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I will get it out of the way and say that this was not and was not meant to be a historically accurate depiction of Ancient Greece. It was never meant to be even when it was still just an Eisner-Award winning graphic novel from the mind of iconic graphic novelist and artist Frank Miller. With that out of the way I was able to watch and enjoy Zack Snyder's film adaptation on its own terms without the criticism of historical accuracies looming dangerously over my head. 300 deserves the label of being the first event film of 2007. From start to finish, Snyder's film practically screams blockbuster and popcorn and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Frank Miller's 300 was at its time an interesting depiction of one of history's greatest military last stands. Miller already known for hyperstylizing the look and feel of the noir genre with his Sin City graphic novels, takes the same approach with his depiction of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans taking a final last stand against Persian God-King Xerxes at a narrow mountain pass called Thermopylae (literally meaning Hot Gates in Greek). Zack Snyder took this graphic novel and painstakingly stayed true to the visuals Miller and his colorist wife, Lynn Varley put on paper. Looking back at my memory of some of the panels and images from the graphic novel. Snyder and his crew of art directors, cinematographers and CGI-artists were successful in translating almost every page of the graphic novel onto the screen. Like Robert Rodriguez's adaptation of Miller's Sin City, Zack Snyder's 300 pretty much brings the graphic novel to moving life. This means he stuck to the source material quite literally which limits his own take on the graphic novel. And like Rodriguez Snyder doesn't really put his own signature stamp as a director to the film. It's not too much of criticism since he does a great job of translating Miller's work onto film, but one wonders what sort of personal touches he could've added to the finished look that wasn't lifted from Miller's style and whether it would've changed the overlook look and feel of the film.
The story is quite simple and just takes the basic summary of the historical event itself. Spartan King Leonidas (played with visceral gusto and machismo by Scottish thespian Gerard Butler) makes a decision to go to war and confront the encroaching and fast approaching massive Persian Army led by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) intent on conquering the Hellenic city-states of the Greek Peninsula. Persian ambassadors ride forth to demand oaths of fealty from those city-states ahead of the army's path. Sparta is one such city-state, but different from the rest of its Hellenic brethrens. Sparta has gone down in history as a word synonymous with unbending dedication to a strict, ascetic warrior code. Warfare and battle were what Spartans were born and trained to do from an early age. Weakness and physical imperfections weeded out from the time of birth (the film explains just what happens to male newborns with physical imperfections and deformities). The answer Leonidas gives the Persian delegation could be seen as somewhat extreme, but not contrary to his nation's warrior-culture of never surrendering and seeing death in battle the greatest glory for a Spartan to achieve. From this sequence right up to the end of the film we get to see just how much of a warrior culture the Spartans were in extreme detail.
It's during the prolonged battle scenes between Leonidas' Spartans and Xerxes army which will have everyone chomping at the bit. If you have to see this film for any particular reason outside of watching superbly-trained underdogs slaughtering and endless supply of enemy troops then you will most likely be disappointed by the slower scenes away from Thermopylae. Indeed, this film and its original source material would've worked even better without the extra filler Snyder and his writers added to give the film more depth. I'm all for more emotional depth and characterization in my films but when a movie is all about a bloody and heroic last stand of a few against the many, scenes which slow the story down does more to break the rhythm and tone of a film than add to it. Other than a deeper understanding of the kind of partnership Leonidas had with his Gorgo, his Spartan Queen, most of the subplots added by Snyder and his writers could easily have been left out and still get a kick ass action epic.
It's the action scenes which reall stand out visually. Some people might see the style tricks of speed ramping certain action sequences then slowing it down considerably to show the minute detail of the battle scene as being to gimmicky, but I would disagree and say it actually gives the movie a fable-like quality in its storytelling. One thing I have to say about Zack Snyder as a director (his remake of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead better than what detractors have made it out to be) is that he knows how to film action and with special mention to bloody and gory action. He makes these scenes of dismemberments, decapitations, and disembowlments look like a piece of performance art. These scenes of carnage would be considered extremely gratuitious if it didn't look so computer-enhanced good. Even the way the blood flows, spurts and splashes look like something Jackson Pollock would take interest in. The speed up and slow down of the sequences also gives the fight scenes a certain rhythm that once an audience picks up on will follow it through to the end. This is why the scenes back in Sparta with a duplicitous politician and his powerplay to assume control and power seem such a downer instead of enhancing the sacrifice of Leonidas and his men. Those scenes just feel tacked on and completely superfluous. Luckily, there's not enough of them to slow down the frantic pace developed by the battle itself.
The performances by all actors involved really doesn't require too much criticism or reflection over. Gerard Butler does a great and convincing job as the Spartan King and his conviction in confronting Xerxes and his army with so few seem very believable. It's not a star-making performance but it does show that Butler can add a bit of gravitas to a character and role so basic in characterization. Lena Hedley is radiant as his partner and Queen. Despite the weird sounding name of Gorgo, Hedley plays the strong-minded and equally influential wife to Butler's Leonidas. It's only her scenes back in Sparta as she tries to rally her people to support their king which keeps these slower sequences from fully pulling down the film. Really, the performances are just done good enough to keep the acting from becoming too campy or too serious. It's an action film and with enough action going on in the movie I could forgive the writers (both Miller and the screenwriters) from scrimping on character build up.
All in all, Zack Snyder's film adaptation of Frank Miller's 300 succeeds in bringing the book to moving life. Throughout the run of the film it was hard not to get lost in the beautiful visuals. Whether it was the muted color pallette which puts most of the scenes in an almost sepia-tone look to over-emphasizing certain colors to set a certain mood. From oversaturation of reds in one sequence to one where everything seem to be tinted with the many shades of blues at night. This is what 300 will be best remembered for. It's technical use of CGI to paint the environment in unrealistic but beautiful ways which gives the scenes a 3-dimensional look to them when the actors are superimposed over them. The film really is a painting come to life and it shows once again how computer technology has now afforded directors in making what used to be impossible logistically to something that could be done with the limit being the artist's imagination.
This movie will not win many acting, directing and even screenwriting awards, but it doesn't have to for people to enjoy it. It will entertain and pull its audience into a living and modern retelling of a legend. Whether all that happened on the screen was exactly as it happened in 480 B.C. doesn't matter. What it does show is that through retelling down the years even all the embellishments added to the story of Leonidas and his men doesn't diminish the fact that they did something heroic. For those excited to see 300 I am preaching to the choir. For those who are not quick to fall to the hype given the film I still recommend it for the epic spectacle Snyder and his band of filmmakers have put on the screen.
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Customer reviews
This PHALANX Shall Not Be Broken!
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2014
This film is the most wildly popular in the USA, and with good reason. Americans think like Spartans. And to this very day, the essential Spartan discipline is the American culture's predominant mindset: to show compassion is to show weakness (even when you feel it and are guided by it and by honor, and by conscience, you must not show it, or the enemy will try to trick you and use it against you; you must never, ever weep!), all the weak and disabled should either adapt or die (I intend absolutely no offense here, as I myself am severely disabled, but I got that way primarily by fighting, and I would have deserved to perish had I not adapted, and I haven't betrayed my cause, as I will remain faithful to until I die!), and that to ever give ground or admit to fault is an unacceptable loss of face, and of course my perennial favorite: that to SURRENDER is to LOSE FACE and lose the ENTIRE BATTLE! Better to die with honor than live on as a coward and turncoat! The only thing that made this nation great is that it is peopled by fierce WARRIORS. It is a vast and mighty Empire now, but not all too long ago it was "The Few Who Stood Against The Many!" It is why my family moved here - and like many viewers for their own reasons, I am grateful to be reminded of my own gloriously warlike past, even if it makes me want to fight everybody I see just for the sheer fun of it! I MUST POINT OUT THAT MANY OF THE BATTLE TECHNIQUES USED BY THE SPARTANS REMIND ME OF THOSE USED BY THE 'VIKING' NORDIC FOLK, PARTICULARLY THE PHALANX FORMED BY PLACEMENT OF THEIR SHIELDS. There are other parallels. In various parts of the world are such superior techniques AND OTHERS, such as the full-throated war cry, used by the fiercest and most fearless warriors. As in fact by the CELTS as well; as by the ancient and terrifying GAELS, MY OWN PEOPLE! With good reason. A true warrior the world over is not hard to spot, and they are rare who fight with honor. In this case: the best part is that by their deeply honorable "defeat" they actually WON - the rest of their people were inspired by it at last, and on to victory.A comment on the cinematography: the historical drama here and its events are illustrated with a type of cinematography that is absolutely modern in style; geared to the young, the style sets trends and incorporates elements that didn't even exist a few years before this movie was made (2007). Acting and creative filming, new camera angles and fascinating use of color and texture, plus adding some CGI to the mix to create motion on a scale that one could not have accomplished with filming alone. Cheaper and less adept filmmakers have attempted to copy this style with less than inspired results.I give very few five-star ratings. One must be stingy with them by definition or they lose meaning. I did not hesitate here."We are SPARTAAAAAAANS!"Well said.
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2014
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300 [2006 / 2012] [Premium Collection SteelBook] [Blu-ray + UV Copy]
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 25, 2014Ronald Delval
Meme'd to death, over the top to the extreme but still... flawless!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 21, 2019
Robert Laffan
Rare now but there's a blu-ray version also, so...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 5, 2016
