03-18-2007, 06:21 PM
Well I finally got to see it last night and man, way freakin' cool.
Is it historically accurate? Eh, no. Does it contain history? Yes. A surprising amount of history mind you.
But I think anyone watching this type of movie has to turn off their "inner Matt Amt" and take it for what it is - a movie.
Frank Miller is not going for a documentary. He's creating an experience - the experience of 300 Spartans fending off a massive hoard of Persians. To do this, he exaggerates, exhances, augments, and invents situations, characters, personas, and events. Like someone mentioned, the Spartans turn into superhuman gods. The Persians are even more exotic than they would have been back in the time to the extent they are nearly alien. Xerxes towers over Leonidas by a good 3 feet. This exaggerates their differences and creates that epic feel.
A simple telling of history would not get you into the heads of 300 Spartans. It wouldn't portray the overwhelming odds they faced nor the terrible price of defeat. No one is going to pay $10 to go and see a Discovery Channel documentary.
300 is closer to an opera than a movie. It doesn't have the singing but it does have the grand scenery, the larger than life characters and focuses on mood and interaction rather than history and details. I recently saw a production of Das Rhinegold where a large black man played Alberich, the dwarf. Did he look like a dwarf? Certainly not but he successfully portrayed the character of a jealous, scheming, backstabbing, grumpy little dwarf.
My only regret was that the Spartans didn't wear just a cloak and a smile like the graphic novel.
Is it historically accurate? Eh, no. Does it contain history? Yes. A surprising amount of history mind you.
But I think anyone watching this type of movie has to turn off their "inner Matt Amt" and take it for what it is - a movie.
Frank Miller is not going for a documentary. He's creating an experience - the experience of 300 Spartans fending off a massive hoard of Persians. To do this, he exaggerates, exhances, augments, and invents situations, characters, personas, and events. Like someone mentioned, the Spartans turn into superhuman gods. The Persians are even more exotic than they would have been back in the time to the extent they are nearly alien. Xerxes towers over Leonidas by a good 3 feet. This exaggerates their differences and creates that epic feel.
A simple telling of history would not get you into the heads of 300 Spartans. It wouldn't portray the overwhelming odds they faced nor the terrible price of defeat. No one is going to pay $10 to go and see a Discovery Channel documentary.
300 is closer to an opera than a movie. It doesn't have the singing but it does have the grand scenery, the larger than life characters and focuses on mood and interaction rather than history and details. I recently saw a production of Das Rhinegold where a large black man played Alberich, the dwarf. Did he look like a dwarf? Certainly not but he successfully portrayed the character of a jealous, scheming, backstabbing, grumpy little dwarf.
My only regret was that the Spartans didn't wear just a cloak and a smile like the graphic novel.
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Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
Deb
Sulpicia Lepdinia
Legio XX
