Anybody seen it?
It doesn't claim to be historically correct, and they filmed it like a comic book. But I have to say... I liked it. It was brutal in parts, but elegant in a way. Amidst the violence was some real emotion, and a good story I thought. It worked.
Thoughts?
Full Version: 300
I saw it ... it was okay. I thought it was visually spectacular, and decent in terms of acting and writing. I have a bias against narratives that glorify violence and war, so it didn't really speak to me on a deep level, but it was worth the price of rental.
I freaking LOVED it and bought the dvd the day it was released I was so excited to see it again.
I, uh, usually don't have problems with glorified blood, gore & violence. I say bring. it. Especially in these types of movies like 300 (also: Kill Bill's, Sin City, An American Werewolf In London, blahblah, that's all I can think of off the top of my head). Oooh, not to mention finally seeing the Grindhouse flicks Deathproof and Planet Terror last week. Toooootally awesome.
I, uh, usually don't have problems with glorified blood, gore & violence. I say bring. it. Especially in these types of movies like 300 (also: Kill Bill's, Sin City, An American Werewolf In London, blahblah, that's all I can think of off the top of my head). Oooh, not to mention finally seeing the Grindhouse flicks Deathproof and Planet Terror last week. Toooootally awesome.
I did some light poking around, and found that the real battle did in fact have 300 Spartans... along with around 5K other Greeks. Still, the Persian Army was 2.5 million, and were held off for three days by the 5K or so, while the Greeks managed to arrange their Naval attack and eventually win the decisive battle, sending the Persians home in defeat and ending the spread of that Empire. Pretty amazing story of will and tactics, even if (to Becky's point) it does glorify war to say so.
QUOTE (FallingLeaf @ Nov 8 2007, 09:55 AM) 
I did some light poking around, and found that the real battle did in fact have 300 Spartans... along with around 5K other Greeks. Still, the Persian Army was 2.5 million, and were held off for three days by the 5K or so, while the Greeks managed to arrange their Naval attack and eventually win the decisive battle, sending the Persians home in defeat and ending the spread of that Empire. Pretty amazing story of will and tactics, even if (to Becky's point) it does glorify war to say so.
Also, in the real battle, the Persian "Immortals" fell so quickly because their shields were made of bamboo, or some similarly flimsy material that worked against arrows but not against enormous metal spears. The Spartans were tactically clever, but also succeeded (temporarily) by being lucky enough to have better armor and weapons than their opponents. (The story is still pretty amazing, though.)
Just to clarify: I'm not saying there's never a time and place for a good war story or a really violent film, even though the notion of a "good war" is questionable to me. I just wasn't moved deeply by this one.
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