Love Can Turn Bad Into Good

Reviews the film, Sin City (2005) directed by Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. The film, based on Miller's graphic novels, presents three interconnected stories. The reviewer notes how well the film portrays the influence of situations, emotions and dispositional factors on behavior. Social psychologists study the power of how situations, including people, influence behavior; the film nicely portrays this influence. Miller's work is said to portray the links between evil, and other personality traits that are used to help the character's achieve power. The theme of illness, both mental and physical, and the role of adherence in taking medication is discussed, as is a final theme based around the idea of a psychologically flawed protagonist sacrificing his life to save others. Sin City reminds us that even though the movie was mostly filmed in black and white, that life is far from black and white. It reminds us that people who may seem good are actually bad and that even very flawed and supposedly bad people are capable of great heroics in the service of others when love demands it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)