Sin City

Among a star-studded cast that includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Benicio Del Toro, Rosario Dawson, and Elijah Wood, it's still Mickey Rourke who ...

His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme—only not through me.” In “Live Not By Lies,” he explained that violence cannot last very long without lies, because it quickly exhausts itself. I have no idea if Miller or Rodriguez ever read Solzhenitsyn, but it’s clear they understand political power and violence are intertwined with falsehood. But his call is to individuals: do not participate in them yourself. While the former sentence gets the most attention, the latter deserves it, too. The late Powers Boothe (1948-2017) only has a small role in Sin City, playing the corrupt Senator Ethan Roark Sr. Marv’s murderous methods of revenge are unjust, and he pays the ultimate price for his actions. “Power don’t come from a badge or a gun. Directed by Miller and Quentin Tarantino collaborator Robert Rodriguez, it contains plenty of sex and violence—but it’s done with style and story, which makes it feel more artistic than gratuitous. Though he’s featured less prominently than his evil relatives, Senator Roark makes an even larger impression in some ways. This is what Roark means when he says, “Once you got everybody agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain’t true, you’ve got ’em by the balls.” True power is getting the rest of the world to participate in deceit. Power comes from lying.