03-21-2007, 08:54 PM
Overall, I didn't like the movie. Though the battle scenes were fun, I thought the acting was bad and the movie's message was muddled and contradictory.
Who was that evil spartan who raped Gorgo? Was that supposed to be Demaratus? I guess they failed to create enough tension with the whole 'Xerxes army' side plot, so they had to throw that in there. I thought that whole thing was just dumb.
Not only is the movie a willful distortion of history in many places, I sense that the film's creators greatly misunderstand what the story is trying to teach us and why it is important. I find it somewhat ironic that we would celebrate the Spartan sacrifice with a movie that appeals to every kind of bodily impulse that the Spartans strictly avoided. Historical accuracy really isn't the issue, since even Herodotus has obvious failings in that department, it's just that I feel that the message was completely mishandled.
Yeah, "freedom isn't free." but the Spartans weren't above keeping slaves either. The movie seems to claim that freedom is achieved by giving in to your testosterone, whereas Leonidas would tell us that freedom is achieved by mastering yourself, and that if we win the battle against ourselves, we are invincible.
Everything good that comes from human interaction is the result of people who can willfully put the interest of others before their own, and everything bad is the work of people who think of themselves only. He who is confident of his contribution to his community is happy, while he who can only feed his own appetites can only know misery. This is what Leonidas means when he writes to Xerxes, "If you knew what was good in life, you wouldn't have such desire for foreign things." This is what Leonidas would like to teach us, and in my mind, is the fundamental and essential message for anyone who would tell the story.
Who was that evil spartan who raped Gorgo? Was that supposed to be Demaratus? I guess they failed to create enough tension with the whole 'Xerxes army' side plot, so they had to throw that in there. I thought that whole thing was just dumb.
Not only is the movie a willful distortion of history in many places, I sense that the film's creators greatly misunderstand what the story is trying to teach us and why it is important. I find it somewhat ironic that we would celebrate the Spartan sacrifice with a movie that appeals to every kind of bodily impulse that the Spartans strictly avoided. Historical accuracy really isn't the issue, since even Herodotus has obvious failings in that department, it's just that I feel that the message was completely mishandled.
Yeah, "freedom isn't free." but the Spartans weren't above keeping slaves either. The movie seems to claim that freedom is achieved by giving in to your testosterone, whereas Leonidas would tell us that freedom is achieved by mastering yourself, and that if we win the battle against ourselves, we are invincible.
Everything good that comes from human interaction is the result of people who can willfully put the interest of others before their own, and everything bad is the work of people who think of themselves only. He who is confident of his contribution to his community is happy, while he who can only feed his own appetites can only know misery. This is what Leonidas means when he writes to Xerxes, "If you knew what was good in life, you wouldn't have such desire for foreign things." This is what Leonidas would like to teach us, and in my mind, is the fundamental and essential message for anyone who would tell the story.
Rich Marinaccio
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