Ben here:

I followed the internet mudslinging, held my own expectations and once it opened, I saw ‘The Spirit’. This insane pop art surrealist comedy is in many ways, what the Hollywood treatment of comics has been coming to: A comics artist directing a classic comics film is (in theory, at least) the perfect appetizer for Zach Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’ (March 2009).

There are ALOT of bad comics-films, but to compare ‘The Spirit’ to the likes of ‘Elektra’ or ‘Howard the Duck’ is a waste of time. ‘The Spirit’ has ‘cult classic’ written all over it, and as such it has been critically panned and critiqued as “worse than ‘Battlefield Earth’ ” (-aintitcool.com).

BUT BOY-OH-BOY, did I like this movie. It’s OBVIOUSLY (very) flawed, but I got what I wanted. How could I not–I’m a Frank Miller diehard/apologist (which it seems is worse than being a George Lucas apologist). The movie DOESN’T really work unless you’ve read ‘The Spirit’ or are at least familiar with the trope and conventions of superheroics. To get  you up-to-speed on what made ‘The Spirit’ a classic in first place, you need to understand that it was NOT “the graphic novel” that that media is calling it, but rather a weekly seven or eight page newspaper supplement that ran in syndication between 1940 to 1951. BEYOND THAT, it should also be noted that the comics history in-jokes and nods are at an all-time-high: Miller pays tribute to the likes of George Tuska, Jerry Iger, Steve Ditko, Harvey Kurtzman and Jules Feiffer; plus Paul Levitz has a cameo…So if you don’t know or care about who these folks are, then you’re missing out on some of the fun. Also, being a Jew doesn’t hurt neither, since Miller has numerous homages to Eisner’s Jewish identity, most of which revolve around Eisner’s alter-ego: Commissioner Dolan (played by the Dad from ‘The Wonder  Years’). In a cameo, Miller even plays a cop named “Liebowitz” whose goofy delivery is (obviously) the perfect meter of WHAT KIND of a movie we’re watching: it’s a ham-fest (albeit, a ham-fest with a plot that’s fucked and actors who don’t all understand or have the chops to pull it off…)

“Embrace the absurdity and forget the plot” seems to be the right approach to enjoying this film, which has suffered worst from being mis-marketed as the next ‘Sin City’. Miller’s self-indulgent palette choices hurt this movie bad. Color it more like ‘Dick Tracy’ than ‘Sin City’ and critically, it’d probably be a whole nother ball game.

So ANYWAYS, I can fluff this movie for as long as I want to, and its not going to do a damn thing to change anybody’s mind. Taste is relevant, after all, but what pisses me off is the Miller hate-fest that everybody’s on. A vocal Peter David had this to say to the puling dogs who have bad-mouthed Frank: “You…feel the need to label Frank Miller with condescending nicknames? You know what? Ants don’t get to condescend to eagles.”

‘The Spirit’s’ Looney Toons-noire sense of humor is the same one Miller uses in the much despised/maligned ‘DK2′ and ‘All Star Batman’. SO CLEARLY that part isn’t for everyone, but love-to-hate or hate-to-love him, FRANK MILLER IS THE MAN and as one of comics’ few true auteurs he deserves [Jesus, at least a modicum of] our respect. That the comics community has decided NOT to get behind Miller–a comic book master bringing the passion of the comics to the big screen–AND TO THE WORLD– for the first time is a pretty sad sentiment.

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“Just when you thought it was safe to get off your sorry butt and haul it out of the house, we’ve got crazy people running around in costumes that look like they’re sprayed on! Are they heroes–or are they assholes?”

-Frank Miller: DK2

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.