"This is Sparta!" - 300, The Movie
Mar. 24th, 2007 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
katikatIf I had to sum up the whole movie in one word, it would be a big WOW!
This movie is no historical documentation and it also does not pretend to be one. There is as much history in it as there was in The Gladiator, which means none.
This movie's plot is rather thin and from the beginning, you know how it'll end. Three hundred men stand up against an army of thousands. It's pretty obvious that they'll die. All of them.
This movie is no psychological drama and it does not pretend to be one. There are no long, meaningful conversations that would try to delve deep into the characters' minds - thank God for that, really.
But there is one thing this movie definitely is: an amazing spectacle with kick-ass action scenes, breath-taking music, stunning visuals and unusual colors. So if you want to see all these things, this movie is definitely for you.
From the moment I saw the trailer, I knew I wanted to see this movie. And not just on DVD but in the cinema. And you have to see this film in the theater on its big screen and in dolby surround. Because the main task of this movie is to look and sound pretty.
I'm a sucker for battles, the bigger the better. Lord of the Rings is a weakling compared to 300. Practically the whole movie is one long battle scene. Slow motion and ffwd are used to their best potentials, just like close-ups. There are buckets of blood, limbs and heads fly around but battles are always a messy thing.
I loved the fighting technique of the Spartans. Push, stab, retreat, shields down. No wonder they won every battle. I also loved that it was their dream to die for Sparta. They hoped to be killed by an enemy powerful enough to grant them a glorious death. Amazing. To have this courage facing such odds... I can only hope that I would be able to react the same way though I doubt it.
The sound was used to its perfection too. Léonidas' voice giving his men the courage to die protecting what they love... I loved two sentences: "This is Sparta" and "Tonight, we dine in Hell". Fantastic. And the music too. I'll have to get the soundtrack. That's a music that pours energy into your veins and creeps you out at the same time - like the Shangri-La song on the Noein soundtrack.
Someone on my flist mentioned that they didn't like the message of this movie - the perfection and white people on the side of Sparta, the disfigured, black and monsters on the side of the Persians. Uh, there were only strong, muscled, white people among the free Spartans and there were black slaves on the side of the Persians, that's a historical fact. The Spartans killed all the disfigured children because that was the law of a warrior race - Léonidas explained it perfectly to the traitor. With their fighting technique, they just couldn't afford to have an imperfect soldier in their ranks. And they weren't a race of philosophers, that was Athen. I don't say it was right to kill little kids but that was the law of that time. And the fact that there were misshapen people and monsters on Xerxes' side? Well, this was based on a graphic novel and they had to emphasize the ugliness of the evil - this IS a Hollywood movie after all.
So, the only message I saw in this film was that a handful of people could stop an enemy thousand times more powerful than they were by standing together and trusting each other. I was in Thermopyl when I was in Greece and let me say that these Spartans have my sincere admiration. The heat can melt the flesh from your bones there, really.
All in all, it was an amazing, stunning, breath-taking movie. Definitely one of the best I've ever seen!
This movie is no historical documentation and it also does not pretend to be one. There is as much history in it as there was in The Gladiator, which means none.
This movie's plot is rather thin and from the beginning, you know how it'll end. Three hundred men stand up against an army of thousands. It's pretty obvious that they'll die. All of them.
This movie is no psychological drama and it does not pretend to be one. There are no long, meaningful conversations that would try to delve deep into the characters' minds - thank God for that, really.
But there is one thing this movie definitely is: an amazing spectacle with kick-ass action scenes, breath-taking music, stunning visuals and unusual colors. So if you want to see all these things, this movie is definitely for you.
From the moment I saw the trailer, I knew I wanted to see this movie. And not just on DVD but in the cinema. And you have to see this film in the theater on its big screen and in dolby surround. Because the main task of this movie is to look and sound pretty.
I'm a sucker for battles, the bigger the better. Lord of the Rings is a weakling compared to 300. Practically the whole movie is one long battle scene. Slow motion and ffwd are used to their best potentials, just like close-ups. There are buckets of blood, limbs and heads fly around but battles are always a messy thing.
I loved the fighting technique of the Spartans. Push, stab, retreat, shields down. No wonder they won every battle. I also loved that it was their dream to die for Sparta. They hoped to be killed by an enemy powerful enough to grant them a glorious death. Amazing. To have this courage facing such odds... I can only hope that I would be able to react the same way though I doubt it.
The sound was used to its perfection too. Léonidas' voice giving his men the courage to die protecting what they love... I loved two sentences: "This is Sparta" and "Tonight, we dine in Hell". Fantastic. And the music too. I'll have to get the soundtrack. That's a music that pours energy into your veins and creeps you out at the same time - like the Shangri-La song on the Noein soundtrack.
Someone on my flist mentioned that they didn't like the message of this movie - the perfection and white people on the side of Sparta, the disfigured, black and monsters on the side of the Persians. Uh, there were only strong, muscled, white people among the free Spartans and there were black slaves on the side of the Persians, that's a historical fact. The Spartans killed all the disfigured children because that was the law of a warrior race - Léonidas explained it perfectly to the traitor. With their fighting technique, they just couldn't afford to have an imperfect soldier in their ranks. And they weren't a race of philosophers, that was Athen. I don't say it was right to kill little kids but that was the law of that time. And the fact that there were misshapen people and monsters on Xerxes' side? Well, this was based on a graphic novel and they had to emphasize the ugliness of the evil - this IS a Hollywood movie after all.
So, the only message I saw in this film was that a handful of people could stop an enemy thousand times more powerful than they were by standing together and trusting each other. I was in Thermopyl when I was in Greece and let me say that these Spartans have my sincere admiration. The heat can melt the flesh from your bones there, really.
All in all, it was an amazing, stunning, breath-taking movie. Definitely one of the best I've ever seen!
