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Synopsis
 Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller's (Sin City) acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents in Association with Legendary Pictures and Virtual Studios, a Mark Canton / Gianni Nunnari Production, 300. Directed by Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead), the film stars Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera), Lena Headey (The Brothers Grimm), David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings trilogy), Vincent Regan (Troy), Rodrigo Santoro (Love Actually) and Dominic West (The Forgotten). Gianni Nunnari (The Departed), Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann (Land of the Dead) and Jeffrey Silver (Training Day) are the producers. Snyder and Kurt Johnstad adapted the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, with a previous draft of the script by Michael Gordon. The executive producers are Frank Miller, Deborah Snyder, Craig J. Flores, Thomas Tull, William Fay and Benjamin Waisbren. The creative behind-the-scenes team is led by director of photography Larry Fong, production designer James Bissell, editor Bill Hoy and costume designer Michael Wilkinson. The stunt coordinator is Damon Caro and the special effects make up and creature effects team are Mark Rappaport and Shaun Smith. Music is by Tyler Bates.
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On the scale of historical accuracy, 300 probably falls somewhere below Troy. I mean, there were Spartans. There were Persians. There was a big ass fight at Thermopylae. There were 300 Spartans against a giant army. That's about all it gets right.
In the movie, Leonidas (Gerard Butler, worked into a muscled wall of man-flesh), the King of the Spartans is ready to meet the giant invading army in battle--but the mystics say no ... and Leonidas is bound by the law.
So he doesn't.
Or, well, you know? Pesky laws? We got lawyers. So he creates history's first police action sending 300 of the boys (and going himself--back then, men were real men) and taking a walk to the hot gates. There he engages with the slave-driving swarthy middle easterners (this would be the Iranians today ... not that it matters).
He's fighting for what? Why, for freedom. As his wife reminds us--and will remind the Senate, freedom isn't free! And what does Xerxes hate? Well, in order to be spared by him you just have to convert. Bow down. Why, he hates their freedoms! Tricksy freedoms!
But remember back home? Back home evil scheming senators and lack-luster weak old men don't want to support the troops. That's right--our red-blooded boys are out there dying for our freedoms and they won't get reinforcements (and maybe not paid ... but, hell, it's a suicide mission!).
This is clearly an analogy for the Vietnam War.
So, okay--maybe it's more timely than one might think for a history lesson. If we ignore the message I'm seein', how is it?
It rocks. It does "blade ballet" in a way that V for Vendetta's knife-time didn't. The figures move in slo-mo, cleave something, and then snap forward in a gory orgy of action and blood. It doesn't look real, but it's based on Frank Miller's comic book and, man, it looks like that.
The movie contains some of the greatest lines ever heard in a war movie (the "fight in the shade" line is one, Leonidas' response when another force's leader says he'd thought the Spartans would send at least as many warriors has he brought is another). Miller likes his men manly and, despite having made one of the most homoerotic movies ever shot, his Spartans are tough as nails consummate bad-asses.
The stunning visuals continue to Xerxe's army of freaks and mutants, Xerxe's palace, and the sweeping (if slightly surreal looking) landscapes. It's a big movie, if an entirely fabricated one (it was shot in Montreal against a blue-screen).
If I have any problems with it, it's with two specifics.
1. The Spartans talk like modern day westerners. Their blather about freedom is either disengenious or misleading. When a Spartan fights for "freedom" he fights for his own (they owned slaves)--not for the idea of freedom. Sparta is shown as being a pretty decent place when, really, the Spartans were assholes. Leonidas looks back at his wife before condemning his city to total war. He wants her support. I don't buy it.
True: the movie doesn't claim to be historical (and it's not)--but when it isn't, and the inserted westernization is that obvious, it's like a special effect where I can see the strings: it grates a little.
2. The story hinges on a character being told he cannot fight with the Spartans because he can't hold his shield properly in the formation. Well, yeah: they do fight in the phalanx--at first. Then they break the phalanx and go Gimli and Legolas-ing it around the battlefield killing Persian ninjas. That guy? Who couldn't fight in the phalanx? He coulda been stabbing someone then just fine. In the comic Leonidas was a dick. He made fun of his own men when they screwed up. The Spartans had no mercy for anyone, including their own.
In the movie version, the rationale doesn't hold up nearly as well.
Still: any movie where the blows cleave metal, flesh, and bone--where degenerate giants wade through the battle field--where the moving, slave-carried palace of Xerxes towers over the battle field carrying the god-king--that's a movie I want to see.
Note: Prepare for Glory is definitely a euphemism for prepare to be screwed. I once served under a lieutenant who wanted glory. I know.--Marco Chacon
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If there was a single disc I would buy someone who just got a Blu-Ray player, 300 is definitely near the top of the list. Although almost any movie will look great on Blu-Ray - very few would suffer as much comparatively on DVD. The reason for this is that the movie is about the great historical battle at Thermopylae where a tiny force of Spartans held off the Persian army for three days. The film is based on Frank Miller's comic book and was designed to look as much like the stylized artwork as possible while still being live action.
This involved such amounts of blue-screen that are rarely seen, as well as some novel camera work, and a look-and-feel that is somewhere between virtual reality and live action. Love or hate the technique, it looks crisp. It looks different, and it shows what a comic book adaptation should to at least consider when moving to the big screen. It is also an ultra-violent, gore-fest where the weapon blows regularly “cleave off limbs”, where time is fluid in the pursuit of iconic pictures of mayhem, and the sculpted bodies of the actors rival anything ever seen anywhere else. The physical training necessary to play the Spartans was legendary.
The Blu-Ray edition comes in the form of a hard-bound book with pictures from the comic, pictures from the movie, and short bios of the cast. The disc itself, a single one where DVD’s might have two or even three, is loaded with extras. You ask - what are they?
There are historical documentaries on the subject matter, including a "300 Fact or Fiction" piece that has a couple of historians, and Frank Miller talking about the accuracy or, perhaps that should be 'accuracy' of the movie. This is a nice piece of work -- while they certainly didn't get historians who just said "uh, no -- it didn't look anything like that. For one thing, the Spartans wore armor"; it is notable that the people they had narrating give us interesting observations without just bashing the film. For instance, they felt that Miller captured the spirit of the Immortals (The 10,000 strong, elite bodyguard of Xerxes) in that the Spartans were very superstitious about them; portraying them as demonic figures in frightening masks was a decent "modern interpretation" of them.
It also gives two commentary tracks -- one is on the filming technique; and it shows a picture-in-a-picture which gives us the big screen movie and then the smaller real shot (with blue screens and props); so we can see what it looked like on the set. This is fascinating, but ultimately, a little redundant. The primary film technique they called "the crush" which over-exposed the highlights and under-exposed the shadows making them appear inky-black. This gives us an approximation of Miller's harsh lights and darks, and they did it over and over. They also made sure that many, many scenes had all kinds of CGI stuff in the air (real torches had computer-added sparks flying, real wheat fields had blowing strands of wheat added, and battle scenes had "debris" added to the air – no one was quite sure what that was supposed to be -- but it looked cool).
The director's commentary was interesting as well. Zack wanted to cast his whole family, including his daughters as half-seen Persian soldiers; but they couldn't make it up and weren't happy about not being in the shot. It is decent commentary. As always, I want the director to tell me what they were thinking about what is on the screen -- instead of what the cast had for lunch or how much the lead actor and director like each other. There is a reasonable amount of that. I like the fact that one of the writers was told to "make it more weird" so they added bomb-throwing 'magicians' and a Rhino.
The DVD calls 300 "the complete" experience, and I think it more or less is. 300 is not my all- time favorite movie, but it was certainly a fairly unique one. It was definitely an intense one. On Blu-Ray, it looks as good even if you are going to see it at home. It sounds fantastic, and it really benefits from the high-definition treatment. The backup material is well constructed and gets you inside the heads of the creators, which is what I, as a consumer of this product, want most.
If you want 300 in your library, this is the edition to get.--Marco Chacon
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