

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