Sin City: Spoilers Podcast 003

Just over two hours of commentary. Our latest podcast on the site. Days after the DVD hit the streets. Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's comic anthology film noir. Sin City they call it. I'm staring at the cover. It smells like movies ought to smell ...uhm ...uhr.*cough*

Okay, enough with the hard-boiled monologue for now. Yes, our latest commentary is for Sin City, the movie based on Frank Miller's graphic novel's "The Customer's Always Right," "That Yellow Bastard," "The Hard Goodbye," and "The Big Fat Kill." If you liked the flick, they're well worth the read ...although you'll soon realize, you've seen them faithfully recreated by Rodriguez here.

Sin City is rated R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content including dialogue. But notably, though Sin City has very adult themes and wonderfully strong dialog it doesn't have a lot of strong language...very little in the way of swearing. It fact they use the exclamation "yeesh" more often than any other.

Frank Miller: Considers himself a country kid. Grew up in rural Vermont. Used to draw comics about guys in trench coats, beautiful women and vintage cars until he tried to get a job with comic publishers and was told to revise his style. After gaining enough of a following, Miller returned to his first love. "...We're finding out that a lot of things that filmmakers have often said can't translate from comics, the particular kind of dialog, the very abrupt jump cutting--from image to image, and from moment to moment--sure seems to edit out sweet." Co-director of Sin City: RR has said that in order for anyone to make as faithful and adaptation of a comic book into a movie, they would have to break a lot of rules since the system isn't set up to allow a director to share his chair with the creator of the comic, and that is what is required to remain faithful to the material. Robert Rodriguez: Started his career as a cartoonist and animator but made a splash on Hollywood with El Mariachi as a director and so understands the tricks of both trades. Known for thinking through challenges and coming up with smart solutions instead of expensive ones So haunted by the Sin City books that he'd often buy them over and over again rediscovering them in the comic shop and than realizing he already owned the particular book once he'd got it home. The was very little project development needed on Sin City because much of the development was done 12 years ago when Miller wrote the books. Sin City was directed, edited, chopped shot, and scored by RR but it was his desire not to make "Robert Rodriguez's Sin City" but "Frank Miller's Sin City" The Production Shot in color on with fairly neutral lighting so that adjustments could all be made in post production without limiting options. In post the footage was converted to black and white, contrast was adjusted paying special attention to the skin and eyes. Actors performances were then merged into the computer graphic backgrounds that Troublemaker Digital had created. If you notice some of the tile or brick textures, the grout or mortar is black until a shadow is cast on it, then it reverses and turns white. Different visual effects houses worked on different stories within the film Rodriguez' favorite Canadian outfit Hybride did The Hard Goodbye (Marv) using 735 visual effects shots. They also produced The Customer is Always Right. CafeFX in Santa Maria, CA did The Big Fat Kill (Dwight) using nearly 600 effects shots The Orphanage did That Yellow Bastard (Hartigan) The MPAA had said that the film might have been too violent to show in theaters if it had been made in color. But, because it was in black and white and much of the blood is white, the graphic violence is less gory. The glowing blood was achieved with fluorescent paint and ultraviolet lights The snow scenes in That Yellow Bastard were created using a miniature set, matte paintings and baking powder snow fall. Even though the film is black and white, the whole thing was color corrected in two painstaking passes: once on a high definition monitor in Austin, TX and then again on a theater size digital projection screen in Los Angeles, CA The Sin City Drinking Game: Take a drink whenever any of the following happens on screen: Someone bleeds white blood Someone loses a hand Someone loses a head or part thereof It's raining Someone named Roark of Rourke is on screen Someone is tied to a chair Two drinks if they get beaten while tied there A toilet is seen Two drinks if someone's head is in it Someone swears Something is in color A line of dialog is repeated for effect

1. The Customer is Always Right
• This scene was the first shot and was director Robert Rodriguez's "test"--the scene that finally won Miller over to the idea of making the film.
• Rodriguez gathered Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton to shoot these scenes in about a 10 hour time span to pitch the film adaptation concept to Miller.
• Shot entirely on green screen on a sound stage.
• This scene was also used as a carrot to lure other actors to sign onto the project...the cut they showed the actors already had their names in the credits.
• The material itself is from the story "The Customer is Always Right" which can be found on the 6th Sin City trade paperback "Booze, Broads, & Bullets" The characters are simply known as "The Man" and "The Customer"
• Is it just me, or does Josh Hartnett sound like Bruce Willis? I had not read the books before seeing the film and was waiting for the Josh Hartnett character and the Bruce Willis character to end up being the same guy ...naive me ...Miller would never be so cliché I realize now that I have read the books.
• That two-shot silhouette is the first assurance the fans really get that this is going to be truly faithful to the books. The white on black silhouette.
2. Sin City
• The Sin City logo is credited to Steve Miller who I would guess is some relation to Frank and may or may not be known to some as "Maurice" because he speaks of the pompitous of love.
• The illustrations displayed during the credits are obviously intended to link the actors and the characters they play with their illustrated counterparts.
• The credits are in alphabetical order, which kind of helps blend all 4 stories into one at least just for a few minutes. Many of the main characters show up as background players in other stories and the credits kind of support this by putting every character and actor on level footing.
• Robert Rodriguez directing, editing and scoring this film
• Rodriguez even quit the Director's Guild of America to be able to share the directing credit with Miller on this film. Many directors these days, like Kevin Smith for instance, are not members and I have heard quite a few stories of directors who's creative license was over ridden by the DGA. Terry Gilliam, on Brazil I believe, butted horns with them over the size of his credit at the beginning of the film--he wanted it smaller.
3. Hartigan
• This section of the movie is taken from the book "That Yellow Bastard"
• Hartigan drives a 1955 Buick
• This shot of Hartigan's car in not in the book, the voice over is written in a panel that already shows him parked at the dock.
• The dialog is quite faithful to the books. The actors on the film, most notably Bruce Willis, often fought to have dialog put back in that had been removed for pacing reasons.
• Hartigan mentions that he was tipped off by a guy named Weevil. He is a reoccurring character in the Sin City books and was cast in this film but didn't make it to the big screen.
• Roark Junior drives a 1963 Jaguar
• In the book, Hartigan removes a couple spark plugs from Junior's Jaguar to keep him from being able to escape. Him not being able to escape with Nancy due to car trouble was a theme that was repeated in the book but only used once in the film.
• The "An old man dies, a little girl lives. Fair trade." Is not in the book. It was only put in here to be echoed later once the Hartigan story is picked up again. The book follows this story from beginning to end in one nonstop trip.
4. "Her Name is Goldie"
• We jump from the middle of "That Yellow Bastard" chapter two right into the beginning of a new story called "The Hard Goodbye"
• Goldie never talks in the book
• Notice even the ash tray is heart shaped. These were created by the prop department.
• As Marv explodes through the doorway, only Mickey Rourke, two actors playing cops and the door frame were on the set, everything else including the door were added later.
• At least there was glass in the window frame he escaped through.
• The police car is a 1955 Chevy.
• The policeman that gets tossed out of the car last screams the Wilhelm Scream
  • Read up on the Wilhelm Scream: One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm...One person who noticed the same distinctive scream reoccurring in so many movies was sound effects fan Ben Burtt...Ben Burtt was hired to create sound effects for Star Wars (1977), he had an opportunity to do research at the sound departments of several movie studios. While looking for sound elements to use in the space adventure at Warner Brothers, he found the original "Distant Drums" scream--which he named "Wilhelm" after the character that let out the scream in "Charge at Feather River."
5. Lucille
• The movie never explains how Marv gets into Lucille's apartment. According to the comic, he does a bit of a Spider-man up the side of the building and into her window. I appears as though this scene was shot and might end up on the special edition DVD.
  • I guess when you can build an entire completed scene like the opening bit of this film, it isn't such a sacrifice to finalize scenes and then cut them from the film. They don't take as much time to create as they would by traditional means and you'd know they'll end up living on on the special edition DVD.
• Marv's bandages are actually bright pink and glow thanks to ultraviolet light
• Marv's make up must have been a big challenge for KNB EFX. It took over two hours to apply and forty minutes to remove. The tricky think is that with all of his fighting and getting beat up, the make up would be different from scene to scene, so the make up department would have to really be on top of things. And then you have to take into account the stunt doubles (there were 2) who would have to have their own versions of the make up.
• From what I can tell, the only tangible things on set were Mickey Rourke, Carla Gugino and the sink.
• A line about being "hauled in front of some faggot jury" was skipped over in Marv's "You don't know what hell is" rant.
6. Marv
• Marv evokes the title: The Hard Goodbye
• Between Lucille's apartment and Kadie's Club Pecos, Marv has snuck into his blind old mother's house and into his boyhood bedroom where he keeps his gun, named Gladys, in a suitcase under his bed. The gun is named after one of the nuns from the Catholic school he went to as a boy. The gun was specially selected for the production and is a World War II Colt 1911.
• The omitted part about Marv's mother is somewhat important because she is woken up by him and mentions that she was concerned because some men had come there looking for Marv and they weren't police. Later Marv is told that if he doesn't sign the confession, they will kill his mom. This missing element of the story strengthens the idea that they know who she is and where to find her.
  • This scene will most likely find its way back into the film on a later edition of the DVD
• Kadie's Club Pecos was one of the few practical sets built for the movie. There are so few sets and locations used in this film that it actually bears noting when a setting was actually realized as a physical set and not a computer generated backdrop.
• This little monologue from Dwight about Marv comes from the Sin City short story "A Dame to Kill For" and supports the legend that Miller created Marv to be "Conan in a trench coat"
• There is another missing scene featuring Robert Rodriguez's old friend, Tommy Nix, playing Weevil--a character Marv pressures to get the word out through the underworld that Marv is distraught over Goldie's death
• Toilet dude was named Tommy in the book, here he's Louie
• Frank Miller plays the part of the priest.
  • Miller also played "Man with Pen in Head" in Daredevil and "Frank the Chemist" in Robocop 2.
• This movie portrays Catholic priests much as most movies do these days, but when Miller wrote this book back in the early 90's, the corrupt clergy wasn't the cliché it is today.
• The Priest's car that Marv steals is a 1990 Mercedes
7. The Farm
• I love the little touches like when Marv rubs his eye and spills out all his pills
• As Marv leaves Basin City, we see that the B and A on the road sign have been shot up so that the sign actually reads "SIN CITY"
• Miller expressed that the idea of the farm was that, to people from the city, there's nothing scarier than the quiet, silent openness of a farm setting. They could sleep through a gun fight, but crickets chirping and wolves howling--that's just creepy.
• It has been said that the Sin City books are in fact an allegory for the comic book industry itself. That Goldie represents the golden age of comics, that big, dumb Marv is Marvel Comics and that Dwight represents DC (even though his initials are DM). But it is at this point in the story when I really wonder if this is true and, if it is true, what Miller is saying by having a silent figure named "Kevin" be the one who kills Goldie ....Silent ....Kevin.
  • The "Silent Kevin" element is probably just a coincidence. I think perhaps a better interpretation is that what killed the golden age of comics was the narrow minded idea that comics were meant for kids...here represented by Kevin in his Charlie Brown zigzag sweater and Leave It To Beaver wholesome appearance.
• As I was driving home from having seen this film in the theater, I was making connections as I like to do. I recalled that Elijah Wood had been an actor since childhood and had been in "The Good Son" with Macaulay Culkin and "Forever Young" with Mel Gibson. I had also recently caught a bit of "The Man Without A Face" on TV and realized that the young boy in that was played by Nick Stahl. So here, out at the infamous farm at North Cross and Lennox live two messed up child actors from Mel Gibson movies.
• The sound of the hammer hitting Marv's head was illustrated by Miller as KUDD with the two D's interlocking like the DareDevil logo
• The cell was a computer generated set.
• Marv bashes through the door of the cell in the book
• Marv's head goes KUDD again
8. "What If I'm Wrong?"
• Powers Booth as Senator Roark is one of the few casting choices in this film where the actor really doesn't look like the character in the book at all. Senator Roark in the book looks a bit more like Mike Myers as Fat Bastard ...which kinda makes sense being as he is the father of That Yellow Bastard.
• The casting of Mickey Rourke in this film was another instance where Rodriguez opened Miller's eyes to something he had never considered. I have to admit, I never like Mickey Rourke before Rodriguez started casting him in films.
  • From all reports Mickey Rourke had a ball making this film. He had never worked on a film with no sets before. And, in many cases, he was acting in scenes with no other actors to play off of;even if there were going to be other characters on the screen with him in that scene once it was finished. But he says Rodriguez made the process very enjoyable and earned his respect.
• Rain clears up suddenly in Basin City
• The Wonder Woman hooker is in the book also
9. The Hard Goodbye
• Wendy drives a 1955 Porsche Spyder not the 1946 model drawn in the comic. The license plate reads LEV 311 and this remains faithful. These are Miller's wife initials an birth date.
• There are scenes in the comic that have Marv waiting for nightfall, one right after Marv leaves Kadie's Club Pecos and one here where he and Wendy share a hotel room and Marv sleeps on the couch. Although he does get up and try to sneak into Wendy's bed, but he blames it on his lack of medication.
• There are 14 lengths of tubing when marv runs through the list
• Rodriguez is said to have commented to Elijah Wood on the set that he had never fully realized until they were shooting how physical the role of Kevin would be. He thought Wood would just be kind of smiling eerily and saying nothing for the whole movie. He forgot about all the running, jumping and kicking.
• Jessica Alba and Mickey Rourke were not on the set together when they performed the scene where Marv comes over to Nancy's apartment. Alba had not yet been cast.
• In the comics, Marv is sort of Nancy's guardian angel
• Actually, Rutger Hauer hadn't been cast either when Mickey Rourke shot the scene with him.
• Goldie had actually caught Kevin eating someone and was able to escape--it was more than her just sensing that she could be next.
10. "Is That the Best You Can Do, Pansies?"
11. Shellie
• Benicio Del Toro as Jackie Boy Raferty and Brittany Murphy as Shellie. The two were rarely on the set together.
• Shellie's kitchen was a real set.
• Shellie is the only character who appears in all three stories.
• Dwight and Manute's first appearance in the comics was in "A Dame to Kill For"
  Back then Manute had both eyes and Dwight had a different face.
  • Dwight's character has demons and was trying hard to keep them in check by staying below the speed limit in every way. Then he and Marv team up to rescue a woman from Dwight's past. Things go wrong.
  • Dwight ends up killing an innocent man as part of a frame up against him
  • Marv beats the crap out of Manute and takes his eye...and of course his coat and even his hat.
  • Dwight gets shot in the face and has Marv take him to Old Town where he gets patched up.
  • Why should we care what happens in a book that isn't being adapted in this film? The "Making of" book shows some scenes from this book being shot ...maybe for tests ...maybe for a sequel ...maybe for the special edition DVD.
12. Dwight
• Dwight is played by British actor Clive Owen
• The toilet water seems to highlight Benicio prosthetic nose and chin
• When Jackie-Boy throws up, the yellow of the toilet water is "restored"
• Jackie-Boy drives a 1957 Chrysler Imperial
• There are always police helicopter flying around in the comics.
• Shellie mentions Dwight's new face...and now you know what that's about.
• Benicio Del Toro is likely the only actor who has ever asked for more make up. He wanted to look more like the Jackie Boy in the book
13. Old Town
• Dwight's driving a 1959 Cadillac with licence number AIW 610...not sure if that has significance but I figured it should be noted.
• Dwight calls back to "A Dame To Kill For" again talking about being a murderer with a new face trying not to get noticed
• Becky's glowing jewelry is actually bright orange as are the rivets on her chaps.
  • The jewelry was designed by an Austin, Texas jeweler. The prop shop then replicated the pieces and made them so that they could be taken off as a unit. This allowed for the jewelry to be glowing white in one shot and metallic in others without much setup or delay.
  • As long as we're looking at Becky's jewelry, pay special attention to the peace symbol hanging from her ear. It will change later and I'll point that out.
• Rosario Dawson, here as Gail, has taken a bit of heat lately because she continues to live in the same low-rent housing district that she and her mother shared back before she was a successful actress.
• Watch the hammer charm on the end of Gail's earring as it periodically hooks itself on the spikes on her collar
• They have been so faithful with this that Gail even smokes the "weird Russian cigarettes" as she is said to in the books
14. Deadly Little Miho
• The "Making of" book details a throwing weapon that was designed that had 3 retractable miniature Rambo blades--it was designed, created, but never made it into the film.
• Miho is the bodyguard of whichever hooker is in charge of Old Town. In "A Dame to Kill For," Goldie and Wendy were in charge. Here it's Gail.
• It is also told in the other books that Dwight had once saved Miho when she was attacked by a gang. She killed two of them but the third had the drop on her. Dwight killed him.
• Miho's throw is somewhat reminiscent of the three knife throw Salma Hayek did in Once Upon A Time in Mexico (one of Rodriguez's other films) and I think the reason it reminds me of that is because, like the Hayek throw, I don't think Devon Aoki is actually throwing anything...the throwing swastika is an effect added in later.
• Miho's swords are Crazy 88 swords from the movie Kill Bill Volume One
• It was Benicio's idea that Jackie Boy would use his teeth to get the gun out of his severed hand.
15. Warrior Woman
    • From reading the books, it seems that Gail is the new law in Old Town. That when Goldie was killed, Gail took over...not sure why Wendy couldn't rule alone...she seemed to be in charge still when she was beating Marv around.
    • Shooting digitally meant that in shots where Rodriguez wanted to cover the other side of the action, he could just ask the actors to perform the scene facing in another direction. Why move all the cameras?
      • Michael Clarke Duncan commented that it would be difficult for him to go back to a traditional set after Sin City
    • The junker the girl bring Dwight is a 1957 Ford T-Bird
16. Designated Driver
• Rick's choice for The Spoilers Pee Break Scene
• This was the scene directed by guest director, Quentin Tarantino
  • This was Robert Rodriguez giving Tarantino, a staunch film-over-video guy, a chance to shoot digital
  • Tarantino was won over by the experience and now want to make a whole movie digitally on green screen with Rodriguez behind the lens
• It was first shot with a real car and then it became clear that everything would be much easier without it.
• Benicio, like most living actors playing the dead, has trouble not breathing
• The cop is riding a 1992 Kawasaki Kz1000 Police Motorcycle
17. The Pits
• The Santa Yolanda tar pits, according to Sin City legend, have been a struggling tourist attraction for years. The dinosaur statues were added after Jurassic Park was a hit movie but it was all shut down after a guard rail broke and an elderly woman fell in the pits and had a heart attack before anyone could save her.
• The pits are actually just a tank on a sound stage...not even dressed up...just a big tank filled with goo.
• Manute's employer is never named here all that is mention is that he is "a new master." This is because Dwight killed his old master. The books reveal the new employer as a mobster named Wallenquist and he is sure to show up in the sequels
• I said the tar pits were just a tank. Here one of the mercenaries hunches on top of the half sunk car...even that isn't on the set. The actor is just crouched on top of some boxes.
• Dallas drives a 1941Chevy, license plate PSC 961
• Dallas is actually a composite of two characters from the books: Dallas, a southern belle and Zorro Girl, who is more the masked type.
• Dallas is played by Patricia Vonne, Robert Rodriguez's sister who is also a singer songwriter
  • Once Upon A Time In Mexico features one of her songs
18. Jackie Boy's Head
• The Irish Mercenaries drive a 1965 GMC Carry-All Van
• The grenades being used here are, of course fake, but they were designed after the World War II Japanese Type 97 Standard Grenade.
• Notice how the bomb-loving mercenary hits the button on the remote while not obscuring the pretty red light with his thumb.
• The book reveals the mercenary's intent to stab Dwight in a very uncomfortable place...and not in the back of a Volkswagon...but you get the idea. And then Miho shows him how it's done.
19. The Big Fat Kill
• Dallas's car phone is a classic Motorola MicroTAC flip phone...he's lucky the rain is fake--those phones had a nasty habit of reacting badly to water...and a little bang-bang's never gonna match the sighta that!
• Dwight evokes the title of the book
• There is another character in the book upon which this story is based, his name is Davis and it is he who does the head squeezing, not Manute.
• Manute means "special blessing"
• Becky's peace symbol earrings change to a peace sign embedded with a star and flag. This is the symbol of PAX, the paramilitary peace force from Frank Miller's Martha Washington series of graphic novels. One of Jackie Boy's goons wore a shirt with this symbol.
• Miho's bow is a Mongolian design based on an authentic model that required too much strength to pull back take after take. The arrows were custom made to match Frank Miller's drawings.
  • He just made them up and the prop people made them real.
• This is Michael Clark Duncan's second Frank Miller film
20. Senator Roark
• The really cool detective Nancy reads is probably author P. D. James's Cordelia Gray
• There are some scenes that were deleted here of Hartigan's boss pleading with him to give the word so that a big investigation could be made. Hartigan's wife comes in and ask him to deny the allegations and when he keeps quite to protect Nancy, she damns him to hell and storms out. Even a nurse comes in to say she'll rinse out his bed pan and wipe his butt but not to expect any friendly chit chat.
21. Letters from Cordelia
• The room in which Hartigan is beaten is entirely computer generated.
• The set of Hartigan's cell had its height enhanced by computer generated imagery.
22. This Guy Smells Awful
• In the book, after Hartigan finds the envelope containing the severed index finger, calls Lucille, arranges to confess to Roark Junior's crimes. There is a more lengthy confession hearing scene that is particular difficult as Hartigan must break down and admit to these crimes in the smug presence of Senator Roark who makes a big show of being gracious enough to forgive Hartigan of the crimes his son committed...kind of a reverse Christ analogy ...father sends his only son to sin for mankind that the innocent can take the blame for it. Only here, mankind goes after the antichrist and twice removes his ability to take or create life. If this is the intended theme, it explains how Hartigan ends up being one of the only characters in Sin City who is actually pretty pure.
• Nick Stahl as that Yellow Bastard looks like that Yellow Ferengi to me. The illustration in the comics actually looks a lot like Frank Miller himself. If he didn't intend for the similarity, I apologize, I mean no disrespect but he does look like him.
• Miller has described the Yellow Bastard as a villain in the tradition of the Joker and other Batman villains before the 60's TV show softened them up. They were scary back then. They were bad men who were twisted and made worse.
• Hartigan is picked up by Bob ...which kind of makes no sense, since he was betrayed by Bob. The books go another way.
• The cab is a 1949 Chevy
23. That Yellow Bastard
• The cigarette machine behind Hartigan when he walk in bears the cover art of one of Miller's Sin City books
• In the book, Marv, Weevil and Dwight can be seen at Kadie's. Dwight is wining about his wife having left him and he being so on edge that he punched out his boss. This is back story to the back story I've told you about from "A Dame to Kill For"
• Shellie holds a tray of Chango beer, a fictitious brand used in many of Rodriguez's films
• So this is Alba's first comic book role and I think there needs to be a rule set in Hollywood that actors may only choose one comic book role.
  • No Nancy Callahan and Sue Storm
  • No Catwoman and Storm
  • No Kingpin and Manute
  • Heck, even Rosario Dawson who plays Gail in this flick probably used up her comic book quota playing Valerie in Josie and the Pussycats and the Light of Zartha in Men in Black II.
• One of the driver captains on the production also happened to be an expert trick roper and taught Jessica Alba how to rope over the course of several days.
• That Yellow Bastard drives a 1936 Cadillac
• Nancy's car is a 1957 Chevy Nomad
24. Kiss of Death
    
• Mimi's Motel Cafe is computer generated ...inside and out
• Hartigan resists the advances of Nancy. If he was pushing 60 before his incarceration, that would make him about 68 here and Nancy 19. That's a 49 year difference. Kinda makes Willis's relationship with Brooke Burns seem like not such a great span of age...what?...only 23 years... pfffft
• Mr Klump here is played by Rick Gomez who was one of the unfortunate souls involved in the ill fated and ill advised Clerks live action television production.
• Notice the Basin City sign is no longer shot up to read "SIN CITY"... maybe a different sign? A different period of time? Who knows? Who cares? Well as we see later, Kevin is still alive during these events, so yes, it is pre-Goldie.
25. Killing of the Snake
• Yellow Bastard was actually blue on set. The make up effects team at KNB met with Nick Stahl on a Tuesday in LA and 9 days later they were shooting his scenes in make up in Austin. They get him in make up, paint him blue and then add stubble and hair after. Actually they covered over the actor's ears, so those you see are totally fake.
• There was also a vest that was Yellow Bastard's chest and distended belly. His almost nude scenes were a 5 hour make up process since they would have to put his head one, his chest and gut and then paint him blue from head to toe. They also did highlight and shadow make up work that would also add to the time involved.
• Nick Stahl is a very thin guy in reality.
26. Fair Trade
• As you may know, Frank Miller had a hand in writing a bit of Robocop. If you look on the seat of the car Hartigan is driving, you'll see one of the guns is the same kind of Beretta that Robocop used.
• Hartigan evokes the title as he surmises what happened after Nancy's car stalled on Junior.
• Rotten way to kill a man, also a rotten way to guard a post. The guy Hartigan cuts stands guard with his back to the most logical route by which an attacker would come.
27. Becky
• We actually see under the floorboards here ...odd.
• In the books, Becky gets gunned down in the alley along with all the other enemies of Old Town. And The Man...who knows if his character ever resurfaces...hard to tell
28. End Credits
    • There are two Sin City sequels planned the first in 2006 will give us more of Dwight and the second slated for a 2008 release is a bit sketchy detail-wise, but IMDb lists only one director for the third installment--Frank Miller. Are the first 2 movies Miller's training ground with Rodriguez with the third film being his opportunity to take what he's learned and fly solo?
    • The DVD release was my first opportunity to see this film in focus. When I saw it during it's theatrical run, I saw it on a night when the projectionist decided that focusing the projector wasn't a priority. I even got a free movie voucher from the manager which is what I used to pay my way in to see Revenge of the Sith. More on that when we do the commentary for Sith. The next time I saw Sin City was on a screener DVD which had great sound but lousy picture. So still no clarity. Now that I can finally see the film properly, it is clear that high definition digital video is an awesome medium with which to capture a story.
    • The Canadian version of the DVD contains a clip from the Olsen twins' series "So Little Time" on the file named VTS_02_0.VOB The same file on the US disc is some sort of anime, maybe Silent Möbius.

Bibliography

• The Hard Goodbye, by Frank Miller
• A Dame to Kill For, by Frank Miller
• The Big Fat Kill, by Frank Miller
• That Yellow Bastard, by Frank Miller
• Booze, Broads, and Bullets, by Frank Miller
• Frank Miller's Sin City: The Making of the Movie, by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez
• Kevin Smith's interview with Miller and Rodriguez
• IMDb and various movie bulletine boards
• Thanks to Jon Gales for helping confirm the VTS_02_0.VOB rumor