March 18, 2007
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300
Bored I went to see the 300, I am glad I did. Although in some ways it was silly, overall the move was awesome! For pure epic war story you can’t get much better than this. It has all the classic elements of the battle of the underdog against an evil overwhelming empire. It reminds me a lot of Braveheart in this respect. The action is quite well done but the best part is the underlying story of hope and inspiration brought by sacrifice. It’s classic. Nothing original here, but enjoyable nonetheless. It is a complete story that leaves you with a triumphant feeling at the end, as if something very important has been achieved.
** begin spoilers ***
Of course, it’s a good thing this story as taken from truly ancient history. That largely enables you to disregard the baggage that comes from an understanding of the reality of the world we live in today and simply accept the story at face value. We don’t need to really care that the Spartans were probably a lot crueler than we see and the Persians probably not quite so monstrous. Of course we don’t really know anything so it could all be true. It is pretty truthful to the known history except for some obvious dramatic changes.All we really need to care to know is that there was a battle at Thermopylae, it did involve the Spartans, they were vastly outnumbered, and the Persians were in fact the aggressors and lead by a tyrant. That’s enough for us to suspend our disbelief and accept this over-dramatization enough to at least enjoy the story. Though it does bother a little to see a story dramatizing the evil of the “persians” in this day and era. And it bothers me evil more the continuation of the glorification of ancient greek culture through the language used by the Spartans to rally their forces. But then this is normal for all cultures and probably accurate for the time period too. In war it is not uncommon to speak to your soldiers of the “fight for freedom” and the importance of “honor” and “glory” and “death through battle”. Modern cultures use it as much as the ancients probably did. Nothing has really changed.I think it is funny how in the movie it almost looks like the 300 Spartans are doing all of the fighting all by themselves which is pretty absurd I don’t care how narrow your opening. The actual Greek army numbered 7000. The 300 Spartans may well have lead them, but it is incomprehensible that they wouldn’t have relied heavily on those other 6700 troops as well in the fighting, if only to give them time to rest. They were fighting a force of anywhere from 100,000 to 2.5 million depending on which estimates you believe.
The one thing that annoyed me the most was the portrayal of the traitor Ephialtes who is made into a hunchback wanna be Spartan who not only manifests the typical stereotypical conjoining of deformity with malevolence and inconstance but also manages to almost appear to validate the grotesque Spartan child rearing policies. I’d have no problem with it though it it were at all true or supported by the hsitorical record, but asides from him being a traitor there’s just no evidence of the rest of his characterization.
My favorite part on the other hand is the characterization of the storyteller character. The one eyed man who tells the exploits of the 300 and spreads the word through the country side allowing the massive army from the city states to assemble at last to crush the enemies. Really this is the aspect that makes the story good. The way we learn of the 300 through his powerful rhetoric leaves a lasting impression upon us. I loved it.
** end spoilers **Anyway, overall a great and fun movie I recommend to anyone. It figures a good movie would be based on Graphic Novel.
