Project by: Mason Leaver (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Frank Portella
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): James French

Description of the Project: For my honors project I did a deep dive of Frank Miller’s seminal work, Sin City. I was inspired to do this after taking Frank’s detective literature class where we read a host of stories from Sherlock Holms and C. Auguste Dupin to humorist Roald Dahl’s The Lamb to the Slaughter. Our last two works were more contemporary and included the novel Speak of the Devil and the movie The Usual Suspects. The class built in momentum and the ending left me curious and eager for more. I asked Frank if we could do an honor’s project and we landed here.

Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):

Frank Miller is an American writer who is best known as a comic book writer, penciller and inker. I would later find out that he is also a novelist, screenwriter, and film director. Frank and I started by reading Sin City Volume 1: The Hard Goodbye. The artwork is fantastically constructed using black and white contrasts, and dovetails with the gritty hard boiled detective writing and plot.

The story follows the main character (Marv) who is somewhat of a societal outcast. When he meets a woman who is kind to him and whom he spends a night with, he wakes up to find her dead in bed next to him. He embarks on a rampage to achieve his own twisted version of justice, not caring who he has to go through to find what he wants to know. 

There were many things that stood out to me. In particular, we looked at how the graphic novel cleverly subverts expectations. Marv does not fit many of the qualities of a traditional detective from a Detective story. However, he is no less compelling, and we agreed that his differences from a traditional detective elevate the novel rather than setting it back. This discussion prompted a larger idea we had, wherein we spoke extensively about how Sin City goes against many of the Van Dyne rules, rules that map out certain necessary steps to hit or things characters should conform to. We agreed that these breaks in traditional detective storytelling make Sin City so endearing. Were it to conform to the Van Dyne rules as many works we explored in Detective Fiction did, much of its charm and appeal would be lost. 

Look at this image and consider that Marv does not look in the slightest bit like a traditional, morally grounded gumshoe detective. First impressions of the character based off of the image would be that of a back alley brawler, not a straight-shooting Private Eye. An idea of the character based off the photo alone brings to mind a violent, unscrupulous brute who has no nuance to his character whatsoever and is incapable of complex or layered thought. Funnily enough, many ideas one would get at first glance are in fact accurate descriptions of Marv. He is in fact a back alley brawler type, one who uses violence first and prefers not to speechify or use too many words. He is, in fact, a layered and surprisingly nuanced character with complex motivations and perspectives, his own sense of right and wrong, and an entirely realistic and unflinching understanding of how dark and violent a place this world is. He embraces this, playing off of the obvious assumptions his hulking, bandaged face brings. He is truly a fascinating character. 

After studying the graphic novel we moved on to the 2005 film produced and directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. It is based on Miller’s Sin City graphic novels – The Hard Goodbye was one of the several vignettes. I was impressed with how faithful the movie was to the source material. Surprisingly, it was able to perfectly recreate almost every aspect of the graphic novel. The artistic style, the dark and contemplative tone, the characters (Marv in particular), and the dialogue all resonate extremely well and pack the same punch as they did when I first read the graphic novel. It was obvious that those behind the camera truly held the graphic novel in high esteem. No aspect of the movie felt cheap or insincere in the slightest. This was truly the most impressive part of the movie, a perspective that Frank and I share. 

For example, look at this screenshot from the graphic novel side-by-side with a still from the movie. It was fascinating to see how perfectly the moviemakers brought both the characters and art style of the graphic novel to the movie format. All aspects of the movie feel exactly as though it is a movie adaptation of a stylized graphic novel, something many movies often neglect to do justice to. 

We moved on to examining the screenplay, which took some doing to find but after some digging we found a version online. Interestingly, we were both quite underwhelmed by the screenplay. Much of the dialogue and high notes of the story did not pack any punch whatsoever. We came to the conclusion that this was because Sin City as a story is so impactful because of the sum of its parts. One part individually such as the dialogue is good per se, but it is not anything special unless combined with the other aspects of Sin City. It’s like a recipe without all the ingredients. Butter or sugar on their own are all well and good, but at the end of the day they pale in comparison to cake. 

We hadn’t really gotten a chance to study this hard boiled, noir detective fiction and this gave me a chance to broaden my understanding of detective literature. I was intrigued by authentic, time-tested noir detective stories and found myself watching a Mickey Spillane 1955 film Kiss Me Deadly, which is about a private detective who becomes entrenched in a complicated mystery shortly after the female hitchhiker he picked up winds up dead. I was able to see how Frank Miller used many of the pre-existing conventions of the genre after watching this film. For example, both stories open instantly with the event that kickstarts the rollercoaster of events to follow. There is no hesitation, you are plunged straight into the mystery and darkness, a genre convention that I find particularly appealing. I was able to see how Frank Miller was inspired by other aspects of Kiss Me Deadly as well, but the beginning was the characteristic that stuck out to me the most. 

Final Reflection on Learning:

Ultimately, this Honors Project was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent on it. I broadened my knowledge and understanding of Detective Fiction as a genre, and radically increased my understanding of the importance and many layers of nuance behind certain distinctive writerly choices and tools as well as how they can be used effectively. The extent to which I widened my understanding of writing and storytelling as an art form cannot fully be done justice, no matter how much time I spent endeavoring to convey it. It is also worth noting that I would not have been able to zero in and focus on the relevant aspects of everything we explored without all of Frank’s help and patience. His guidance and input was beyond helpful and beyond inspirational. I cannot thank him enough for all of his help. 

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

The goal for our first meeting was to essentially establish and lay out how we would approach this project. Our initial idea was to first read the original graphic novel of Sin City by Frank Miller so as to get a sense for the material we’d be exploring. The idea was that we would set a goal for each meeting. For example, after having read the book in preparation for our second meeting, the consensus was that we’d read the screenplay in preparation for the third meeting, and watch the actual movie in preparation for the fourth. This turned out to be an effective way of organizing our time, and I ordered the book off a used book website. I blazed through it in about 3 hours, enjoying it thoroughly and appreciating its nuances in a way I was not expecting to. The subtleties of the main character were wholly unexpected, and the art style completely blew me away. The graphic novel was amazing and opened my eyes to a new way to experience Detective Fiction as a genre that was just as if not more compelling than that which I’d already explored. Reading the script for the movie was interesting as well. For both of us, we felt that the script did not pack the same punch as the graphic novel, an unsurprising conclusion given the limits of the screenplay format. The dialogue maintained its quality, but much of the aforementioned nuance was missing from the script. We theorized that the reason for this could potentially be as a result of studio interference or something of that nature, but we were not quite sure. Then, after watching the movie for our fourth meeting, we were in awe of how faithfully the movie upheld everything that made the graphic novel so amazing. The movie did justice to the tone, gritty atmosphere, visuals, and most importantly the characters, none more so than the main character of Marv. One of the main concerns we had for the character of Marv going into the viewing of the movie was that it would not do his violent, morally gray sense of justice and brutal nature justice. However, it surprised both of us by perfectly bringing the character of Marv to the screen. His mannerisms, personality, iconic lines and delivery, it was all done perfectly which made us both very happy as fans of the graphic novel. Our plan for the next chunk of time is to discuss in-depth all that we’ve explored so far and dive deeper into the tropes and trends that are present, as well as how Sin City subverts these expectations in interesting and unexpected ways. 

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

After having explored the graphic novel of Sin City, the movie, and the screenplay, we had a lot to think about which is how we spent our next few meetings. We talked extensively about the tropes and trends we witnessed in Sin City, as well as how they carried over to the movie and whether they were well-maintained in the new format of a big-screen picture. We spoke about how the script felt insincere since the other components that make Sin City so endearing were missing. Our discussion took us to many aspects of the genre of Detective Fiction, including the Van Dyne Rules, certain rules that many Detective Fiction stories follow so as to both maintain a sense of unique story elements and to avoid predictability. Interestingly, Sin City breaks from the Van Dyne Rules several times, but our consensus was that the breaks in the Van Dyne rules improve the quality of Sin City, and were it to conform to the Van Dyne rules as many other Detective Fiction works I have explored do, almost all of what makes Sin City such an incredible work of Detective Fiction would be lost. Our discussions took us to extremely interesting regions of thought. We asked ourselves questions about the nature of mystery, the ideas behind motivation of a Detective, and much much more. More than I could ever list on one blog post. This period of time encapsulated only 2 meetings, but it resulted in an exchange of ideas that was extremely inspirational. 

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

For our last few meetings, we decided to take a slightly different approach and explore more of Detective Fiction as a genre by exploring Noir and Neo-Noir Detective Stories. We traded suggestions for movies that fit the aforementioned criteria. I was instructed to watch Kiss Me Deadly, a Mickey Spillane Detective movie, while I told Frank he should watch Se7en, a Neo-Noir Detective story directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. This activity was just as thought-provoking as all the others we had conducted. I had not seen any authentic Noir Detective movies, and Kiss Me Deadly, which came out in 1955, perfectly introduced me to that sub-genre of Detective stories. Frank was equally impressed with Se7en. He particularly enjoyed the relationship between Morgan Freeman’s aging detective on the brink of retirement and Gwyneth Paltrow’s sympathetic and emotionally vulnerable mother-to-be. He pointed out to me that the role of rain throughout the duration of the gritty and dark story proved to play a role of its own, highlighted during the tension-filled climax of the movie wherein the rain is noticeably absent and the sun is shining bright. Our exchange of ideas about the movies we recommended to one another allowed us to achieve a greater level of clarity and understanding about the Detective Story as an art form. It concluded our Honors Project with a bang, leaving me much more enlightened about the topic than I was before.