Movie Review


Reel rating:						4/5
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Reel commentary: ... with more than 300 pairs of testicles to carry the film, this is proof that modern man, while not possessing the physical strength of yore, still holds within his flabby and untoned breast the yearning and eager impulses of brazen warriors ... full review

Movie Review

By Jeremiah Lewis

If only cars ran on testosterone. There'd be enough fuel in one viewing of 300 to power many nations, with enough left over to cause men's heart rates to rise and muscles to bulge imperceptibly. Say hello to Pectoral Theatre. The movie is almost proto-Aryan in its ubermensch mentality--no flabby mutt blood in these characters' veins. They're straight up golden gods in Armani leather thongs, shirtless but for their flowing red capes, the better to reveal their rippling manliness, bringing back to American males the concept of the undiluted heterosexual hero, unaffected by metro-waffle-ness or mousy boy-love. Here is a movie, not just for a man's man, but for a man's man who deep down, is yearning for true masculinity.

If that's not enough of an indicator of the kind of movie 300 tries to be, there's the utter indifference to emotion other than sweaty anger, or the disregard for platitudes such as love or sympathy. All is steamrolled by groin bulges harnessed by sandaled feet and sword arms that swing mercilessly and endlessly through hordes of Persians. This isn't even a slaughterhouse. It's just Mythological Glory times Fight Club angst without anarchy or a moral lesson.

Based on Frank Miller's comic which was adapted from the true story of the Battle of Thermoplylae, the story begins with the narrator (David Wenham) telling the tale of the best and strongest young Spartan boys, who are trained only to fight. Upon completion of a year-long test of endurance and physical prowess, they join the elite of the Spartan army, a 300 man wrecking crew whose exploits are not mere words, but the very backing of an entire kingdom.

The misshapen Ephialtes (ANDREW TIERNAN), spirited away from Sparta by his parents before inspection, displays his skill with a spear.

All images copyright © 2007 Warner Bros. Pictures

Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is one of these boys who grows to be king of Sparta. His kingdom is secure, but with the rumour of King Xerxes and his multi-million man army marching toward Sparta, a certain politician named Theron (Dominic West) seeks to use the coming conflict to his advantage. He knows the king can't fight without the support of the elders, and the elders won't support the king without the oracle. When the bribed oracle forbids war, Leonidas gathers his men and defies both the oracle and the elders, seeking to stem the Persian tide at the rocks of the Thermopylae passage, leaving his wife Gorgo (Lena Headey) to maintain rule of Sparta whilst Theron grasps after the throne.

Not wavering on sentimentality, the movie follows the 300 to the rocky passage where the human toll is high. Thousands of Persians waste themselves upon the bloody spears of the Spartans, who, under Leonidas' leadership, are barely scratched. Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), who fancies himself a deity, attempts to convince Leonidas to bend his knee in return for kingship over all the lands of Greece, but here the history, and current events lesson, runs into murky ground.

Sparta, and King Leonidas himself, are sold to viewers as a champion of reason and self-determination (though aborting live babies who don't make the cut for Spartan perfection is apparently okay). Nevertheless, the allusions to freedom and reason and self-governance play more like a fifth grade theater production about the founding fathers. Nuance is not a virtue of Spartan existence. Facing hordes of Persian spear-fodder, mythical beast-men, mutated rhinos and elephants, and an army of so-called Immortals, reason translates to bloodlust, and the result is a messy, if totally engrossing, modern-day allusion.

Gerard Butler turns heads as the incredibly ripped Leonidas. He carries almost every scene with an excess of charisma and macho deadliness that plays far more intensely than any other on-screen warrior. Zach Snyder, fresh off his highly successful remake to Dawn of the Dead, builds fresh material from what might have been a boring retread of sand-and-sandals epics of the early 1970's. The entire movie, shot on greenscreen, is a visual spectacle, well-choreographed and with more than a fair dosage of vivid, if cartoonish blood.

It is surprising how enjoyable the experience is. With more than 300 pairs of testicles to carry the film, this is proof that modern man, while not possessing the physical strength of yore, still holds within his flabby and untoned breast the yearning and eager impulses of brazen warriors.

Jeremiah Lewis

This review also appears at Fringeblog

Comments

Boomerwang says:
Jun 8, 2007 at 20:26

`badest ass war movie around!!!

j.m.a.d. love ko.. says:
Nov 12, 2007 at 03:08

..uhmmn.. i don\'t understand the movie.. can you explain it??

DVD Information

Screen formats: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 presentation

Subtitles: English; French; Spanish

Language and Sound: English: DTS 5.1 Surround; English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French: DTS 5.1 Surround; Spanish: DTS 5.1 Surround

Other Features: Color; interactive menus; scene access; director's commentary.

Commentary -

Feature-length audio commentary with director Zack Snyder, writer Kurt Johnstad and cinematographer Larry Fong.

Featurette

Easter Egg - featurette that covers the transition from graphic novel to film.

300: Fact or Fiction?" (24:32) - compares the film with reality and goes into a bit more detail of the graphic novel's transition to film.

Who Were the Spartans? - The Warriors of 300 - (04:24) Touches on the Spartan life and customs of the time.

The Frank Miller Tapes (14:30) - Collection of clips with Frank Miller talking about his early life in the comic book industry.

Making-of Featurette (05:48)

Making 300 in Images (03:35)

Webisodes - 12 clips totalling just over 38 minutes

Deleted Scenes

Three scenes that didn't make the final cut.

Number of discs: - 2-Disc Special Edition with Keepcase Packaging

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300 (2007)