Frank Miller’s Sin City DVD is finally here.  I can’t say any more about the movie itself than I already have.  It’s really three stories involving typical film noir subject matter including revenge and redemption.  This is one of those special films that includes an all star cast of some well established Hollywood talent like Bruce Willis and Benicio Del Toro, Michel Clarke Duncan and Mickey Rourke.  But it also some of the newest talent to come out Hollywood in Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Nick Stahl, Elija Wood, the list goes on.  It’s one of those popular projects any actor wants to be part of because it’s something different, an interesting opportunity to stretch their own creativity as actors. 

Those not familiar with the Frank Miller comics from which the film is named may find themselves lost in an unlikely world full of clichés.  While not exactly a superhero film it’s one of those films where you have to suspend your belief in conventional reality.  The greatest attribute of the movie is the looks; the visual style is as stunning as it is revolutionary.  A close second goes to the dialogue of Frank Miller that issues from the actors mouths like a cold chill from the gallows.  Those familiar with the comics by Frank Miller or any modern adult oriented graphic novel made in Miller’s style will literally find a comic come to life.  The entire film is a groundbreaking double digital effort.  The opening scene with Josh Hartnett was shot well before production of the film itself as a test screening intended to seduce Frank Miller himself to not only releasing the Sin City property, but to get him on board with Robert Rodriquez as co-director.  The shooting was done with digital hi-definition cameras while this is nothing new to film, many independent movies are done this way including some mainstream movies.  Add to this the dedicated use of CGI backgrounds, the entire movie was shot in front of “blue screen” (or green screen whichever the case may be) a technique whereby the director shoots the actors in front of a solid color only to allow animators to fill in the background later.  Using both techniques in the same film is rare only a French film called Imortel and Sky Captain have ever done this before.  This film is the perfect implementation of the 100% digital technique. 

The DVD presentation rises to the occasion of this beautiful film.  Animation as the DVD loads takes you into the pages of Frank Miller’s graphic novels.  As you’re whisked through the black and white streets of Sin City, slick animations on the pages come alive with movement and sound.  The effect is as stunning as the film itself and begs to be viewed again and again.

The video quality is excellent.  I speculated as to whether or not the digital production would have any bearing on a hi-definition DVD releases of this film.  We’ll have to wait awhile to find out.  But the presentation of this on a conventional DVD player scanned to 480P is amazing.  I noticed none of the compression artifacts common with video, none at all.  The background images looked solid.  This is usually where a DVD falls apart, the background details aren’t given the opportunity to stand out as they’re not in focus nor does the resolution allow for you to view it as it might be presented in a high quality HD presentation.  But I didn’t notice any softness or edge enhancements in the background.  Since the film is shot in black and white with emphasis on the shadowy blacks and grays, after all this is Sin City, the few color portions really jumped out.  At the theater I hadn’t even noticed Marley Shelton’s eyes briefly change color when Hartnett spoke of her eyes in that scene.  I can honestly say that if the theaters want my continued business they better start replacing the bulbs in their projector booths and balancing the sound better, because I get a better experience at home 99% of the time. 

What about the audio.  I was pleasantly surprised this release included a DTS audio track, but both Dolby Digital and DTS tracks were only in 5.1, which will be a disappointment to those with 7.1 systems.  Perhaps this is planned for a future release of the DVD.  The soundtrack was excellent; better than the theater!  The balance between channels was stunning, alternating between passive and then aggressive use of surround channels was a great effect on the DTS track.  Often I’d note to myself that I wasn’t noticing much action from the surrounds, just then something would happen that would blend rear and front channels perfectly to give me a diffused acoustic effect that put sounds randomly around the room.  This is only accomplished when serious consideration is put into the soundtrack.

DVD Extras

The biggest disappointment of this DVD is an annoying practice that I’m afraid is here to stay with popular film DVD releases.  They’ll release a plain Jane version of the DVD with very little, only to re-release (or double dip) a second time with a veritable cornucopia of extras.  The casual fan of the film will probably buy the first release only, but they’re really suckering in the true fan of the film with the extra stuff.  It’s annoying but what can you do, as long as the future release has some quality extras on board.  All we get here besides a very good DTS 5.1 track (is that really an extra?) is one behind the scenes feature.  It’s a good one nonetheless, even if there is a little too much of Quentin Tarantino’s smiling mug.  He did a guest directorial appearance on the film and as a big name I guess he deserves kudos.  However hearing Tarantino give us his opinion of Miller’s work is as irrelevant as hearing what John Madden thinks of the NHL playoffs.  They did give Frank Miller lots with the floor on that feature, which is great considering he’s not known for his affection for the camera.

Let’s hope the future double dip effort has some good info on Miller, the graphic novels and Sin City itself.  I’d like to see them get into Miller’s career, perhaps an entire documentary on Miller’s work and how important it is to the graphic arts in general.  How influential comic art has been to graphic artists in many other aspects such as advertising.  Yes, I’d like to see more about how they shot the movie too, but I’m not looking forward to seeing Quentin Tarantino talk about the movie, maybe a bit about his involvement in that one scene he did would be acceptable. 

• Run Time: 126
• DVD Features:
• Available subtitles: Spanish
• Available Audio Tracks: English (DTS 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French
• Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
• One of four random slipsleeve covers