Frank Miller, that is.
This past week, I read 300 in the University Library.
Then I (re-)watched Sin City.
And these things are just brilliant! I know I've been making fun of Miller for his crappy (but hilarious) crap, but we really ought to take some pause at the great stuff this guy put out.
Sin City is a mastery of the film noir genre! You have the femmes fatales, the hard-boiled, lone detective, the corrupt, polluted politician/police officer. Society is perverted in Oldtown, where the hookers are the law, and not even the police and the mafia dare to intrude on them. Justice is perverted, as the "heroes" of each story take the law into their own hands, and issues their own brand of justice. Every scene is delicious, whether it's gory, twisted, demented or just a wonderful one-liner!
"It was a lousy night in a lousy part of a lousy town."
"An old man dies. A young girl lives. Fair trade."
It's tough. It's gritty. It's suicidal. I love it!
And 300 is 300. It's barely historical fiction, but that's the point -- we glorify the past to make it more memorable, and 300 is a story about the glories of the past, and its heroes.
And et cetera. I really ought to study now.
1 comment:
Actually, I DO like Sin City -- I consider it Noir satire. Miller DOES seem to work best when I approach ALL of his stuff as if it were satire. :-)
Post a Comment