Getting an ‘R’ Rating: “Actually we had no problems with the MPAA or anything like that. I think it had to do with the stylization of it and also in the comic, if you read the comic book the stylized world and abstract nature of some of his ways of depicting violence or action or the characters translated directly to the screen. And we had no problems because it became so stylized and such its own world. You really go into Sin City when you’re watching the movie and get transported to that world. That’s why I felt it was important to visually make it as much like the book as possible, because that was the effect of the book. I found it very easy to read.”
Preparing to be Criticized for Over-the-Top Violence: “I guess that’s what it is, is that it is so over the top and stylized like in the book. That’s what helped temper it is that it was so black and white, so abstract, so representative, that it’s much more… It’s easier to watch [than] I think if it was realistically rendered. It’s the color that really changes it.
I never got any flak for ‘Desperado.’ At a time when people were criticizing guys like Quentin for violence in films, for cutting an ear off off-camera, I was mowing down people in my films and no one ever said anything about the violence because of the tone. I think that’s the same thing for this is that as violent as it is, like in the comic, it felt tempered by the stylization. That’s why we didn’t have any trouble with the MPAA or anything. It was because it was so stylized that they just went, ‘This is R material. You don’t have to cut a frame of this.’”
Leaving Stuff Out: “That’s what the beauty of the books were. Frank [Miller] never drew them with the intention that someday they’d be on a movie screen. That’s what was so pure about them. That’s why it didn’t sound like screenplay dialogue, the shots were different. And there’s some things where you’d go, ‘Well, in a single panel this is fine. But with as much dialogue as we have, he’s going to be here quite a while with his dork hanging out. Do you think we should really do it that way?’ [Frank] goes, ‘Well, it would be distracting. Maybe we’ll just continue the shot…’ That’s all everyone is going to be looking at. Some things you adapted. Mostly I really wanted to keep it true to what was there in the book because it was that pure.”
From Comic Book to Film: “I was a fan of this one in particular. And people think it’s such a great idea to make into a movie. It took me years to figure it out. I’ve been buying it since ’92. I’ve always wanted to do a film noir. I never put two and two together that this one should be the thing until just a couple of years ago after doing the ‘Spy Kids’ movies, and learning so much about lighting and technology that I realized I could make this movie now. The time was right to make it and look like the book. And the more I looked at the book to adapt it, I realized it didn’t need adapting. It’s visual storytelling and it works so well on the page. I felt it should work exactly the same way on the screen.
Traditionally what would happen is if you liked the ‘Sin City’ book, you’d take it to a studio, they’d buy it. They’d give it to a writer who’d then change half of it because he’s got to earn his pay on it. He wouldn’t do what I did, which was just put the book up and transcribe it directly word-for-word and then edit it down to pace. It would just keep getting further away from what you liked to begin with. So I said, ‘Let’s not change anything. Let’s not even develop it. Let’s just start shooting right out of the book. There won’t even be a screenplay. We’ll just shoot right out of the book.’ And Frank was like, ‘What?! What planet is this?’ He was so thrilled.
When it started working, he saw how the translation was working, and yeah, I think it’s the same – the visual storytelling mediums. That’s what makes the movie so unique is it doesn’t feel like a movie. And I didn’t want to make a movie out of ‘Sin City.’ I wanted to make movies into the comic. I wanted to turn cinema into the comic. Not take it and suddenly turn it into a regular movie. It just wouldn’t have been right.”
PAGE 2: Robert Rodriguez on Jessica Alba as Nancy and Collaborating with Frank Miller
