Sin City (2005)
A2. How typical
are your three main texts of their genre?
My three texts
studied within this industry are ‘District 9’, ‘Sin City’ and ‘Fish
Tank’. All three texts use certain genre conventions and stylistic
features but they are all fairly typical of their respective genres.
Sin City can quite easily be established as
postmodern due to it being a clear collaboration of a number of genres,
creating hybridity within the text. The opening sequence, however, conveys
genre conventions that can strongly be associated with the film noir genre. An
establishing shot is used to, at first, frame an unknown ‘assassin’ (The Man)
on a balcony in a cityscape, this mise-en-scene highlights the urban
environment commonly employed in film noir films from the 1940’s. Further film
noir conventions can then be seen with the inclusion of the ‘lady in red’ who
displays the characteristic features of a major noir element, the femme-fatale
– with red lips, cigarette in-hand and slinky dress. This character is also lit
using low-key lighting, a commonly used technique in film noir to suggest
deception or deceit. Audiences familiar with the genre would therefore make
assumptions about her narrative role by relating her to similar characters seen
in classic noir films of the 40’s, such as The
Maltese Falcon and The Big Combo.
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| The Maltese Falcon (1941) |
Sin City, though, then breaks away from the
stereotypical femme-fatale character when ‘The Man’ shoots the ‘lady in red’.
This plays with the normal narrative convention and provides genre difference
to the text, making it untypical. This adds a shock for the viewer and could be
regarded as a way to keep the genre fresh for the audience. Further film noir
conventions though can be seen later in the film when the more established noir
protagonists arrive in the form of the heroic ‘flawed’ males – Hartigan, Marv
and Dwight. Each of these male characters is cynical, damaged and ‘hard-boiled’
like the original noir heroes from the 40’s features I mentioned earlier. Marv,
for instance, states in a voice-over narration (another typical characteristic
of the genre), that “Sometimes I even
wonder why I’m on this earth” - therefore expressing a cynical viewpoint on
his existence and his worth in the world. As with all the scenes throughout Sin
City, Marv is regularly framed at a ‘dutch tilt’ angle and in stark
high contrast black and white to not only represent his skewed view on the
world but also his strong moral views of what is right or wrong.
The merging of
genres in Sin City, to create a hybrid, clearly makes the film untypical
of the original genre though. The continuous use of comic-book conventions,
such as Marv’s ‘superhuman’ strength, establishes the fact that Sin
City, although displaying many opposing conventions, is in itself a
text which is both noir and comic-book; a comic-noir if you like. Evidence of
this can be seen with the persistent use of comic-book framing and
over-exaggerated actions. Hartigan’s shooting on the docks, by Bob (his
cop-buddy), clearly shows signs of both noir and comic-book features when John
is shot multiple times but still manages to save Nancy and express his feelings
through a voice-over; again a noir convention. Another noir/comic-book hybrid, The Spirit, was released 3 years after Sin
City that merged elements of each genre showing how genres adapt and
change over time.
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| The Spirit (2008) |
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