THE SPIRIT

THE SPIRIT is an action adventure film based on a comic, and directed by Frank Miller in a similar style to SIN CITY or 300. It was classified '12A' for moderate violence.

In THE SPIRIT, we see comic book characters fighting each other with a range of weapons including pistols, knives and machine guns. There is also hand-to-hand fighting throughout the film, including sight of punches and kicks to the face. There is occasional sight of blood during the film, such as when The Spirit pulls a knife from his leg after being attacked or when we see a body lying on a morgue slab with entry wounds in the torso.

At '12A', the BBFC's Guidelines state that 'violence must not dwell on detail' and 'there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood'. During THE SPIRIT, the violence is relatively frequent but is shown with a style that clearly denotes the comic book origins of the story - the characters are larger than life, and much of the film is in black and white with dashes of colour, so that in the rare instances blood is shown it may be bright red with everything surrounding it in monochrome. While such a style draws attention to the blood, it does so in a manner befitting a graphic novel rather than in a realistic sense, and furthermore there is little actual detail shown during the violence. The comedic slant of the film also highlights the sense of the fantastical throughout.

The film includes brief nudity during a scene in which a female character is ordered to put her hands behind her head - she does so and her towel slips off. There is no focus on her naked body other than a blurred frontal shot in the background & brief rear nudity.

The film also contains mild language such as 'son of a bitch', 'piss me off' and 'bastards'.