Roark family
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The Roark Family are a fictional dynasty of corrupt officials and landowners, and the primary antagonists, in Frank Miller's Sin City.
Their influence over Basin City stretches as far back as the days of the Gold Rush, when they brought a large number of women from all over the world there to keep the miners happy, turning a struggling mining camp into a thriving, bustling city. These women ended up forming the district that would become Old Town, the prostitute quarter. In addition, the people charged with governing the city, most of them from the Roark line, remained in power for generations, running it as they saw fit.
The generation of the Roark family seen in the Sin City series brought forth a United States Senator, an Attorney General and a Cardinal. The Senator even claims at one point that his only son could've been the first Roark to become President of the United States, were it not for the actions of John Hartigan.
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[edit] Cardinal Roark
Cardinal Patrick Henry Roark, a Roman Catholic cardinal who is the (likely older) brother to Senator Roark.
According to Marv, he was once a doctor/priest in the medical corps during either World War II or the Korean War, earning him praise back home as a war hero. He supposedly could have become President (making him the first Roark to do so), but chose instead to join the clergy, coming to be known by the nickname 'Saint Patrick', after the saint of the same name.
While he never held a political office, by being a cardinal and a Roark, he holds huge sway over the local government, including the many mayors of Basin City and the governors of the state. It's even implied that he is the reason his brother was made Senator, although his brother refers to the Cardinal at least once as being "high-and-mighty" and a "gibbering nutcase."
At some point, between his time as a priest and his rise to cardinal, he met Kevin, a serial killer and cannibal who admitted his crimes during confession. Though Roark at first thought him insane and tried to counsel him, he soon became jealous of Kevin's rich, angelic voice and his "closeness to the touch of God." At some point prior to the events of That Yellow Bastard (set almost four years before The Hard Goodbye), he sheltered Kevin at the family's farm at North Cross and Lennox, as he is seen briefly during the climax of that story.
Envying Kevin's "gift", Roark ultimately joined Kevin in his meals of murdered women in order to experience it for himself. Goldie, who had come to suspect that something was wrong as more and more girls went missing from Old Town, followed their limousine and caught them in the act while Kevin was 'engrossed' in murdering a woman. Thereafter, she stayed in public places and then, upon finding Marv, spent the night with him. Kevin killed her in her sleep, his unnatural stealth and silence preventing his detection, and Roark sent in the police to kill or capture Marv, frame him, and cover up Kevin's crimes. Roark rationalizes that the killings were justified because the victims were merely hookers and nobodies.
In the graphic novel, Marv is surprised at how short the cardinal is. Indeed, he appears to be less than 5 feet tall. Marv proceeds to torture Cardinal Roark to death in an unseen but gruesome manner. He says that it is every bit as satisfying as he promised Goldie it would be, and he laughs harder the more the cardinal suffers. After he is done, armed guards storm the room and riddle Marv with machine gun fire.
In the film adaptation of the comic book, he was portrayed by Rutger Hauer. Hauer was one of the last people cast, filming his role several months after Mickey Rourke had completed shooting; the only time that they appear in the same shot together was a single composite shot of their two different performances, with a downward camera pan added on it in post-production to give the shot a more 'hand-held' look.
[edit] Kevin
Kevin, an intentionally mute sociopath who resides at "The Farm", kills women, mounts their heads on a wall like hunting trophies, and eats their remains. The leftovers go to his pet wolf. He is sheltered by Cardinal Roark, whom he came to supposedly tormented by guilt over his cannibalism. He appears as a beefy, shadowy figure with occasionally glowing glasses, razor-sharp fingernails that he uses as weapons, Converse shoes, and a Charlie Brown-esque sweater. Kevin is supernaturally silent and quick, and manages to sneak up on, blind and beat Marv without breaking a sweat (quite a feat, as Marv is over 7', 300 pounds, and is nearly impervious to physical pain).
After escaping the Farm after their first confrontation, Marv returns armed with his Colt 1911 'Gladys', gasoline, handcuffs, razor wire, several lengths of rubber tubing, and his "mitts", and, knowing most of Kevin's tricks at this point, sets up a series of traps around the Farm. He then flushes Kevin out by bombarding the Farm with a Molotov cocktail bomb. Kevin manages to avoid Marv's razor wire rig, and the two of them fight it out hand-to-hand. Marv again takes quite a beating, but keeps on fighting and eventually manages to outsmart Kevin by handcuffing him to Marv's wrist, trapping Kevin's fighting hand and allowing Marv to knock him out with one strong punch to the jaw. Wendy shows up with a gun, intending to kill Kevin herself; but Marv knocks her out, because he intends to torture Kevin first, and doesn't want Wendy to have nightmares from witnessing it.
Kevin regains consciousness to find himself limbless and propped against a tree. Marv has amputated his arms and legs with the hacksaw and used the rubber tubing as tourniquets to keep him alive. He beckons Kevin's pet wolf, who begins to eat Kevin (which is shown in silhouette). Even as his entrails are being devoured by his own pet, Kevin simply smiles calmly and doesn't utter a sound. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Marv finishes the job by sawing Kevin's head off, but the lunatic's stony silence and unwavering gaze robs him of any satisfaction the kill would have given him.
Kevin also makes a cameo, during the climax of That Yellow Bastard (set almost four years before The Hard Goodbye), reading a Bible in a rocking chair while John Hartigan infiltrates the Roark Farm.
Kevin was portrayed by Elijah Wood in the movie. Similarly to Hauer, Wood never met Rourke during the filming. The two were shot completely separately, with each one fighting the other's respective stunt double.
Frank Miller has stated in the Recut DVD that Kevin and Miho are the supernatural beings in Sin City. Miller characterizes them as "demons"; Miho is the good "demon" and Kevin is the bad.
[edit] Junior/That Yellow Bastard
Roark Junior, aka That Yellow Bastard, is the son of Senator Roark. He is handsome, young, and rich; he is also a sadistic pedophile who rapes and murders pre-pubescent girls, a pastime that is covered up by his father and the Basin City police.
At the beginning of That Yellow Bastard, Roark Junior has already "raped and slashed to ribbons" three young girls, with Nancy Callahan (then only 11 years old) set to become his fourth, something Detective John Hartigan was determined would not happen on his watch.
Hartigan disables Junior's getaway car, and then storms the warehouse that Junior has Nancy hidden in. He then kills Junior's hired muscle and pursues him, with Nancy slung under his arm, to the boardwalk. He then, with surgical precision, shoots off Junior's left ear, right hand, and genitals. Before he can finish Junior off, however, Hartigan's corrupt partner Bob, who fears angering Senator Roark, shoots Hartigan in the back several times. Roark Jr. lapses into a coma from his injuries, and Senator Roark takes issue with the punishment of his son. Hartigan finds himself framed for raping Nancy, is branded a pedophile and sentenced to a lengthy prison term amidst a public outcry that brands him one of Sin City's most hated citizens (which is quite an achievement).
In prison, Haritgan never confesses to the false accusations, and is kept going by weekly letters from Nancy Calahan (writing as "Cordelia" to hide from Senator Roark.) After spending eight straight years of solitary confinement, Hartigan becomes increasingly worried that Senator Roark has finally found Nancy after he stops receiving letters from her. His fears are confirmed when a visitor with sickly yellow skin who smells distinctly like rotting meat and garbage arrives at his prison cell and punches him out. Hartigan awakens and discovers the same type of envelope Nancy always uses. Instead of a letter from her inside, however, it contains an index finger from the right hand of a 19-year-old girl.
Believing Nancy to be in imminent danger, Hartigan resolves to get out of prison at any cost. He confesses to the crimes Junior committed, and is finally released on parole, as Senator Roark is finally satisfied over his confession and submission.
Back on the streets, the elderly ex-con/ex-cop sets off to find Nancy. He follows the only lead, ('a pack of matches from a lousy saloon',) to Kadie's Club Pecos, where either Nancy, now 19, or at least someone who knows her could be. Hartigan finds that she is no longer the little girl he rescued, but a beautiful woman who works in the club as an exotic dancer; he also finds that she is unharmed. Then he realises the envelope containing the finger was merely a ploy to get him to crack and lead Roark to Nancy. Hartigan smells a set-up, and something far worse: the distinct odor of rotting garbage. "That Yellow Bastard", the man who arrived at the cell with the envelope, has been following him, and now knows Nancy's location.
During the final chapter of the story, the Yellow Bastard reveals himself to be Roark Junior. Senator Roark used his vast financial resources to revive his son using means outside the boundaries of conventional science, hiring doctors, witch doctors, and gene therapists to bring Junior out of his coma and reconstitute his severed body parts. As a result of these treatments, Junior lives, but as an unnatural abomination. His body cannot process waste properly, resulting in his skin turning bright yellow and making him smell like rotting meat. He ties Hartigan in a noose and leaves him to hang, carrying Nancy off to rape and murder her. As they leave, Hartigan begs Nancy not to scream no matter what Junior does to her, and Nancy soon finds out why: Junior can't get an erection unless his victims are screaming in pain. She mocks his impotence and refuses to scream even as he lashes her with a bullwhip, sending him into a frustrated rage and buying Hartigan enough time to escape.
Junior meets his well-deserved end at the Roark Farm during his final confrontation with Hartigan, who, faking a heart attack, waits for Junior to get close enough, then stabs him in the chest with a switchblade. He then disarms him, castrates him again (this time with his bare hands), and then proceeds to pound Junior's head to a pulp.
Junior was portrayed by Nick Stahl in the movie. Leonardo DiCaprio was also offered the role, but turned it down. According to the DVD commentary, Robert Rodriguez had also originally planned to have the 'Yellow Bastard' version of Junior played by Steve Buscemi under heavy make-up, but when he wasn't available, Stahl offered to play both roles. His make-up for the role was the most extensive of any of the actors, requiring a full facial prosthetic, flocked stubble and pattern bald hair, a body prosthetic to give him a distended belly and a full body paint and highlight to accentuate the shadows of musculature. Because yellow would have reacted with the green-screen, blue body paint was used, thus earning Stahl the nickname 'The Blue Bastard' on set.
[edit] Senator Roark
Senator Roark is a very corrupt politician with huge political and financial power; he has sufficient influence to eliminate whomever he chooses without fear of arrest or retribution, because so many people are deeply in his pocket, including the police. The Senator's (likely older) brother is Cardinal Roark. A third brother, the current Attorney General, is mentioned but never seen. He fancies himself the patriarch of a political dynasty whose greatest hope for the future is that his son, Junior, would someday be President. That his son is a serial killer of children does not seem to bother the Senator in the least, and he spends a great deal of money in bribes to make sure that Junior gets away with his crimes.
The Senator is a rather unpleasant looking man, in comparison with Junior's youthful good looks (and the monstrosity he becomes). He appears quite short and fat with Nixon-like jowls, smokes big black cigars and appears to have one eye that doesn't match the other in iris coloration and dilation.
After John Hartigan first sacrificed himself to save 'skinny little Nancy Callahan', Senator Roark visited him in the hospital where he was recovering from the wounds he received on the docks (most of them due to the betrayal by his partner, Bob). He taunts Hartigan's defiance, confident he is in no position to feel safe, and swears revenge for turning his son into a "brain damaged dickless freak." He says that power doesn't lie in a police badge or a gun, but in the ability to lie and get people 'agreeing with what they know in their hearts ain't true' and admits to Hartigan that he has beaten his wife (presumably Junior's mother) to death with a baseball bat with little regard for covering it up himself, knowing that his influence over the police would see to it that he was never even suspected or questioned; this may provide the reason for Junior's basic contempt for his father ("I would love him if I didn't hate him.") He aims a gun at Hartigan and tells him he could quite easily kill him right then and there, and not even be arrested, because those in authority would cover it up; otherwise "everything that runs Sin City -- it all comes tumbling down like a pack of cards."
He explains that, on the contrary, he has no intention of killing him, and has in fact paid for surgery to cure his angina. Roark wants Hartigan alive, so that he can be disgraced and destroyed. He reveals that he has arranged for Hartigan to be framed for raping Nancy and shooting Junior, and will spend the rest of his life in prison. He then leaves, warning that if he tells anybody the truth, they will be killed.
After eight years of solitary confinement, Hartigan finally caves in, fearing for Nancy's safety. Casting pride and caution to the wind, he calls up his former lawyer Lucille (Marv's lesbian parole officer from The Hard Goodbye) to help arrange his parole. Much to his own lawyer's surprise and disgust, Hartigan claims responsibility for the crimes he was accused of. At his parole hearing, however, he is humiliated again when Senator Roark arrives and makes a pious speech promising to forgive and forget Hartigan's "crimes." Hartigan knows it's a ruse to insult him, but to show sincerity that he's a reformed man, he asks Senator Roark for forgiveness. Hartigan is finally released on parole, apparently due to Senator Roark's satisfaction over his confession and submission.
Soon afterwards, Hartigan re-castrates and kills Junior and then takes his own life, so that Roark wouldn't be able to go after him through Nancy, effectively defeating Roark.
Senator Roark was portrayed by Powers Boothe in the movie. The role was also offered to Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe, who both turned it down.
[edit] The Farm
The Roark family's farm (a.k.a. simply "The Farm") is located on the corner of North Cross and Lennox, in an area of open farmland bordered by heavy woods; it shows up in several stories, including The Hard Goodbye, That Yellow Bastard, The Babe Wore Red and Hell And Back. As well as many previous generations of the family, it was also home to Kevin since at least four years before the events of The Hard Goodbye; he is seen living there during the climax of That Yellow Bastard. It is suggested by Hartigan that the deviant behaviour of Junior and Kevin has been going on at the Farm for generations, as every cop in Basin City knows better than to stray too close to it.
The Farm consists of the following buildings and areas:-
- Farmhouse - the main building, containing the living quarters. The basement contains a tiled room where Kevin kept the heads of his female victims mounted on the wall. This part of the farm was partially destroyed when Marv threw a petrol bomb through the window to smoke out Kevin.
- Barn - An old wooden barn with a hayloft and sliding doors. This is where Hartigan and Junior have their final confrontation in That Yellow Bastard, and where Wallace finds a nude and partially brainwashed Esther at the conclusion of Hell and Back.
- A grain silo.
- A workshed.
- A deserted farmyard. There is no obvious evidence of any traditional agriculture occurring here in what has to have been years, despite the presence of a tractor. There is also a wood pile and chopping block with a hatchet embedded there, which Marv later takes as a weapon (see below).
- The Woods - Heavy woodland that borders the Farm and the roads leading up to it. The trees here are gnarled and twisted and the atmosphere is unsettling. Both Marv (in The Hard Goodbye) and Hartigan (in That Yellow Bastard) sneak up to the Farm through the Woods, having driven up to a short distance from the road entrance, and Dwight defeats Fat Man and Little Boy here during The Babe Wore Red. When Marv first passed through the Woods he found them very disturbing, and his instincts told him at once that bad things had gone on at the Farm; by his second and final time at the Farm, however, he was no longer afraid and preceded to use the Woods to his physical and tactical advantage during his duel with Kevin. When Hartigan passes through, during heavy snow, he suffers what he thinks is another bout of angina, even though he was supposed to be cured of it.
[edit] Battles
The following battles have also occurred at the Farm.
- Hartigan vs. Armed Cops/Guards - That Yellow Bastard (Hartigan is armed with a switchblade, a Robocop-style Beretta, a silenced Colt and a revolver. He steathily kills two of them with the switchblade and the other two with the Beretta and the Colt.)
- Hartigan vs. Yellow Bastard/Roark Junior - That Yellow Bastard (Hartigan, whilst suffering a heart-attack, staggers into the barn where he is confronted and mocked by Junior. He then collapses and as Junior moves in on him, pulls out a switchblade and stabs him. He then castrates him with his bare hands before pounding his head into the floorboards, finally killing him.
- Wallace and Jerry vs. Enemy Helicopter - Hell and Back (Wallace is prepared for this by wearing a kevlar vest which shields him and Esther, whom he arrived to rescue. The helicopter is shot out of the sky by Jerry, armed with a TOW missile.)
- Marv vs. Kevin - The Hard Goodbye (Despite Marv's brute strength and durability, Kevin gets the drop on him and disarms/blinds him with his sharp fingernails before knocking him out with a sledgehammer.)
- Marv vs. Armed Cops - The Hard Goodbye (Marv manages to wipe out a whole squad of heavily armed cops whilst armed only with a hatchet.)
- Marv vs. Kevin II - The Hard Goodbye (Marv manages to trap Kevin, handcuff himself to him and knock him out with one punch.)
- Dwight vs. Fat Man and Little Boy - The Babe Wore Red (Dwight and the 'babe' are chased to the farm, where, upon being cornered, Dwight subdues them by hand and feet, before shooting them in the legs.)
| Sin City | |
|---|---|
| Yarns | The Hard Goodbye | A Dame to Kill For | The Babe Wore Red and Other Stories | Silent Night | The Big Fat Kill | That Yellow Bastard | Daddy's Little Girl | Lost, Lonely, & Lethal | Sex & Violence | Just Another Saturday Night | Family Values | Hell and Back (a Sin City Love Story) | Booze, Broads, & Bullets |
| Films | Sin City | Sin City 2 (in production) | Sin City 3: Hell and Back (in production) |
| Characters | Marv | Jack Rafferty | Nancy Callahan | John Hartigan | Dwight McCarthy | Wallace | Miho | Kevin | Cardinal Roark | Ava Lord | Junior/That Yellow Bastard | Senator Roark | List of characters from Sin City |
| People | Frank Miller | Robert Rodriguez |
