I was lucky enough to score a pass for a pre-screening of the upcoming movie '300: The Battle of Thermopylae '. I have not been looking forward to see a movie in the theater in a very long time as I usually would just wait for the DVD release, however I have been really excited about this for some time; having watched the trailers multiple times. I was quite impressed overall and had a great time watching it and hope to get a chance to take a look at it in an IMAX theater once the crowds die down in a few weeks. In the general story, a bunch of Spartans swear they’d rather die than surrender or retreat, and then they do just that. Like Sin City, the images of 300 have been heavily post-processed to closer resemble Frank Miller’s comic book, and when there isn’t a slow-motion battle going on, the camera lingers over tableaux of warriors on a mountainside, trees hung with corpses, a fleet tossed about in inclement weather, and sweaty nymphs doing double-duty as corrupt oracles.It’s all about as glorious as a half hour of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, without the rest of The Lord of the Rings to support, y’know, the characters. Instead, there are lots of speeches; about how freedom isn’t free, about how the only glorious death for a soldier is on the battlefield, and about how, yes, Spartans never surrender. In waves resembling nothing so much as the levels of a video game, the good Spartan king Leonidas (Gerard Butler) has to fight the villains at the Battle of Thermopylae while he is being stabbed in the back by treacherous politicians who refuse to support the troops and send reinforcements.
The movie seems to borrow liberally from John Boorman’s 'Excalibur' one of my favorite movies, ending of 'Braveheart', along with visuals and phantasmal aspects from 'Sin City'. In the world of 300, there is no room for art, negotiation, or weakness; there is only room for the strong. At the screening, outright murder brought great applause, and I would not have have been surprised to find an Army recruiting station outside the theater. Huah!
Overall it is definitely worth the effort to check out and is well done, so if you get an opportunity, go see it, especially if you can do so at an IMAX theater.
1 comment:
"Come back with your shield, or upon it." ... What Spartan Mothers told their sons before they left for battle.
Haven't seen it yet, but your comment about an Army recruiters outside the theatre defines the word "irony", as the Spartan culture encouraged homosexual partnerships between pairs of warriors. The idea was that, even if all else seemed hopeless, a Spartan would fight to the death to defend his lover.
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