300
November 23rd 2007 22:25
Category: Movies
Director: Zack Snyder.
Producers: Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, Bernie Goldman, Jeffrey Silver.
Screenplay by: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad & Michael .B. Gordon
Starring: Gerard Butler (Leonidas), Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes), David Wenham (Dilios), Lena Headley (Queen Gorgo) & Dominic West (Theron).
Based on the graphic novel by: Frank Miller & Lynn Varley.
Produced by: Warner Bros Pictures.
Distributed by: 2007 Warner Bros Pictures.
Running time: 111 minutes. Rating: MA 15 .
Frank Miller is something of a legend in the comic industry having published such works as Batman: Year One, the Dark Knight Returns as well as Ronin, Sin City and 300. It is this later work that is the inspiration for the movie of the same name, a graphic novel that recounts the story of the Battle of Thermopylae as retold be one of the participants in that battle. Now you’d think that such a story would make for a truly stirring and epic action film filled with pathos, heroism and truly stunning battle scenes as the 300 brave Spartans and their Arcadian allies clash with the Persian nemesis in an effort to prevent the conquest of their homeland and the lands of the other Greek city states. Granted that this movie is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name and not a historical drama; so some poetic license is only to be expected, unfortunately 300 seems to take the idea of poetic license to extremes and completely ignores historical fact for no real good reason.
The viewer is hearing the story of Thermopylae through the narration of the character of Dilios, played ably by David Wenham, so you have to wonder if he isn’t embellishing details in order to make his tale that more epic and heroic. Certainly this device as a means by which the events of the movie are portrayed is well done and David Wenham pulls his part off admirably well but there are times where the story gets into the territory of the downright fanciful and it for me just kills it stone dead. Perhaps these are just the means by which Dilios is filling in the blanks of his tale but more likely it’s the production team going wild with the poetic license thing.
Thermopylae is a major turning point in the history of the classical world; it sees the first major defeat inflicted by the Greeks on the Persians and is a nail in the coffin of that mighty empire. It is also the beginning of the dominance of heavy infantry within the tactics of warfare. From Thermopylae until the Punic Wars the Greeks are the dominant infantry power, the hoplite the premier solider within the classical world until the rise of the Roman legions in the aftermath of the Punic Wars. It is also a turning point in which the Greeks begin to actually think of themselves as Greeks and not solely as Spartans, Athenians, Arcadians and Thessalians etc. It is a time of greatness, of great deeds and the emergence of a cultural heritage that will have significant impact upon the western world. These are certainly hinted at within the drama but every so often something crops up that just throws things out of wack.
First of these events is when we see King Leonidas climbing up a mountainside to consult with the mysterious and secretive ephors. We are told via our narrator that the ephors are a group of inbred and degenerate priests who look after an oracle, an oracle that must be consulted if Sparta is to go to war. From the kings deliberations we then get to see the Oracle who turns out to be a nubile young woman with little clothing and prone to swaying around as she goes into her ecstatic drug induced trance. Now this is just all so much garbage; for starters the ephors were not a group of priests who looked after an oracle, they were elected officials whose function to act as a check to the power of the Spartan kings and were an important part of the Spartan constitution and society. Secondly there never were any oracles within Sparta, the main oracle of the age in Greece was at Delphi and that was more than a mere mountain climb away from Sparta.
But things get better, we then get to see what the movie makers have done to the elite formation of the King of Kings military forces; the Immortals. Ah the Immortals, so called because their numbers never fell below ten thousand, any casualties were replaced by recruits either from the various regions of the empire or from other regular military units. They were the elite and the royal guard of the Persian leader; they certainly were not men who filed their teeth to points, perpetrated a legend that they were spirits or went around clad like ninjas and armed with ninja-to style swords. Nor did they have any large berserker cannibal ogres in their midst who could toss around well armoured soldiers like so many rag dolls and endure extreme pain and bodily torment. Speaking of well armoured soldiers why is that the Spartans are all getting around in only budgie smugglers with cloaks and no cuirasses? in fact why is it that the only armour being used by the Greeks are shields and helmets? The Greek hoplite is famed for wearing the iconic Doric helmet, a bronze or iron cuirass and carrying a large round shield, not fighting near naked, that was something that was attributed to the ancient Celtic tribes of Europe not Greeks. There are more things that just didn’t sit well with me in addition to these aspects, the fact that Xerxes, the King of Kings looked like a failed experiment from a body piercing shop as well as the hunchback Ephialtes. Is Ephialtes a hunchback because it’s historical fact or is it something that the production team thought would go down well giving the notion that Spartan traitors must be hideously deformed otherwise they wouldn’t be traitors? As Han Solo would probably say ‘Where did you dig up these ideas?’
In the end I had to wonder what the heck 300 was about, was it a movie about Thermopylae and the impact that event had on history’s ever expanding tapestry or was it simply a splatter fest with sex and titillation? I will say this; the fight sequences, special effects, weaponry and costumes (for those that were wearing more than budgie smugglers) were spectacular but in the end 300 is essentially a splatter fest. It seems to me that 300 was more a movie homage to the graphic novel than something the general public, who probably have never read the novel, could appreciate.
THIS IS SPARTA…if so then get me on the first rhinoceros out of here!
Producers: Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, Bernie Goldman, Jeffrey Silver.
Screenplay by: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad & Michael .B. Gordon
Starring: Gerard Butler (Leonidas), Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes), David Wenham (Dilios), Lena Headley (Queen Gorgo) & Dominic West (Theron).
Based on the graphic novel by: Frank Miller & Lynn Varley.
Produced by: Warner Bros Pictures.
Distributed by: 2007 Warner Bros Pictures.
Running time: 111 minutes. Rating: MA 15 .
Frank Miller is something of a legend in the comic industry having published such works as Batman: Year One, the Dark Knight Returns as well as Ronin, Sin City and 300. It is this later work that is the inspiration for the movie of the same name, a graphic novel that recounts the story of the Battle of Thermopylae as retold be one of the participants in that battle. Now you’d think that such a story would make for a truly stirring and epic action film filled with pathos, heroism and truly stunning battle scenes as the 300 brave Spartans and their Arcadian allies clash with the Persian nemesis in an effort to prevent the conquest of their homeland and the lands of the other Greek city states. Granted that this movie is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name and not a historical drama; so some poetic license is only to be expected, unfortunately 300 seems to take the idea of poetic license to extremes and completely ignores historical fact for no real good reason.
First of these events is when we see King Leonidas climbing up a mountainside to consult with the mysterious and secretive ephors. We are told via our narrator that the ephors are a group of inbred and degenerate priests who look after an oracle, an oracle that must be consulted if Sparta is to go to war. From the kings deliberations we then get to see the Oracle who turns out to be a nubile young woman with little clothing and prone to swaying around as she goes into her ecstatic drug induced trance. Now this is just all so much garbage; for starters the ephors were not a group of priests who looked after an oracle, they were elected officials whose function to act as a check to the power of the Spartan kings and were an important part of the Spartan constitution and society. Secondly there never were any oracles within Sparta, the main oracle of the age in Greece was at Delphi and that was more than a mere mountain climb away from Sparta.
But things get better, we then get to see what the movie makers have done to the elite formation of the King of Kings military forces; the Immortals. Ah the Immortals, so called because their numbers never fell below ten thousand, any casualties were replaced by recruits either from the various regions of the empire or from other regular military units. They were the elite and the royal guard of the Persian leader; they certainly were not men who filed their teeth to points, perpetrated a legend that they were spirits or went around clad like ninjas and armed with ninja-to style swords. Nor did they have any large berserker cannibal ogres in their midst who could toss around well armoured soldiers like so many rag dolls and endure extreme pain and bodily torment. Speaking of well armoured soldiers why is that the Spartans are all getting around in only budgie smugglers with cloaks and no cuirasses? in fact why is it that the only armour being used by the Greeks are shields and helmets? The Greek hoplite is famed for wearing the iconic Doric helmet, a bronze or iron cuirass and carrying a large round shield, not fighting near naked, that was something that was attributed to the ancient Celtic tribes of Europe not Greeks. There are more things that just didn’t sit well with me in addition to these aspects, the fact that Xerxes, the King of Kings looked like a failed experiment from a body piercing shop as well as the hunchback Ephialtes. Is Ephialtes a hunchback because it’s historical fact or is it something that the production team thought would go down well giving the notion that Spartan traitors must be hideously deformed otherwise they wouldn’t be traitors? As Han Solo would probably say ‘Where did you dig up these ideas?’
In the end I had to wonder what the heck 300 was about, was it a movie about Thermopylae and the impact that event had on history’s ever expanding tapestry or was it simply a splatter fest with sex and titillation? I will say this; the fight sequences, special effects, weaponry and costumes (for those that were wearing more than budgie smugglers) were spectacular but in the end 300 is essentially a splatter fest. It seems to me that 300 was more a movie homage to the graphic novel than something the general public, who probably have never read the novel, could appreciate.
THIS IS SPARTA…if so then get me on the first rhinoceros out of here!
| 80 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
