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Director -
Zack Snyder
Writers - Zack Snyder, Kurt
Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon, based on the graphic novel by Frank
Miller and Lynn Varley
Director
of photography - Larry Fong
Editor -
William Hoy
Music -
Tyler Bates
Production
designer - James Bissell
Producers -
Gianni Nunnari, Mark Canton, Bernie Goldmann and Jeffrey Silver
Released
by Warner Brothers Pictures.
116 minutes. Rated
R for bloodshed and sex scenes.
STARRING: Gerard Butler (King Leonidas), Lena
Headey (Queen Gorgo), Dominic West (Theron), David Wenham (Dilios),
Vincent Regan (Captain), Michael Fassbender (Stelios), Tom Wisdom (Astinos),
Andrew Pleavin (Daxos), Andrew Tiernan (Ephialtes) and Rodrigo Santoro
(Xerxes).
300
is proof that we are living in a bold new era of filmmaking. An era
where, thanks to the prevalence of technology, movie directors can have
an almost godlike control over nearly every facet of their movie—right
down to the very last strand of hair, bead of sweat, and, in the case of
300, drop of blood. A director’s vision can now be
captured and delivered on the silver screen to an extent that would’ve
been inconceivable even five years ago.
Of
course, even with that unbelievable level of power and technology, some
truths of the artform remain the same. All of that control is worthless
if there isn’t a story lying somewhere at the heart of the astounding
visuals, if those visuals aren’t populated by compelling characters.
And in the case of 300, that is painfully obvious from
almost the very first frame.
Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel take on the Battle of Thermopylae,
300 presents an uber-mythological take on the legendary
battle. It is the year 480 B.C., and Leonidas (Gerard Butler), the king
of Sparta, has received a disturbing message. Xerxes, the king of
Persia and the mightiest ruler in the world, has set his eyes on
Greece. His emissaries bear messages of doom and gloom, promising
annhilation to those who resist Xerxes’ god-like power. Leonidas, being
the proud Spartan that he is, promptly kicks Xerxes’ messenger down the
well, all but sealing his country’s fate.
Leonidas is confident that his warriors, considered the finest in all of
Greece, will be able to hold their own against Xerxes’ armada.
Unfortunately, a slight scheduling conflict with a religious festival
means Leonidas has no army with which to battle Xerxes. Defying the
religious leaders and Sparta’s ruling council, he assembles 300 of his
best warriors and leads them from Sparta in a seemingly hopeless attempt
to stave off the Persian army.
Their plan is to trap the Persians in a narrow pass, thus forcing the
Persians to come at them a few at a time, eliminating the Persians’
numerical advantage. And at first, it works. The Spartans’ superior
fighting skills and impenetrable position actually begin to make dents
in the Persian army, despite the myriad forces—foot soldiers, cavalry,
giant mutants, armored rhinos, magicians, ninjas(!)—that Xerxes throws
at them. Meanwhile, Leonidas’ queen, Gorgo (Lena Headey), does her best
to persuade the council to send more troops to her husband’s aid.
However, it’s only a matter of time before the 300 are worn down, before
Greece falls under Xerxes’ barbaric rule.
Most
of the praise being heaped on 300 is due primarily to the
film’s visuals. Shot almost entirely against a bluescreen that allowed
director Zack Snyder to craft any number of backdrops and effects that
the actors could then be inserted into seamlessly, the film is certainly
striking. The entire film has been given a golden, patina-like sheen
from which the Spartans’ crimson cloaks and considerable amount of
onscreen blood leap out.
The
look is quite fitting, since the film is less interested in being a
historically accurate rendition of the battle—I’m no expert in ancient
history, but I don’t think the Persian army was led by a eight foot tall
man covered in gold chains, or had four hundred pound mutants with
sawblades for arms, or had ninjas—and more interested in capturing a
mythological version of the events, the way that 5th century Greeks
might remember the Spartans’ bravery and the Persians’ horrors.
Furthermore, Snyder does everything he can to make the battles as
impressive and massive as possible. The film’s many conflicts are
choreographed to within an inch of their life, transforming the actors’
movements into a virtual ballet of shields, spears, swords, showers of
blood, and dismembered limbs. The film speed and editing is jockeyed
back and forth from hyper-kinetic to glacially slow, the camera spinning
around in dizzying patterns, all to ensure that the viewer catches every
bone-crunching, flesh-slicing moment in gruesome, intricate detail.
But
the film’s considerable visual prowess comes at a price. The film’s
look is so hyper-realistic, so stylized that it ends up feeling sterile
and artificial, appreciable only on a technical level but actually
robbing 300 of any truly visceral impact—ironic considering
the amount of blood spilt in nearly every frame.
It
also doesn’t help that the visuals come at the cost of any meaningful
character development or depth. Despite the considerable death and
carnage dealt throughout the film, I challenge anyone to find a single
moment where they felt any significant emotion for any of the
characters, for good or ill. The people in the film are less characters
and more cannon fodder, existing only to dismember and be dismembered.
The
film’s attempts to flesh out the characters, to make them more human,
fall short. The passionate sex scene between Leonidas and Gorgo on the
eve of battle is more humorous than passionate, especially when they
start working their way through various positions. Or when it’s
revealed that two of the soldiers in Leonidas’ group are father and son,
it does little in humanizing the soldiers. It just means that you know
one of them is going to be dispatched in a particularly gruesome
manner. Thus, there’s no feeling of tragedy or loss when one of the
Spartans falls in combat, since we’ve never been able to care of them.
Instead, we’re given an excuse to feel bloodlust, to cheer when
someone—anyone—gets mowed down, be they friend or foe.
Some
might argue that I’m expecting too much from the movie, that I should
have simply shut off my brain and enjoyed the endless rivers of blood
for what they were worth. After all, the trailers, posters, etc. make
it perfectly clear that 300 isn’t intending to win any
awards for performances. So why not simply enjoy the film for what is,
a fantastical, bloodsoaked, visually lavish hack n’ slash period piece?
Well, I honestly wish I could have done just that. Except that
300 itself constantly tries to pass itself off as something
deeper, something more serious than some mere hack n’ slash period piece
with its heart on its sleeve and its tongue planted firmly in its cheek.
If
the film hadn’t taken itself so seriously, if instead it just revelled
in the carnage and mindblowing action, I could perhaps respect and
possibly even enjoy it on that simple, visceral level. But instead, we
get a film full of portentous, chest-thumping speeches about honor,
dignity, sacrifice, and glory. For as much time as Leonidas and his men
spend disembowling their enemies, they spend just about as much time
exchanging “meaningful” glances and rousing eachother with one
impassioned-yet-clunky speech about honor and duty after another.
All
of the speeches about honor and glory also begin ringing hollow once you
remember that the Spartans themselves aren’t too honorable and glorious
when you come right down to it. They may not throw the lavish, decadent
orgies that Xerxes throws—which we see in all of their splendor, right
down to the limbless transsexual strippers—but then again, Spartans
practice infanticide, child abuse, and brainwashing—things the film
makes clear, and even states with pride, within the very first frames.
If
the film had dealt with the discrepancy between the Spartans’ claims of
glory and their brutality as a culture, that would’ve been something
interesting and serious. But it’s not, and so all of the Spartans’ talk
comes off as mere jingoism and blind patriotism, words to pass the time
until the next Persian assault, the next opportunity for decaptitations
and dismemberings.
I
say this only because I’ve read so many comments about people praising
this film as one that celebrates honor, freedom, standing up to tyranny,
and so on. And yet, looking back on the film, I find it difficult to
see that unless it’s with a
very
healthy dose of irony.
Zack
Snyder’s next planned film is an adaptation of another comic book, this
time The Watchmen, which is about as seminal and important
a book as they come. I have no doubt that Snyder will nail the book’s
visuals, from Dr. Manhattan’s Martian fortress to the climactic scenes
of devastation. I’m less convinced, however, based on 300‘s
bluntness, that he’ll be able to do justice to The Watchmen‘s
labyrinthine, multi-layered plot and complex, troubled characters.
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