How typical is 'Sin City' to its genre(s)?

Sin City is a hybrid of two main genres: Film Noir and Comic Book. Film Noir tends to have themes of fear, despair and bleakness and the story lines tend to reflect the 'chilly' cold war period when the threat of annihilation was ever-present in society. The genre tends to reflect the time and society in which it was created, the cold war in 1950-90's. Typical Film Noir conventions are; typical character roles such as the cynical protagonist, femme fatale and corrupt cops, themes of mistrust and paranoia, low key lighting, a non linear narrative and use of voice over. Typical Comic Book conventions are; classic Propp character roles, tragic back stories of characters, protagonist tends to have a side kick/arch nemesis and finally in comic book films there tends to be high usage of special effects and over exaggerated sounds. Sin City is very typical of its genre although some classic conventions of the Film Noir genre have been diluted and toned down slightly.

We can instantly see that the characters in Sin City fit the typical film noir character roles. We have the Protagonists (John Hartigan, Marv and Dwight), The Femme Fatales (Goldie, Shelley, Gail and Nancy) and finally the corrupt cops (Senator Roarke, Cardinal Roarke and Bob). Noir Protagonists are usually a hard-hearted male character who's encountered a seductive femme fatale. They are usually driven by their past and have some form of physical/mental scar that hinders them. Hartigan says "an old man dies, a little girl lives", showing his typical protagonist personality, a who is willing to put himself at risk, valuing others lives more than his own. "I'll die laughing if I know I've done one thing right" is said by Marv, showing he is determined to do anything to get to Roarke, determination typical trait of a protagonist. The traditional Femme Fatale uses her femininity to manipulate the male protagonists and in the end are usually killed due to their own actions. We see this when Cecile takes charge, but ends up getting killed, showing her naivety. Here we see that women need men to do their dirty work, Cecile wouldn't have known the police were corrupt without Marv. Marv doesn't trust women to take charge of the situation and feels the need to step in, once again showing the typical masculine trait of a male protagonist in Film Noir. Marv also fulfills the typical male protagonist role as his current actions are hindered by an event in his past. His looks are a 'flaw' and he has health issues. At one point he see's a car and imagines Goldie driving it. He is confused and wonders if it is reality as he has forgotten to take his pills. "I have a condition, I get confused" shows he doubts his ability and really questions if he is imagining the events happening in front of him. As he says this the lighting changes and his his face is covered by even more darkness. The shadow on half of the face makes us question if the characters are good or bad or maybe Frank Miller (director and writer) is trying to tells there is some good and bad in everybody. Low Key lighting is a typical Film Noir convention and reflects the dark themes in the plot and society at the time in which it was based. 

Within the first two minutes we see areas of mistrust and betrayal. The man and woman go onto a balcony looking over the City. The two share a kiss and he shoots her; she dies in his arms. Someone she thought she could trust/share something with suddenly betrays her and does a horrific thing. We see a cartoon silhouette of the two 'lovers' on the balcony before she is tragically shot, this pays homage to Sin City as a comic book written by Frank Miller and is also a traditional convention as it is how we would have seen the characters if it were in comic book form. The use of voice over for the mans dialogue replicates the comic book narrative and familiarizes the audience with the texts genre. We see comic book over exaggerated violence throughout the film. Marv breaks out of a room and smashes door with only one fist and on the docks Haritgan takes a bullet to the shoulder that doesn't hinder or kill him. Although this is a common comic book genre convention, once again we see traditional traits of the male protagonists that go to any lengths to be a hero. In the scene where Hartigan gets shot on the docks we discover that all the male protagonists wear leather trench coats. This aspect of mise en scene is something we would expect from a typical Film Noir film. Trench Coats were very typical post war and so its not unfamiliar that these characters are wearing them. As the characters run in the wind, the coats follow them almost like a cape. We see that there are two sides to each of them as one moment they are just ordinary men in coats and the next they transform into hero's with capes on some mission to achieve a goal. It becomes very clear at this point that Sin City is a hybrid of both genre's as the coat/cape can be very typical to each genre.