Eric D. Snider
300
Movie Review
"300"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: A-
Rating: R
Released: Friday, March 9, 2007
Directed by:
Cast:
Knowledge of ancient Greek history won't help you appreciate "300," which tells the story of the Spartan army's valiant fight against innumerable Persian forces in 480 B.C. The film, just like the Frank Miller graphic novel that inspired it, uses history merely as the canvas, covering it with surreal images and stylized violence that could only exist in the imagination.
What will help you appreciate "300" is a taste for stunning 21st-century digital effects, the kind that can create dreamscapes and nightmares at a state-of-the-art level. A fondness for chest-thumping bravery and machismo will help, too, as will a weakness for stoic proclamations such as "The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant!" Also, if you enjoy scenes of buff, sweaty men -- Spartan military training evidently included doing a lot of crunches -- going to battle clad only in tiny underpants and red capes, then you are in for a treat.
Miller drew the sleek, grim pictures that served as the basis for Robert Rodriguez's "Sin City," and now Zack Snyder (director of 2004's fresh, scary "Dawn of the Dead" remake) has approached Miller's "300" with similar enthusiasm. Like "Sin City," "300" is often a panel-for-panel re-creation of the graphic novel. Nearly the entire film was shot on soundstages with bluescreen technology, rendering everything slightly unreal while remaining starkly earthbound, too. The night scenes are so metallic as to be almost black-and-white, while in the daytime scenes the spurts of blood and the Spartans' crimson robes are deeply seen. The film looks like reality, but with hell creeping in at the fringes.
Our hero is Leonidas (Gerard Butler), the truly leonine king of Sparta, bearded and strapping and prone to speaking even his most casual dialogue in a ferocious tone. His kingdom is threatened by the warmongering Persians, who have bullied other city-states into compliance. But not Sparta! No sir. Leonidas will not back down.
Trouble is, Spartan law says the army cannot go to war without the blessing of the grotesque city elders called ephors, who take their cues from an oracle, and the oracle says no on the war. Leonidas, at the urging of his hot but unfortunately named wife Gorgo (Lena Headey), responds by taking not the entire army but a band of 300 soldiers. He plans to defeat the Persians through strategy rather than numbers.
The bulk of the film is the three-day battle that ensues: fighting, then scenes of calm regrouping, then more fighting, and so forth. These are marked by spectacularly excessive visuals, with warfare transformed into a beautiful ballet of blood. It's astonishing, really: Think of everything that can make a picture or scene beautiful -- color, symmetry, fluidity of motion -- and you'll see it's been applied somehow to the Spartans and Persians killing each other. You're in awe at the loveliness of the picture before you realize what it is you're seeing.
We occasionally shift back to Sparta, where Gorgo is trying to drum up support for her husband's plan, and where the treacherous Theron (Dominic West) seeks to use Leonidas' brashness as an excuse to wrest power from him. These sequences are necessary, maybe, to break up what is otherwise a pretty basic story, but they don't crackle with quite the same level of electricity that the battlefield scenes do.
That aside, the film is a feast for the eyes and ears. There is drama in the men's devotion to one another (the son of a Spartan captain is on the battleground, too), there is villainy and traitorousness, there are monsters and freaks who fight for Persia, and there is Persian king Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) himself, a ruler who believes he is a god and who travels on a raised platform carried on the backs of slaves. The actor's voice is manipulated to sound deep, sonorous, and otherworldly.
There are parallels to be found with the modern world, what with Sparta eschewing negotiations, defying its own laws, and going to war against Far Eastern religious fanatics who are bent on Sparta's destruction. I don't know if Miller intended this in his graphic novel (which was published in 1998) or if the parallels have been enhanced by Snyder, but it's not the message you would expect from Hollywood right now: Sparta's going to war against Persia is portrayed as a noble, brave, necessary thing, not a catastrophic error resulting in endless quagmire. Interesting to think about, but a lot more fun to just watch.
Grade: A-
Rated R, a little strong sexuality and some nudity, and a lot of bloody combat violence
1 hr., 56 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
This work may not be transmitted via the Internet, nor reproduced in any other way, without written consent from Eric D. Snider.
This item has 25 comments
March 9, 2007 at 7:23 am
I watched this last night and agree that it kicked some serious butt. After the movie I wanted to tie my coat into a cape and run through the parking lot in my underpants, vanquishing my enemies. I think Greece must be significantly warmer than it is here though.
March 9, 2007 at 9:36 am
I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE THIS ONE!!! BTW, have you watched any of HBO's Rome at all? I'd love to hear your take on that one-
You rock dude.
March 9, 2007 at 1:02 pm
The ads for this look so much like video game ads I had difficulty believing they were for a movie.
March 9, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I can't wait to see this movie either. I LOVED the way Sin City was done & I'm so excited to see another film made in the same graphic novel, stark colors kinda way.
March 9, 2007 at 7:40 pm
This movie was mediocre at best. I had such high expectations for this one...It's pretty to look at but boring to watch.
March 11, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I agree with brian. Not really worth the hype at all. This was pure visuals, stunning yes, but the storyline was pretty basic and pedestrian. I think this would be more fun in a video game than it was in the theatre.
March 12, 2007 at 9:18 am
If you went to this movie for the plot or the storyline, you need to seriously rethink why you go to the movies at all.
March 12, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Well I certainly go to watch movies to be entertained by more than just special effects, otherwise I'd just plug in an Xbox.
March 13, 2007 at 8:29 am
"300" is a glorious movie that depicts the Spartan heroism and battlelust very nicely. But I also agree with Chad, this movie isn't supposed to be about storyline. Its depicting a legend of pure sacrifice, when "few stood against many."
March 13, 2007 at 2:17 pm
I ask everyone who want to wach this movie or already has watched go and check this website to know who was King of Iran and what kind of wars did he fighted in and then judge about this movie.
This movie is just an attack to Iranian.
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/xerxes/xerxes.php
March 14, 2007 at 3:36 am
An attack on Iran? Are you smoking crack? 90% of Americans don't even know Iranians are Persian. Those 10% that do know are smart enough to know that this was a glorified, fictionalized movie based on a graphic novel's depiction of historical battle.
March 14, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Ah, those wacky Iranians. Whatcha gonna do? Almost as good as that Iraqi information minister guy from a few years ago.
I'm curious, though: what do modern Greeks think of the movie?
March 17, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I saw a news report on ABC (I almost never watch the news, by the way) about how some of the people in Iran took this as a political statement, or an attack, or something like that. They had a few 8-second clip interviews with various people (e.g., a crazy univeristy student in Iran), and apparantly, QUITE A BIT of commotion was stirred. The director's response about how he felt about people dragging alleged political statements and assaults and whatnot out of his film: "That's awesome."
March 29, 2007 at 1:55 am
This is the moste terrible movie made in US.
I wanna hang Zack Snyder
March 31, 2007 at 9:00 am
I really loved, this movie, but WHY does everyone have to die? Can't that meanie Xerxes be content with his half of the world, and leave the Spartans to their war training and propheting?
Oh, by the way, if you watch the movie One Night With the King, you will see Xerxes playing a pillar of Jewish society in his hometown (not to mention the love interest of the movie). You will also notice that Xerxes has shrunk considerably, lost the jewelry, gotten a great deal paler, and grown about a foot of hair. In this movie, he gains a heart and loses the ego.
Still, don't see it. It's uber religious.
April 1, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Did anyone else find the dialogue during battle breaks terribly cheesy?
April 1, 2007 at 4:15 pm
...oh and I was convinced that kiera knightley was doing the voice overs for the Spartan Queen!! Anyone know whats up with that?
April 12, 2007 at 3:29 pm
i am very enoyed this film makes us iranian look voilnt and thts very mean i think it should get no money at all and shold stink in the garbge :(
April 22, 2007 at 8:56 pm
You guys really have to check out "300: The PG Version." A lot of people seem to think it's hilarious, while I think it's kinda stupid. (Although admittedly, I haven't seen the movie, yet.)
Anyway, it is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNqiSkd1M6k
April 23, 2007 at 10:54 pm
My teacher says it's impossible to break 40 tooth picks in 10 seconds or less (for some reason he thought of this), but I say if you just watched 300, it is possible simplely becasue you are injected with pure addrenalin after seeing that movie. Sparta!!!
But I must admit that if it weren't for all the slow motion scenes that movie would have really been about 30 minutes long^^
May 16, 2007 at 10:35 pm
I also think that people who find this offensive need to get over themselves and grow a pair. Honestly, if you can't laugh at yourself then you're a loser.
June 10, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Now that I've seen all the movies hyped this summer, I can say that 300 is the best movie I've seen all year. At least as far as enjoyment goes. I don't know if it's deep, but it's sure enjoyable and I'd watch it again and again. I can't say that for any other movies that came out this year.
August 28, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I'm sure no one's reading comments on this anymore, but I just saw this movie last night on Blu-Ray DVD, huge screen, surround sound and the whole nine yards. I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who thought it wasn't worth the hype. I thought it was on par with the movie "Troy", except for the excellent cinematography and production design (which bugged me in the previews, but was really cool in action).
I also found that passionate declarations like, "Make your breakfast hearty, for tonight we dine in hell!" uttered by men in underwear and capes are hysterically funny. Ditto trees made out of bodies. This is totally a Movie for Guys Who Like Movies, though artfully made.
August 31, 2007 at 8:29 am
I dont think thios movie was worth seeing and if anybody disagrees they have a horrible taste in movies and they will never become a critic. It had no plot at all. The whole movie was just 300 people vs a million at war. That is really gay
November 3, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Oh geez, you guys suck. Listen, it was a pretty good movie. True, it was most certainly a guy movie and wasn't very deep, but that wasn't the point. The point was that it was fun to watch. The battle scenes were (I can't think of any other way to say it) beautifully done. The war scenes were amazing and the fact that it was done in the whole Sin City-esque way made it even better. The plot wasn't really the point.
P.S.- For all those who thought it was an attack on Iran and Iranians, calm down. The Persians (Persians, not Iranians) were portrayed that way because this story was being told from the Spartan's point of view, not a biased party.