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“This! Is! Sparta!” yells the fearless King Leonidas toward the beginning of “300,” a movie so filled with testosterone you’d think it was made by a pro wrestler. It wasn’t, but this is a stylish, intense movie with enough primitive barbarianism and female nudity to make every guy in the audience proudly whisper “awesome” under his breath.
Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is a proud man who’s been raised to fight and never surrender, but in 480 B.C. his Spartan kingdom is threatened by the expanding Persian Empire led by the “God King” Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). Although grossly outnumbered, the 300 men in the Spartan army (all of whom have six-pack abs and muscles bursting through their armor) believe that death on the battlefield in service to Sparta is the greatest glory a soldier can achieve, so on to face the vast Persian army in the Battle of Thermopylae they go.
For a movie filled with Neanderthals fighting to the death, the strategy employed by Leonidas is quite ingenious: he draws the Persians into a narrow passageway between a cliff and the sea, which greatly diminishes the Spartan’s disadvantage in numbers. While Leonidas, his captain (Vincent Regan) and the rest of his men fight, his wife (Lena Headey) tries to convince the duplicitous Theron (Dominic West) and other Senators to send more help to the battlefield.
What’s interesting — and, to an extent, disappointing — is that the bravery and valor displayed on the battlefield here could not happen today, at least not in the same way. Were this modern warfare, bombs would be launched from afar that could promptly eliminate the small Spartan militia. Machine guns would make them easy targets within 100 yards, not to mention the damage that could be done by a plane crossing overhead. The Spartans would no doubt have a response of their own, but it would be a feeble substitute for their strength in hand-to-hand combat.
And what glorious combat it is. Director Zack Snyder has taken Lynn Varley and Frank Miller’s (“Sin City”) graphic novel and brought it to deliriously violent life. With the rustic, almost coarse visual style and slow-motion action sequences that look like images directly lifted from the graphic novel, the movie is a surrealistic marvel that boldly pushes the boundaries of modern filmmaking.
Similar to the way Robert Rodriguez made “Sin City,” Snyder filmed the actors in front of a blue-screen in Montreal and then digitally created the backgrounds, rain, etc. The process has resulted in the inclusion of a visual effect in just about every shot, but what’s overlooked is the difficulty the actors face in making their roles convincing. Often without props or anything to work with besides one another, the cast is wholly believable with passion and courage to spare. And for a movie in which machismo reigns supreme, Headey stands out with a particularly strong performance as the Spartan queen.
“300” delivers exactly as advertised, and is a wonderful jolt of energy for the traditionally slow month of March. This movie is just plain cool.
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jose84miranda
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... This movie was the truth. I to this day walk around in a leather dress with my abs showing cause thats what real men do. Well maybe just 300 real men but real men none the less. |
julietr0se
said:
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... It took me a long time to see this movie but after I finally saw it I fell in love! This movie has great action and lots of blood - just the way I like it! |
dmartinez
said:
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... thought the graphics were amazing and it was non stop action which is something that i look for in an action movie. |
susanpiligian
said:
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... I agree 300 was a really good movie there was alot if action blood and guts shown! Susan  |
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