300

It was exciting for me to watch 300 after just completing a course in the history of Ancient Greece. I particularly loved how the Spartans made fun of the Athenians as being “boy lovers.” Oh snap, you’re not gonna take that are you Athens? Your rich culture and intellectual abilities could dominate Sparta in a flash – but I digress. I was thoroughly entertained by this adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel and loved how the animated-like elements made it feel like a mythical story, since really that’s how we approach ancient history anyway. I did have some historical issues with it, however, like the fact that Sparta’s main argument against the Persians was that they were free people who would not submit to slavery. Hmmm, interesting. Well Sparta did in fact have slaves, so that doesn’t really work. I guess you could argue that they were saying that the free people of Sparta didn’t want to be enslaved, but they didn’t make that distinction very clear. It was pretty spot on though with the fact that women were very much respected in their society – far more than any other Greek city-state, even Athens. Now, did anyone else notice the many similarities to Lord of the Rings? Not only was there the Gollum-like Ephialtes or the Persians that curiously looked a lot like Orcs, but David Wenham (Faramir in LOTR) was in it. That was only a slight distraction, unlike the abs of every single male in this movie. Hot damn, that’s some good use of airbrushing right there, not to mention those tight Speedos. But seriously now, 300 is a beautiful film, with artistic battle scenes accompanied with rock and trance music (Xerxes’ tent, anyone?), which I thought effectively told an impressive and epic story.

Directed by Zack Snyder
Runtime: 117 minutes