Representation

Sin city represents the various different types of criminals that can inhabit one area which include; murderers, assassins, prostitutes and cannibals and the corruption that can consume an entire city. The film represents people who live in a corrupted society were the police is owned and bought out and it follows out various characters who each have to fight this corruption but all do it in very different and controversial ways. The film represents this topic in a very harsh and real life way as it tells the story of each one of the characters having to fight this corruption but ultimately fail as they can not fight an entire system only a specific man. This film portrays the subject in a very comic styled way, it sets the movie out as a large story that is split into three different sections each following a different character each of whom sets out in a very detective style way so you believe there performances as you believe that you would go about things in the same manner if placed in the same situation. The opening scene of the film is very appropriate for Dyer's theory as it shows a very wealthy looking and well dressed couple on a balcony and your immediately assumption is that they are deeply in love and have a fairytale relationship, this comes to an end as the mysterious man suddenly assassinates the women. This shows how we immediately view the couple is completely wrong as all the scene is, is an assassin killing his target and not sharing a intimate moment as you first assume and no longer treat them as a deeply in love couple. The film has a massive absent of colour as the entire film is shot in a noir style approach with only a few moments of colour (the blue in a characters eyes or the red of a duvet) this makes those sparse moments of background colour incredibly noticeable and you get to appreciate these colours in a great amount of detail and would have missed them if the film was not shot in this style. The representation of the film is of the original writer as the film is an adaptation of an early graphic novel and the film follows extremely closely to the novels plot, it completely reflects the writer Frank Millers representation of corruption and how he views it and what some people will do to get rid of it even if they go to extreme lengths to do it. Mulvey theory is extremely relative to this film as Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' is very accurate to this film as all the main protagonist in this film are all men each of whom are extremely tough and hardened as well as this her theory of voyeurism as prostitutes have a large role in this film as there are very few female characters in this film that are not either strippers or prostitutes, Barthes theory though is not very relevant to this film as it does not follow a fairytale very closely except in the first scene were the mysterious couple look they are about to elope and run away and live happily ever after but it ends in a very non-fairytale style way.