300 the movie?

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

and the Ugly!

[Gaivs Antonivs Satvrninvs]

And a little action...

[Narukami]

Here is the LA Times review of '300'

They like the look, but once that wares off the question becomes "Where's the story?"

I'm still going to see it, after all I still saw all the Star Wars prequels and the reviews for them were much the same.

MOVIE REVIEW
[size=150:jjxmq2ez]'300'[/size]
The visually arresting '300' gets bogged down in blood and bodies.

Gerard Butler on training for '300' - Video
Reader reviews
Theaters, showtimes

No one can say how many Spartans it might take to screw in a lightbulb, but the number needed to reach immortality is firmly established: "300."

That, hardly by coincidence, is the title of the highly touted action film delineating the news behind the news about the celebrated 480 B.C. battle at Thermopylae between those few plucky Spartans under Leonidas and an enormous hoard of invading Persians led by the legendary Xerxes.
The Spartans didn't win, of course — numbers, as Hollywood well knows, count for a lot — but their heroic stand encouraged their fellow Greeks to an ultimately successful resistance that historians say preserved the influence of Western civilization and inspired 20th century creative types from David Mamet to graphic-novel visionary Frank Miller.

It is Miller's work of the same name that inspired director and co-writer Zack Snyder to come up with this epic piece of comic-book mythologizing, both stylized and stylish, that is one of those films you don't want to think too hard about. At least in the short run, "300" is something to see, but unless you love violence as much as a Spartan, Quentin Tarantino or a video-game-playing teenage boy, you will not be endlessly fascinated.

The Spartans, we are informed almost at once by the film's celebratory voice-over, were one tough bunch of hombres, a fang-and-claw "Fight Club" civilization so in love with combat that the only thing that made its members smile was the thought of "a beautiful death."

That director Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead") has spent much of his career as a highly acclaimed commercial director is apparent from the start. The film has a striking visual panache, a distinctive style of putting images on film that heightens reality the way a filmed spot for Chanel or a European brand of luxury car might do.

But while those commercials only have to hold our attention for mere seconds, "300" has to involve us for close to two hours, and that is more difficult. Snyder and co-writers Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon attempt to add drama, romance and intrigue to the mix, but they're not really up to it. Not helping either are odd bits of boilerplate dialogue on the order of "Freedom isn't free, it must be bought by blood" that manage to sound as if they were written by a politician.

Once the newness of "300's" look wears off, which it inevitably does, what we are left with is a videogame come to life. The problem here is not so much that "300" is "Apocalypto"-violent but that its violence is repetitive: Unless you are washed in the blood, so to speak, there is a limit to how often you can see soldiers speared and hacked to death and still stay involved.

First among equals is King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), married to the equally fierce Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey). The king earned his spurs by killing a wolf so huge and evil its eyes lighted up like a pinball machine at a glimpse of human flesh.

So when an effete emissary of the dread Persian empire comes calling and utters the forbidden word "submission," it's clear that things aren't going to end well. Never mind that the creepy Ephors, pestilent elders who leer at half-naked female oracles, don't want a war. The Spartans have their tough-guy reputations to maintain, and so off they march to confront their destiny.

With costumes designed by Michael Wilkinson, "300" pays a lot of attention to what its characters wear. The Spartan look — tight metal helmets, giant shields, long red capes and what look like black leather Speedos — is quite effective, though at times it makes "the fiercest soldiers the world has ever known" look like an especially fit group of Santa Monica lifeguards taking part in the Doo-Dah Parade.

The effeteness of the debauched Persians, on the other hand, is indicated by the multiple piercings of their leaders. The great Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), for example, is so weighed down by a costume consisting of 18 jewelry pieces, not to mention a dozen piercings, that he comes off more like an arrogant doorman at an exclusive bondage club than the unquestioned ruler of a mighty empire.

Once the armies lock horns, the only way "300" can maintain interest is by throwing a wild variety of combatants at the noble Spartans. While Queen Gorgo has to deal with a fifth column back home, her husband takes on a giant with awful teeth (apparently only the Greeks could afford orthodontia), hooded men who throw stink bombs, even what might be the world's first armored rhinoceros. Snyder's "300" certainly has its share of the latest toys, but they make for a better coming-attractions trailer than a full-length theatrical film.

[email protected]

"300." MPAA rating: R, for graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes. In general release.

[john m roberts]

"..an enormous hoard of invading Persians.."
Is anybody else bugged like I am when someone uses "hoard" when "horde" is the correct word?

[Narukami]

Here is an interesting review from France by an Iranian/French film critic writing for an Iranian paper/magazine.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1129.html



[size=150:jbesdqmm]The Persian Empire Strikes Back [/size]
By Darius KADIVAR

Controversial yet Visually Stunning screen adaptation of Frank Miller '300’


"A Thousand Nations of the Persian Empire Descend Upon You ! Our Arrows Will Blot out the Sun" - Persian King Xerxes' Emissary


"Then we will fight in the shade." -Stelios the Spartan Warrior




The timing for the latest Warner Bros Epic battle movie 300 is clearly unfortunate but maybe not so. Based on Veteran comic book artist Frank Miller’s gory depiction of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C, that is said to have opposed 300 Spartans to the massive Persian Army of King Xerxes the Great, it is an action packed, sexually provocative and bloody spectacle that clearly deserves its R-Rated label. In a particularly tense climate of international politics where threats of an imminent US or Israeli attack on Iran ( once known as Persia ) is on everyone’s mind it would be easy to see in this movie as many bellicose metaphors as there are sand pebbles in the entire desert landscapes of the Middle East. Before succumbing to what is our national sport that is seeing conspiracy theories of monstrous proportions in any non Iranian/Persian depiction of our land and history, let us take a closer look at what would be considered, by any one with a minimum of film knowledge, as merely a B-Rated Film albeit directed with a visually stunning approach.


Zack Snyder’s 300 was initially a project that was in the Vaults of Warner Bros since the late 1990’s. It was to be a remake of a low budget Hollywood classic Sword and Sandals film entitled the 300 Spartans ( which I had already reviewed for the Iranian.com in 2002 under the title Battle for the West ) directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Richard Egan and David Farrar in the title roles of Spartan King Leonidas and Persian King Xerxes. The remake was initially to be directed by Michael Mann ( Heat, Miami Vice, Last of the Mohicans) and produced by George Clooney with Bruce Willis in the title role of Leonidas and rumors that Spanish machismo Antonio Banderas would portray the Persian King of Kings. The script was to be based on the Best Selling novel by Stephen Pressfield entitled Gates of Fire. However due to the fact that Mann went on to direct Ali a Bio Epic on Box Legend Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali starring Will Smith who hoped for an Oscar nomination in the title role, the Sword and Sandals project was abandoned. In early 2000 newcomer independent Horror movie filmmaker Zack Snyder ( Dawn of the Dead) suggested the adaptation of another version of this epic story based on Frank Miller’s dark and graphically stylized depiction of the ultimate Spartan sacrifice. The 1962 version has been a cult film for all aficionados of a film genre that went extinct after the mid 60’s due to the increasing appeal of the public for realism on film as well as a more contemporary related stories which the TV as a medium would also encourage and take credit for. James Bond Stunts with a quick hygienic and stylish kill were to replace the massive realistic battle scenes opposing foes in shining armour while Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson’s Death Wish films were to illustrate an unorthodox conception of Law and Order where the major characters were to render personal justice in the name of self defense often with a simplistic far-right conservative conception of how society should be dealing with its so-called scums and outcasts. This realistic and graphic approach to violence that were to rank such films as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather sequels, or his equally violent Apocalypse Now as award winning masterpieces at such well known film festivals as Cannes or the Oscars were nevertheless far more violent with morally more ambiguous messages than most Sword and Sandals Technicolor films of the previous era or even that of the most recent Epic film: Ridley Scott’s excellent Gladiator that launched the film genre to critical acclaim and Box Office success.


Interestingly the rising stars of these “modern era filmsâ€

[Comerus Gallus]

...

[Q Rutilius]

I just saw it. Comerus is right. It is a very good movie. And the audience was into it. Is it history? Certainly not. They wanted to bring a comic book to the screen and entertain people and they did it. Based on the pictures I had seen in magazines I had thought that I would not like it. I was wrong, it is stunning. I'd recommend that people accept it for what it is meant to be, go see it, and be entertained for 2 hours.

[hoke]

i liked it.

liked the sepia tone colored scenes, the real actors that were trained in theater acting. the message; and the equipment and such seemed above average for hollywood.
and then there was xerxes :wink:

[M. Demetrius]

Is anybody else bugged like I am when someone uses "hoard" when "horde" is the correct word?

Yes, sir, I'm one. And "there/their/they're", "your/you're", "loose/lose" and a plethora of others. And still some people think the schools are not dumbing down our children.

Add in some artificial history images such as The Alamo, 300, Troy, and we're on the way down the slippery slope of confused world identities, wearing, well, slippers. And these are the people who will be counting out our medications when we're in the nursing home. Yikes.

[Jona Lendering]

The movie can very well be exploited as a propaganda tool by both the White House and why not Iran’s President Ahmadinejad in trying to rally the most reluctant citizens in seeing subliminal metaphors in a Box Office success. If so it would mean that their own political agendas are so weak and fragile that they need to have recourse to motion pictures to self promote themselves or their ideologies.

True, so true.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

Sounds like someone put the cart in front of the donkey.

[Narukami]

Greetings,

At the risk of upsetting everyone, or someone, but not intending to do so, here is an interesting article on The 300 from the questionably authoritative Wikipedia.

Link to original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film )


Here is one of several interesting observations:

[size=150:3egq28sl]Historical accuracy[/size]
The film's director Zack Snyder claims that "The events are 90 percent accurate. It's just in the visualization that it's crazy. A lot of people are like, 'You're debauching history!' I'm like, 'Have you read it?' I've shown this movie to world-class historians who have said it's amazing. They can't believe it's as accurate as it is" He dismisses arguments of historical inaccuracy by stating that the film is "an opera, not a documentary".[73].

Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of Hellenistic History at the University of Toronto argues that "the ways in which 300 selectively idealizes Spartan society are problematic, even disturbing.... the Persians are turned into monsters... the non-Spartan Greeks are simply [portrayed as weak]... [the film's] moral universe would have appeared as bizarre to ancient Greeks as it does to modern historians".[74]

Touraj Daryaee, associate professor of Ancient History at California State University, Fullerton dismisses 300 as historically uninformative, inaccurate and cartoonish. Dismantling the central theme of the movie, that of "free" and "democracy loving" Spartans and "slave" Persians, he states that "such jargon relating to “freedomâ€

[TraderTrey9785]

There is more to the article for those who are interested. Again it is from Wikipedia so as with any source the reader must look with a critical eye and judge for themselves the accuracy and the intent.

Every historian has an agenda, even if unconsciously so.

:wink:

Narukami

Regardless of the repercussions of the movie 300, at least someone understands that wikipedia, while helpful, is definitely not the most accurate source of information. I just gave a lecture to students in my Roman Literature discussion class that wikipedia isn't an appropriate source to list in a bibliography or works cited.

[Arthes]

Having finally seen 300 on Friday....I can say I loved it....!
I was rather surprised that it was only given a '15' tag with the sex and violence however...
I admit that I found myself rather irritated with the fantasy elements at times, as this could have degraded the very real sacrifice that the Spartans and Thespaeians made at Thermopylae and the insinuation from others that they were 'mad', although the truth of Spartan valour, honour and pride became obvious towards the ending...which had me in tears.
For an awful moment, I really thought Leonidas was thinking of surrender...then you discover just why he laid down his panoply and arms...brilliant filming...!
There was a rather interesting mixture of fantasy and authenticity in the film...the fellow with the beard and shaven top lip (although he reminded me of Abraham Lincoln or somebody) the Spartan girls with their slit sided tunics and Sparta herself....
I can see why the modern day Persians are complaining though.......Xerxes 'i'm nice' looking like a voyeur and the wierd immortals borrowed from Sauron's army...and was it just me or did Ephialtes's hump grow bigger and bigger the more traitorous he became...???
Hmmh, I was right about Abraham Lincoln....Abe

[Sergey Lenkov]

Stupid it may seem - this fantasy has nothing common with history - so I couldn't find - what to discuss here... IMHO, it is bad fantasy, images of the Spartans and ideas of film - are more close to aesthetics of the Third Reich than to Tolkien. If you see not true born "Arian" - just kill him - the main idea of movie. If the film was oriented on children and teenagers - why they need lesbians in the court of Xerxes and raping of Leonid's wife?
For me this film (even if it is only fantasy) is sacriledge.