300 - What did everyone think?

[Rex Nemorensis]

A little something said by a guy at a BattleTech forum I frequent. Hits it spot on:

I went to see this as a Frank Miller adaptation of a true story. He was writing things from a Spartan view so over fantasizing the persians kinda fit for me. the mutants and deformities worked cause i saw that as the Spartans would. A Massive army from a distant land and all the rumors of the creapy crap they do over there. Its not like now where we see our opponents on CNN or the BBC in real time and can see they are men like us. Back then they just heard rumors and wives tales and im sure they expected to see mutants and freaks fighting them, just look at the Immortals. It said in the movie something along the lines of Rumors say they cant be killed and file there teeth into points, etc, etc. If i was a Spartan and heard that i would expect something like what i saw in the movie. I can see where Miler was comming from making the persians look how they did. I dont think he meant it as a historical adaptation but to make them look how they appeared to the greeks to try and get the person reading or watching his novel in the same mind frame as the Spartans to get them to connect with them that way. I saw Sin City in a similar light where everything was fantisized to visually represent there inner self.

He said it fairly well; I'm somewhat annoyed at how easily some people will turn something like this into something else entirely for purely political reasons. I saw Fox News attempt to turn the movie Happy Feet into a liberal anti-corporate assault on American values. Much the same as the Southern Poverty Law Center tried to turn The Lord of the Rings trilogy into a Euro-centric White Supremacists dream come true. And all of that reminds me of the conspiracy theories involving billiards and bowling as racist sports with subtle racial allegory. Clearly alot of these people don't know how the mind of the average racist works and it doesn't involve subtle racial allegory; no most of them prefer more open confrontation as opposed to anything else.

But back to the movie, I loved it. I thought it was acted very well (and I also thought that Gerard Butlers bellowing was greatly exaggerated in most of the reviews); the visuals were, of course, spectacular! The violence was a bit cheesy because all of the blood was CG but I felt that it didn't detract from the movie experience. My biggest complaint was the ending, I don't think we needed to see Leonidas and the remaining 300 Spartans impaled with thousands of arrows to get that they were dead and in my opinion doing so was a bit cheesy. But by far, in my opinion, the best part of the movie was the narration, it reminded me of a Homeric epic which is what I think they were going for.

Me and my friends joke about how manly the movie appears to be. I mean come on...300 Spartans and 1800 Abs go take on one million Persians, most of the Spartan dialog was grunting and there was even a scene involving sweet love making to your woman! Someone told me that feminists hated the movie for that reason but I haven't seen anything so I won't comment on it.

[Tarbicus]

Me and my friends joke about how manly the movie appears to be. I mean come on...300 Spartans and 1800 Abs go take on one million Persians, most of the Spartan dialog was grunting and there was even a scene involving sweet love making to your woman! Someone told me that feminists hated the movie for that reason but I haven't seen anything so I won't comment on it.

Well, the feminists might hate it, but by 'eck lad, there's a whole audience out there who love it!
http://blogs.outzonetv.com/breakoutnews ... phobic.php

[quote]“Not since Brokeback Mountain has a gay movie become such a stunning hit in America,â€

[Narukami]

hock: :? lol:

Tarbicus my friend, you are a font of information both obscure and informative.

:wink:

Narukami

[Susanne]

The movie was great... but now I feel the need to get hold of the comicbook, too!

[Avatar]

The movie was great... but now I feel the need to get hold of the comicbook, too!

Aye! I saw it on friday. I was blown away... That movie s destined to make an appearance in my DVD collection...

[Susanne]

And the 300 soundtrack is running in my mp3 player as I'm typing this. It somehow makes boning up for tomorrow's archaeology exam much easier; it makes me even more focused.

[Jeroen Pelgrom]

i saw the movie about an hour ago. i was impressed. A great reproduction of the comic. This is also going to my DVD collection.

[Narukami]

Here is a sample of what some Greeks are saying about 300. Looks like this film will break the all time box office record for Greece...

[size=150:1ryid5hi]Greek filmgoers ignore critics of `300' [/size]By NATHALIE RENDEVSKI SAVARICAS, Associated Press Writer

THERMOPYLAE, Greece - Greece's critics hated "300," but moviegoers here are lining up to watch the gory recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae in record numbers — happy to lap up the Hollywood thrills and take an indulgent view of what detractors call a butchery of their ancient history.

The film had a record opening weekend in Greece with 325,000 ticket sales. That easily exceeded the previous mark set last year by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" (220,000).

Inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel, the movie directed by Zach Snyder is about 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas holding off hundreds of thousands of invading Persians — and the odd imaginary monster — at a mountain pass in Greece.

Critics dismissed the movie as gratuitously violent and historically inaccurate, one magazine describing it as a "bloodlust videogame."

They were soon drowned out by moviegoers.

"The film was incredible on all counts. It's the first time I've heard a cinema audience clap at the end of a movie" said Nikos Mastoris, who owns a comic bookstore in Athens. "The photography, the music, and all the scenes are really brilliant. The movie is very faithful to the comic book."

Haris Antonopoulos of distributors Village Roadshow said ticket sales of "300" in Greece have topped the 1 million mark — out of a population of 11 million — and is on course to beat the record-setting "Loufa kai parallagi: Sirines sto Egeo," a movie about life as a Greek army conscript which sold 1.4 million tickets in 2005.

The movie is showing at some 70 screens in the Athens area alone and double that nationwide. Cinemas in rural towns have added special midnight screenings to cope with demand.

The village of Thermopylae, population 250, lies about 125 miles north of Athens, and is marked by a modern monument near the country's main highway to the battle fought in 480 B.C.

Most villagers still haven't seen the movie because the nearest cinema is in the city of Lamia, an hour's drive to the north, but are still proud of its success. (The film has grossed more than $162 million in the United States alone so far, had a two-week run at No. 1 and after its third weekend still was No. 2, according to box office tracker Media by Numbers LLC.)

Local archaeologist Elena Froussou watched "300" and couldn't help being impressed.

"The movie was great spectacle," said Froussou. "There were many inaccuracies, but the movie (generally) does base itself on reality."

In the battle, King Leonidas (played by Gerard Butler) led a small force which fought to the death against the invading Persians, to give Athens valuable time to prepare its defenses and ultimately defeat the army of Emperor Xerxes I (Rodrigo Santoro).

Unlike the movie, historians believe Leonidas was not a young man. And Sparta, of course, was not a democracy as it is depicted in the movie but a fearsome military power ruled with absolute authority.

Greek movie fans didn't seem to mind the history-bending or the comic-book style. And Greek Internet bloggers zealously defended the fantasy-laden movie — many arguing that "300" stands up historically, although it is spiced up with allegorical interpretations. Xerxes' colossal proportions, they say, represent his inflated ego and monsters in his army represent an invincible force in the eyes of Greeks.

The Iranian government, which has drawn international condemnation over its nuclear program, has objected to the film's depiction of ancient Persia as barbaric and for what it sees as a politically loaded, West vs. Iran story line.


Nearly 10% of the country's population has seen this film (give or take few as no doubt some people have seen it twice) that is impressive. Wonder how well Star Wars did in Greece? :?

Narukami

[manda]

I haven't yet seen 300, although when I saw the trailers for it I thought it resembled a fantasy based movie. e.g. Lord of the Rings rather than a more historical piece. But it being based on a comic strip I didn't expect for it to be overly authentic.

It looks like it would be an entertaining movie at the very least. And I'm not saying that about the barely clad men either! (well maybe a little ). I'm hoping most people won't take this movie to be "real", plus there is the bonus that anyone truly interested will actually research the battle and the Spartans for the facts.

I'm looking forward to seeing it though!

[Robert Vermaat]

Xerxes' colossal proportions, they say, represent his inflated ego

His inflated ego? :evil:

maybe we should ask ourselves why this does not disturb us. Is Xerxes really such a tyrant, or is he the embodiment of the 'enemy'?

In what way was Xerxes different from Alexander? Both men were relatively young kings and had great warrior kings for fathers. Both men were intent to gain new lands by conquering their main enemies. Alexander even thought he was the son of a god - yes, even for his time he had quite an ego.

In the movie, Xerxes is portrayed as a giant, megalomaniacal bald man with multiple piercings and makeup.

Would we accept it if any movie (or comic book) portrayed Alexander in that way. Because he had 'an inflated ego'?

[Narukami]

The Iranians did not like Stone's Alexander either....

Stone's deliberate description of Alexander as a liberator of the East who brings Western values of freedom and liberty to the oppressed masses of the Orient, and who understands the needs and wants of Eastern nations better than they do themselves, may either be an attempt at political correctness reflective of our neo-colonial times, or an innocent revelation of Stone's ignorance. Either way, it makes an already lousy movie even worse.

http://www.iranian.com/Parsi/2004/Novem ... index.html


I can not say that I agree with the wirter's sentiments, but they are an interesting take on that film, and given that, makes the Iranian negative reation to 300 not surprising at all.

Narukami

[Tarbicus]

Stone's deliberate description of Alexander as a liberator of the East who brings Western values of freedom and liberty to the oppressed masses of the Orient,... or an innocent revelation of Stone's ignorance.

He's correct there, isn't he? It was just one monarch defeating another, after the former had conquered democratic states and placed them under the rule of monarchy again?

[Narukami]

True enough.

No, my disagreement with the article's author is his seeming reliance on the "Black Athena" for some of his assertions. Although an interesting idea I do not think the scholarship is very sound there.

However...

The article about the film is interesting and does raise an interesting question as to Stone's motivation for depicting Alexander as he did.

Political Correctness in light of current events?

Old fashioned Historical Revisionism from a Euro-Centric viewpoint?

Historical ignorance?

Something else?

Given his body of work it would seem unlikely that Stone has gone PC, but then again he is older now so perhaps his views have changed.

Narukami

[Arthes]

Have you seen this.....!Stop300

Complaints about Persians not being bald ... but the Spartans were... :? lol:
and the opposition....Every greek hoplite that died thatday took at least 1,000 men with them. Definitely...

As as matter of fact, my post about 300 seems to have disappeared..
but needless to say, I loved it.....and will be buying the DVD!

PS....I just noticed the name of the Petition creator.....!
regards
Arthes

[Robert Vermaat]

As as matter of fact, my post about 300 seems to have disappeared..

You're sure? We have so many threads about this movie in so many places, I had a hard time finding a certain comment myself..

PS....I just noticed the name of the Petition creator.....!

I'm not surprised at all. Greeks are proud wherever they live, Persians are pissed off wherever they live.

If I were a Persian, I'd be pissed off too.