How typical is Sin City to its genre?
Film Noir is used in the film through the dark, dull feel of it as well as conventions like the trench coat that many of the male protagonists are seen wearing - representing the idea that they are detectives and are a symbol of authority. The sense of lost hope throughout the film reflects the idea of the cold war time, therefore showing that the film is typical to its Film Noir genre. For example, there is a particular scene within the film that consists of Marv (protagonist) and Goldie (Femme fatale) sleeping together. When Marv wakes and finds her dead he sets out to kill whoever did it - without mercy. This relates to the idea that he has no hope for the future and no reason to stay alive now that she is gone, relating back to the idea of the cold war, and dull and depressing feel of the Film Noir genre.
The mise en scene of the film consists of Femme Fatales, Male 'heroes' (Propp's theory), sexualised prostitutes who represent the idea of lost hope, again, relation to the cold war.
Furthermore, Sin City is typical to its comic book genre as it has conventions such as violence, horror and narratives from the characters, who are shown speaking in their heads throughout most of the film. The fact that the violence in the film does not do much harm to the characters portrays the unrealistic conventions of comic books, making fun of it in a way. There are various scenes to portray this, for example; one particular scene is when Hartigan is being shot by his enemy, who very obviously shoots him more than 5 times in the chest and he is still standing and breathing. This is a typical comic book convention. Therefore it is typical of its genre as it contains many conventions of comic book themes.
Overall, the film is typical to it's genres as it contains conventions from both representing the fact that it is a hybrid, using just as much Film Noir as Comic book genre related themes.
Megan, you are not quite concise enough in your writing style and structure at the moment, we can work on this. You are repeating yourself a little. Keep to one point in one paragraph.
ReplyDeleteIn your second paragraph you skirt round the issue for a few sentences and then make a good point.
Couple of errors. Remember mis en scene and iconography is physical objects and locations not character roles.Voice over is not a comic book convention, its Noir.
The lack of consequence of violence is a good point and well justified to the comic genre.
Not the best piece of work you have done this year. Keep it simple in structure. Genre convention, narrative justification. Could also discuss post modernism.