Clip Analysis

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RwwzVTZw6Zw

Sin City Clip Analysis

The clip of ‘Sin City’ (2005) that I have chosen to analyze can be seen as a scene of resolution. However, the enigma code (Bathes) is invoked as Marv leaves Goldie unconscious. The resolution occurs when Marv kills Kevin, the audience can immediately distinguish the proppian hero and villain.

Marv is represented as an anti-hero, this is due to the fact that he smokes and kills without hesitation therefore he does not conform to the stereotypical ideologies that a passive audience would assume him to be like. Despite this the audience can easily identify with him due to the fact that a series of close-up shots allow the audience to view his emotional struggle in order to help another person.

Sin City follows the conventions of the neo-noir genre as it often uses a conflicted antihero, who can be identified as Marv. Another convention, which is used within newer neo-noir genre films, is the use of CGI graphics where by a digital background is used in order to create the visual aesthetics. For example, Kevin’s white glasses would have been added in the postproduction stages.

The costumes used are all of black colour, which allows the special effects to emphasise on facial features, such as red lips and green eyes. The low-key lighting is a cliché of the neo-noire genre, which is further enhanced with special effects to create what is known as chiaroscuro lighting.

Non-diegetic sound is added in postproduction to create a comic book like feeling, this feeling is added to with the use of monochrome colour. Additionally, similar to a comic book, the use of narration allows the audience to understand the protagonist’s mindset, and how they’re feeling. It also allows the story to be developed, as enigmas are unravelled with the protagonist providing explanation. The voice-over narration adds to the authenticity of this comic book adaptation and follows the conventions of the neo-noir convention.

A patriarchal society is enforced due to the fact that Goldie needs Marv to save her day, which conforms the ideology of women to be subordinate to men. Goldie can be identified as the whore in Laura Mulvey’s theory of women being into two categorises, as she is visually pleasing for the audience. Thus, she is there to be objectified and has the quality of ‘to-be-looked-at-ness’.

The social ideology of homosexual’s is negative as they are portrayed as ‘girly’ and weak, for example the macho character (Marv) easily defeats the girly homosexual (Kevin). Additionally the ideology of homosexuals being girly is further reinforced due to the fact that Kevin uses his nails when fighting. This scene reinforces the ideology of a patriarchal society, and also stereotypes homosexuals in a negative manner.

Through this one scene in ‘Sin City’ (2005), it can be seen that that Marv is represented as an anti-hero rather than just a hero however; he still makes the proppian characters of the villain and hero very clear.