My Favourite Movies: 300
Obvious I know, but I do so love this film. For those of you who have never seen it, 300 tales the oft told story of the 300 Spartans who stood and died at the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC facing a huge Persian horde bent on the destruction of the Greek city states.
This particular version of the story is highly stylised being produced by the same team that brought us Sin City. In this case the stylisation makes the movie both mythic in quality – it became a myth (something larger than life) apparently shortly after the actual event – and other-worldly. Though not quite as simple as the movie portrays 300 Spartans, along with several thousand allies, did fight a battle over three days against an estimated 250,000 Persians (not the 2 million sometimes quoted) and died to a man. It’s arguable that Thermopylae is one of the most important battles ever fought on European soil.
The movie portrays this pivotal battle as one not only between men but between cultures – the upright democratic Greeks and the decadent theocratic despotism of the Persians. The portrayal of the Persians actually came in for a lot of criticism as did a throwaway line about the Athenians being ‘boy-lovers’ but I’m sure that was something the Spartans would’ve said – so it was totally in character as was the totally off-colour humour before, during and after the seemingly endless battle scenes. I loved Gerard Butlers role of Leonidas, Lena Heady as his queen and a very honourable mention goes to the narrator Dilios played with aplomb by David Wenham – he of “it’s only an eye Sire, the gods saw fit to furnish me with a spare” quote.
I loved this film for so many reasons I hardly know where to start. But staging classical Greek single combat to thumping rock music has got to be one of them. If you want to be totally wowed – and you haven’t seen this film yet – you really need to watch it. Now.
8 comments:
I like it quite a bit also. I'm looking for this director's next film, The Watchmen, which is coming out in a bit over a month.
Loved it!
ACK!
Fine. I'll watch the icky Miller-spawn.
*throws history book out the window first*
It's not too bad with the history, although it uses a lot of artistic licence there. No naval battles for one thing ... and lots of shots of bare chested oily Greeks instead of those chests being hidden behind the Spartan lamellar armour.
There's a documentary that's seen airtime on the History channel a few times that's well worth watching - At 2 hours (inc adverts), it's a lot more long winded than 300. It has a more complete portrayal though :-)
TF said: *throws history book out the window first*
That might help. Just don't take it too seriously!
SP said: No naval battles for one thing ... and lots of shots of bare chested oily Greeks instead of those chests being hidden behind the Spartan lamellar armour.
Indeed.... and as far as I could tell they fought in a very un-Greek like way.
I thought a lot of the background stuff was pretty spot on though. I've got a few book on Sparta that I really must read at some point....
Hmmmm. I hated the film. Visually, it was stunning. But the message, and the portrayal of Spartans as great heroes, struck me as very right wing. These people were, after all, the Nazis minus modern technology and a bureaucracy.
karlo said: But the message, and the portrayal of Spartans as great heroes, struck me as very right wing. These people were, after all, the Nazis minus modern technology and a bureaucracy.
I certainly heard a lot of criticism levelled at this film because of its apparently pro-war message - esspecially when the over-the-top bad guys where Persians (in other words basically from Iraq & points East).
However, despite all of the graphical interpretation and snazzy SFX, the battle portrayed did actually happen. OK, not exactly as filmed but a comparatively few Greeks did stand against a large number of invading Persians and the Spartan force did die to a man. It is very arguable that if the Greeks hadn't fought at Thermopylae that Greek civilisation as we know and love it could have been crushed or changed radically and history as we know it would not have happened.
As to the character of the Spartans themselves - they were definitely a brutal society, even by the standards of the time which was generally pretty brutal. The film I think certainly showed his (as it should) and failed to criticise it (as I believe it should not have). The times they lived in were very different from today so judging them by our standards is fraught with difficulty. It is beyond doubt that they were a fully militarised society whose every resource was bent to that aim. Not surprisingly it worked & produced probably by far the best fighting force of the age.
Although none of the Greek city states where exactly democratic as we understand the term (they would actually be bemused & amused - if not actually incredulous at our idea of democracy) Sparta was often seen as *too* democratic in that it allowed women to speak on an equal footing with men - as alluded to in the spat between Queen Gorgo and the Persian emmisary. Spartan women where also banned from wearing make-up or jewelry and yet were considered the most beautiful in all Greece - probably because they trained in similar ways to the men and were expected to be athletes.
Sparta has (rather unsurprisingly)been admired for millennia by both the Right & the Left. They restricted personal property by law and actually made it illegal to accumulate wealth - on point of death. Like everyone else the employed a huge number of slaves but amongst themselves they were incredibly egalitarian.
I have a few books to read about the Spartans so don't know about their society in detail. However, from my cursory knowledge I think that they had many admirable qualities.
The Watchmen, yeah, I'm all over it. 300 was visually stunning--the actors were--well, nice to look at as well.
Seriously, what female didn't enjoy this film? I'd like to know!
I'm sure men loved the action too.
*smile*
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