The Four Color Media Monitor

Far Out Magazine quotes veteran filmmaker Tarantino describing why he views Sin City's film adaptation as possibly the only one he's got any admiration for:

Famously against superhero and comic book movies, as he deems them not “real cinema”, there’s one film that captured his attention and respect. Discussing an experience on set when he praised Sin City, particularly the prowess of Mickey Rourke, he explained how the adaptation mastered the art of comic book cinema.

He said: “I was on the set of a movie that was doing a comic book, and they were doing it in motion capture. I was talking to the director, and he was saying, ‘You see, things like this, you can only do a graphic novel or comic book exactly the way it was done.’ That’s never been done before. He goes, ‘Well, Sin City kind of did it’. I didn’t contradict him; I said, ‘No, Sin City did exactly what you’re talking about.'” [...]

Among films in its specific genre, Sin City stands out as one of the few that Tarantino appreciated and praised. In a 2022 interview with Howard Stern, Tarantino was asked about his perspective on superhero movies, expressing that, had they been as prevalent in the 1980s as they are today, he, being a comic book enthusiast, likely would have been a fan.

However, the director currently has little interest in contemporary superhero films, citing that they heavily rely on excessive special effects in post-production. He explained, “I’ve never really been a big ‘do a bunch of special effects later’ kind of guy. I come from the idea that if you didn’t shoot it on the day, it doesn’t count.”

This interview doesn't seem to take into account there was a time when he considered making a Luke Cage film, but was dissuaded by his buddies. And an adaptation of Cage could end up using plenty of special visuals, if only because this is a guy with super-strength. That aside, it's decidedly telling Tarantino would consider a movie as grim as Sin City to be a masterpiece, because this is none other than a dark-laden movie in focus, not a bright, optimistic comedy. And if we take Pulp Fiction as an example, Tarantino's specialized in black comedy, including a scene where the 2 gangsters played by John Travolta and Samuel Jackson accidentally shot a man to death, with blood splattering all over their car. There's also Tarantino's use of "stylized" violence to ponder. When one specializes in content that grisly, it's hardly a shock when they end up praising somebody else's movie - and comic - that's built on the same.

In any event, what a shame Tarantino wound up telling the press what they'd surely want to hear. The spotlight on auteurs whose specialty is darkness, and even black comedy, has gotten way out of hand. And that surely includes even Sin City's creator, Frank Miller, who has, after all, written plenty of bleak fare, no matter the quality.

Labels: history, indie publishers, licensed products, msm propaganda, violence