Tag: Robert Rodriguez

With the back-to-back home video releases of  THE SPIRIT and SIN CITY, now seems like an opportune moment to take a brief look at the cinefantastique of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. Although neither artist is a specialist in science fiction, fantasy, or horror films in quite the same way as someone like George Lucas, their work does impinge on the genre in interesting ways. Sometimes this is a matter of style (creating imaginary, graphic novel-inspired worlds in SIN CITY and 300); sometimes it is a matter of content (the overt sci-fi, fantasy, and/or horror elements of THE SPIRIT, ROBOCOP 2, the SPY KIDS movies, THE FACULTY, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, and GRINDHOUSE). Although both men display a vision most heavily imbued with action-packed machismo, they have, separately or together, had a big influence on genre films culminating in their collaboration on 2005’s SIN CITY (which currently has a couple of sequels in pre-production).
Frank Miller, of course, is primarily a graphic novelist rather than a filmmaker. His greatest claim to fame in this regard is The Dark Knight Returns, an impressive piece of work that revitalized the Caped Crusader and paved the way for the feature films, beginning with BATMAN in 1989. Although Hollywood did not have the nerve to adapt Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns directly to the screen, its influence is in the dark tone (the opposite of the campy ’60s TV series), and there is even a brief hat tip in the form of a reference to Corto Maltese (an area of political unrest in the graphic novel, triggering a nuclear confrontation between the US and the USSR).
Frank Miller’s influence is even more strongly felt in 2005’s BATMAN BEGINS, which borrows elements from both The Dark Knight Returns and especially Miller’s Batman: Year One. At one point, there was a plan to adapt the latter graphic novel, with Miller supplying the screenplay and with Darren Aranofsky (who helmed the excellent art house science-fiction film PI) attached to direct. As its title implies, Miller’s graphic novel tells the the story of Batman’s first year in action. Although the final screenplay for BATMAN BEGINS is not officially based on Batman: Year One, numerous similarities abound:

• Jim Gordon, apparently the only honest cop left in Gotham, forms and alliance with the Batman, even though officially the police think that Batman is a vigilante they want to arrest.
• Besides helping out Gordon, Batman also passes incriminating evidence about Gotham’s corrupt fat-cats to someone in the district attorney’s office.
• Trapped in a building surrounded by the police, Batman escapes by using a transmitter that emits a sound that attracts a massive swarm of bats.
• Batman doesn’t call his vehicle the Batmobile, and it looks more like a tank than a car.
• The story ends with the Gordon-Batman alliance forged and ready to take on a threat from the Joker.

Of course, substantial differences exist between Miller’s version of Batman and what emerged on screen in the various films, but there is no doubt that his work lit the fuse that ignited the on-screen explosion.
Frank Miller’s first hands-on film work was writing a draft of the screenplay for the disappointing ROBOCOP 2, in which he also has a cameo as a chemist. The experience was apparently not a happy one, which is why, fifteen years later, Robert Rodriguez had to go to extreme lengths to convince Miller to film SIN CITY. Rodriguez invited Miller to help film a test scene (based on Miller’s “The Customer Is Always Right” from “The Babe Wore Red”), which became the SIN CITY’s wrap-around sequence (with Josh Hartnett as a hit man who bumps off a blond in a red dress). Rodriguez paid for the shoot, cut and scored the footage, which earned the go-ahead from Miller to make the feature. Rodriguez then invited Miller to co-direct the film, in order to make sure that the result would accurately reflect his vision.
Robert Rodriguez had first gained attention in 1992 by writing and directing EL MARIACHI, a low-budget action film with a simple story augmented with lots of exaggerated filming technique (such as speeding up the action for comic effect). After following up with a sequel-remake DESPERADO, Roriguez tried his hand at horror by directing FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996), which was scripted by Quentin Tarantino. Two years later came the science-fiction-horror film THE FACULTY, scripted by Kevin Williamson.
As with his action efforts, Robert Rodriguez’s science fiction and horror efforts were characterized by impressive displays of visual style, and he embraced the genre elements enthusiastically, without any embarrassment or any sense of guilt about needing to “elevate” the material. He was more than happy to deliver the horror unapologetically, even if that meant spraying buckets of blood and goo across the screen.
Unfortunately, this also meant that Robert Rodriguez’s films came across as slick but superficial, and despite their eagerness to please, they were never quite so thrilling that you could completely overlook their shortcomings. Sure, they were fun, but they weren’t that much fun.
Perhaps Robert Rodriguez’s style was just a bit too over-the-top – to the point that it became more cartoony than cool. This may also explain the blockbuster success of his SPY KIDS movies (his biggest hits to date) – the feel of a live-action cartoon perfectly suited material aimed at kids.

…the real triumph of SIN CITY […] is that it creates a valid cinematic style (whatever its source and inspiration) that works on film because it tells the violent and often wildly incredible stories in a way that makes the tough-guy clichés, hard-boiled voice-overs, blond bombshells, excessive shoot-outs, and enormous bloodletting seem entirely appropriate, even if you don’t have a particular taste for graphic violence on screen.

SIN CITY may be the apex of cinematic achievement for both Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. Typically, their work – either alone or together – evinces a penchant for tough-guy heroics, but too often this is rendered in cartoony terms, with good-looking movie stars blazing away with guns just because it looks cool. The real macho ethos is not about how many bullets you can fire; it’s about navigating a corrupt world with some kind of personal integrity intact, doing the right thing or the honorable thing – or as close as you can come – at great personal expense, not because the world or the law or the government is watching you but because you must stay true to yourself, your own personal code of honor.
This is a very appealing worldview, but it is a bit sophomoric as well; it really only makes sense if social institutions are ineffectual and/or morally corroded. SIN CITY does the perfect job of creating a world in which the personal integrity of lone men is the last bastion against an overwhelming tide of corruption. As long as you are willing to take a trip into its world, the actions make total sense.

• THE SPIRIT on DVD
• SIN CITY on Blu-ray
• SIN CITY Retrospective Film Review
• SIN CITY trailer
• THE FACULTY Retrospective Film Review
• FROM DUSK TILL DAWN Retrospective Film Review
• FULL TILT BOOGIE Retrospecitve Film Review (making of “From Dusk Till Dawn”)

Addtionally, in our achives, you can find reviews for:

• 300
• GRINDHOUSE
• THE SPIRIT