| Manute | ||
 | ||
| Occupation: | Chauffeur, Enforcer | |
| Gender: | Male | |
| Comic Appearances: | A Dame To Kill For Blue Eyes Hell And Back The Big Fat Kill | |
| Film Appearances: | Sin City Sin City: A Dame to Kill For | |
| Affiliation(s): | Ava Lord Damien Lord The Colonel | |
| Portrayed by: | Michael Clarke Duncan - Sin City (2005) Dennis Haysbert - Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) | |
| “ | You still have the eyes...the eyes of a dead man. | ” |
— Manute to Dwight
| ||
Manute was a massive African-American man who worked under Damien Lord, The Colonel and later Wallenquist. His stature was matched only by his immense strength, booming presence, ruthlessness, and his very polite demeanor. He was always collected and strangely gentlemanly in every situation, even while committing homicide. He was 100% devoted to his employer, he served his masters without question, almost to the point of doing so ritualistically.
A Dame to Kill For[]
Manute was the chauffeur and valet of Ava Lord; he first met his antagonist Dwight, in Club Pecos to tell Ava that her time was up and she should return home; to this Dwight tried to play gallant. Marv offered to resolve the situation (violently) but Ava followed him outside.
When Dwight broke into Lord's mansion he was captured, and then tortured by Manute, then thrown from a car.
Secretly As he arrives home, he finds in his bedroom is a nude Ava. They eventually reconcile and make love. Manute arrives and violently beats a naked Dwight and knocks him out of his upper story apartment window, where he blacks out momentarily. He awakens to find Manute driving off with Ava.
Later, when Dwight and Marv stormed into Lord Mansion, Marv specifically went after Manute and beat his face into the pavement. Eventually taking his eye, rather gruesomely after he had been beaten unconscious, by literally plunging his fingers into his face and ripping it out from its socket. An instance he would later be visibly angered and distraught by during his stay in the hospital, after it was replaced by his iconic golden optic, (through unknown means).
Blue Eyes[]
Manute appears to be the chauffeur of the Colonel, wearing a cervical collar, obviously to recover from Marv's hit. He drove the Colonel to Kadie's.
A Dame to Kill For Part 2[]
Dwight, recovering from Ava's shots and Molly's surgery, breaks into Manute's home as he was sleeping, and with his gun at point blank, and interrogated him if they were lovers, and how many men she had destroyed. Manute replied that she was a goddess, who takes no lovers but only slaves to let live and die as she wills before she devours them.
Months later, Manute is seen again, receiving Wallenquist's man (in fact, Dwight) who is to contact Ava. As he enters the Lord Mansion, Manute however recognizes him because of his "eyes of a dead man" and tells Jacoby to shoot him if he moves, then Ava comes.
Meanwhile Gail and Miho managed to cause an explosion outside, and Dwight pulled of a small .25 from his sleeve, shooting Manute 6 times, none on the head, leaving him still up. As Manute was ready to shoot back, Dwight kicked him in the face throwing him back. Manute still tried to stand up and attack Dwight, but he was shot by Ava and thrown off the window.
There, Miho jumped on him and stabbed his hands down with her katanas.
Hell And Back[]
Manute is first seen telling The Colonel that Wallace is trying to find Esther. When Wallace meet's Delia at Esther's apartment Manute attacks them. Wallace manages to easily beat Manute and kicks him out of a window.
The Big Fat Kill[]
Manute was put in charge of securing the corpse of Jackie-Boy to instigate a war between the police and the girls of Old Town, allowing Wallenquist to make a power grab for Old Town in the meantime; He was torturing Gail and then negotiated with Dwight who threw to him Jackie's booby-trapped head. He was finally gunned down by the hookers of Old Town during 'The Big Fat Kill'.
Sin City (film)[]
Portrayed by Michael Clarke Duncan
In the deleted scenes of the movie adaptation, he was shown to have momentarily escaped from the assault with Schutz and another thug, only to be sliced down the middle by Miho in an alleyway moments later.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For[]
Portrayed by Dennis Haysbert
Due to the passing of actor Michael Clarke Duncan, the role of Manute was played by Dennis Haysbert in the 2014 sequel.
Trivia[]
- Manute's exact height is never revealed, but given that he is one of the largest characters in all of the novels, and given that he is shown to be at least as tall as Marv, it can be safely assumed he stands around 7'9'', if not taller.
- It is unclear if Manute is actually blind in his golden right eye. Its appearance is strikingly similar to that of Roark Junior, much the same way he had fully functioning body parts replaced that turned his body yellow/gold. It is possible that the same means were employed to replace his eye after his tussle with Marv, making it both fully functional, and yellow/gold in appearance.
- Though it is never mentioned in either the novels or movies, it was revealed by actor Dennis Haysbert that Manute is a strict practitioner of Voodoo. Haysbert revealed this a number of times in interviews stating that Frank Miller himself had the idea during their time working together, as a means of explaining how Manute came about to gain his superhuman levels of strength, durability, and power.
- Manute's preferred fighting style seems to be simply overpowering his foe through pure brute force, meaning he can usually be beaten by more skilled opponents who prefer using his size to their advantage and by out-maneuvering his blows.
- He has such distain for those who oppose him that he commonly refers to them as 'Peasants', and calls their actions 'Pathetic'.
Gallery[]
Comics[]
Sin City (film)[]
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For[]
