[Dean's World] Dave Price: *300*

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Posted by Dave Price:
*300*
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1173974030.shtml


   Itâs easy to see why this film so infuriates the anti-war crowd; it
   almost seems intentionally scripted to do so.

   ([1]Warning: spoilers follow.)

   ([2]hide)
   Itâs not just the glorifying of battle, or the parallels of an
   âillegalâ but just war, or that the 300 Spartans repeatedly refuse to
   negotiate, turning down numerous chances for a comfortable but
   dishonorable peace. Itâs also the mention of âfreedomâ every five
   minutes and the fervent declarations that they will never surrender
   (even as our own Congress debates doing just that), the direct
   reference to the watching audience in the address before the battle at
   Plataea in the final sequence (the speech makes mention of âcenturies
   laterâ, when people will build on the Greek principles in ways âwe
   cannot imagine,â a campy precocity that still somehow works): the
   implication is that without these heroic fighters and their noble
   sacrifice, we would not have the wonders of modern Western
   civilization, and itâs probably not wrong.
   Visually, 300 is spectacular. If you can see the film in IMAX I highly
   recommend doing so. The acting was compelling, especially the vibrant
   ferocity of Leonidas. Xerxes is powerful, diabolical, decadent, the
   perfect symbol of corrupting tyranny . One quibble: the attempt to
   make Xerxes seem eight feet tall only partly works; some of the
   inevitable scaling errors (an eight-foot man does not have the same
   proportions as a six-foot man) are sometimes a little too obvious,
   such as when Xerxes puts his âenormousâ hands on Leonidasâ shoulders.
   Some reviewers have made much of the fact the Spartans had a harsh,
   oligarchic, slaveholding, pederastic society, very different from what
   we would consider âfreeâ today, and have contrasted it to the
   Athenians of the day. But itâs easy to forget that the democratic
   Athens wasnât much better, routinely exiling or executing citizens for
   entirely political reasons at the whim of the Athenian mob. And both
   Sparta and Athens were relatively liberal compared to Persia, where
   the god-king Xerxes was, essentially, the law, and there was little
   concept of individual rights. And of course even our own liberal
   republic was originally founded as a slaveholding state.
   Also, contrary to a few reviews there is actually some âin phalanxâ
   fighting, and though itâs probably not nearly as much as would be
   historically accurate (they break formation pretty quickly), you have
   to give them some artistic license; phalanx fighting is pretty boring
   from a cinematic perspective. As VDH notes often in his various books
   on the subject, entire hoplite battles were usually decided within a
   few minutes of impact, with most fighting outside of the formation
   consisting of the victors cutting down fleeing enemies from behind,
   not the heroic one-on-one combat that makes for such beautiful
   choreographed scenes.
   Overall, a very good movie with a powerful message.

References

   1. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/deanesmay/posts/1173974030.html
   2. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/deanesmay/posts/1173974030.html