300
US, 2007, 117 minutes, Colour.
Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro .
Directed by Zac Snyder.
This has to be one of the most macho films ever. It also has to be one of the most bellicose ever. For the net surfer, it is worthwhile (and alarming) to read the rave reviews from the fans within a few days of its first screenings.
Of course, it has to be bellicose in some ways since it is the story of the 300 Spartans under the leadership of Leonidas to delay the advance of Xerxes and his thousands of Persian troops at the battle of Thermopylae. (However, it does have the claim at the end that the film bears no relation to any actual persons or incidents and any similarities are coincidental!!)
What makes 300 different from other stories from ancient Greece (like Oliver Stone’s Alexander) is that it is based on a graphic novel. The author is Frank Miller who wrote Sin City. In fact, the visual and editing style of the film is like that of a graphic novel. The framing is generally like the panels of a comic. The actors are photographed to look like graphic figures as are many of the action sequences. It is the same with the editing as we move from one incident to another, a panel-like edit cuts. So, it is not meant to be looked at like a re-creation of actual history.
There are lots of computer effects, especially for the Persian hordes and the overwhelming numbers, the real/mythical tactics with a charging rhinoceros, elephants, giants and monsters. This is all adrenalin pumping stuff.
The film opens with the birth of Leonidas and the warrior culture of Sparta, taking the boys from their parents, training them to fight at the earliest age, sending them out of the community to survive an initiation experience, overcoming the onslaughts of savage beasts. Leonidas becomes ruler of Sparta which operates on an immediate graphic novel kind of morality. When the admittedly obnoxious delegates from Xerxes arrive in Sparta, they are dispatched without a qualm. Before Leonidas goes to battle, he has to climb a sheer mountainside and deal with the conservative and money grabbing priests who claim the gods are against his immediate going.
When he goes with his 300, despite the ritual objections, Sparta is under the control of Theron (a dastardly Dominic West) and Leonidas’ wife, Lena Headey, who is both valiant and beautiful and dedicated to the ethos of Sparta.
The battles are sometimes interesting with the phalanx formations pushing back the Persians, the shields saving them from deluges of arrows. But, the slashing and cutting goes on and on with an enormous body count (with a mound of bodies at one stage used to stop the Persian advance). Gerard Butler (last seen as The Phantom of the Opera) is buffed and built-up but retains his Scots accent. The accent of David Wenham who fights but survives and returns to Sparta to tell the tale might be described as ‘broken-mythical’.
As regards the macho emphasis, that was what Sparta was like and these Spartans go into battle in their minimal uniforms and oiled chests and biceps. Judging by some reaction at the screening, 300 could become a cult classic for members of gay body builders clubs (especially if they have a hankering to be mercenaries) – there were wolf whistles when the tall, oiled and bechained and pierced Xerxes arrived.
Some of the dialogue sounds very US hawkish, the noble goodies from the West who are not to be cowed by advancing enemies from the middle east so that Greece is saved from the uncivilised and the mystical. That is uncomfortably bellicose as well.
1. History? The Greek battles against the Persians? Presented in a graphic novel style? The effect, audiences learning anything? Experiencing the Spartan defence of Thermopylae?
2. The film and its graphic visuals, the colour of a graphic novel, the desaturated colour, the wide screen, the framing of the sequences, the editing of some sequences to indicate panels of action, the characters, the sketches for the characters, larger than life, fantasy creatures, the imagination? The blend of the real, the natural and the spectacular? Special effects – especially for the creatures, the battles, the Persian hordes? The musical score?
3. The rhetorical style of the screenplay, Dilios and his voice-over and accent, information about Sparta, children, training, praising Leonidas, describing the training, the war, the heroics, the Spartans and the Persians, the military, the glory, the machismo? His surviving at the end? His telling the story to the Spartans – and the famous message of the three hundred to go tell the Spartans …?
4. The issues in 2007, the confrontations between East and West, the description of the East as mysticism and tyranny? A warmongering attitude – though in defence of freedom? The implied parallels with Islam and Persia? The Greeks and reason, freedom, civilisation? The jokes about civilisation?
5. The graphic novel and computer game style, the machismo, bellicose attitudes, the effect on the young? Frank Miller and his graphic novels?
6. Audience knowledge of the Spartans, the attacks of Xerxes and the Persians? (And the claim that all incidents and characters were fictitious at the end?) Sparta, the 5th century BC, a military state, not allowing any weak children to live, the images of the skulls? The weak man escaping with his parents – later rejected as military, being the traitor? The strong women, the boys and their military training, the build-up to warrior training, initiation as warriors, the return home? The background of Spartan religion and the old gods, lores? In relationship with the other Greeks?
7. The description of Sparta, the boys, Leonidas, hero, as a boy, as a youth, weapons and wits? Fighting the wolf in his initiation, luring him into the narrow ravine, killing him? The return as a hero? His marriage, his son? Thelon and the elders?
8. The Persian delegates, their arrogance, deriding the queen, Leonidas putting them to death, their falling into the pit? Going to war? His climbing the mountain, the dangers, his strength, confronting the priests, their decadent look, wanting money? The requirements of the law? Thelon and his abiding by the law? Leonidas and his taking the Spartans – for a walk?
9. At home, the queen, going to her adviser, wanting to reinforce the troops, the plan for her speaking to the elders, getting Thelon on-side, his role, his attitude, sexual brutality? The confrontation in front of the elders, Thelon and his denouncing and humiliating the queen, her killing him, the discovery that he was in the pay of Persia? A traitor?
10. Thermopylae, the narrow ravine, at the edge of the sea, the strategies? The encounter with the deformed man, the discussions, his history, Leonidas’ sympathetic listening, not being able to use him? His disappointment, throwing the shield away, going to the Persians, tempted, his lusts, trying to persuade Leonidas?
11. The background of Spartan training, the phalanx and its detail, the waiting, the hordes and the onslaught, the slaughter, Xerxes and his style, seeing himself as a god, the confrontation with Leonidas? The graphic novel details of the groups of enemies, the immortals, the warrior giant, the giant shower of arrows and the Spartans using their shields, fighting in the shade? The huge warrior, the rhinoceros, the elephants? Using the mound of bodies, falling into the sea? The Arcadians and their helping – but deciding to withdraw?
12. The valour of the Spartans, the details of the action, Dilios and his losing his eye? The captain and his beheaded son, going berserk?
13. The betrayal, the ultimate confrontation, Leonidas taking off his helmet, bowing before Xerxes, throwing his spear and wounding Xerxes’ face? His heroic death? The death of all the Spartans?
14. Dilios and his return through the fields, the news of the Battle of Platea, the defeat of the Persians? The icon and mural effect of the soldiers dead in war? The hymn to heroism?
15. The final song? Heroes and loss? The overall effect – matinee or some harmful effects in the presentation of this kind of brutality, bellicose attitudes, machismo?
