Review: 300
Released in 2006 and receiving no Academy Award or Golden Globe nominations (surprisingly missing out on a special effects nom), 300 is about a band of Spartan soldiers who decide to stand against the million-man march of the Persian army as it attempts to conquer Greece, mainly by cutting off limbs in slow motion. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler, lapsing inexplicably into and out of his thick Scottish accent) leads the defense despite lacking the favor of the gods and the revered inbreds. Meanwhile, Leonidas’ wife Queen Gorgo (what a name, played by Lena Headey with some Ann Coulter-style coldness and ferocity) faces her own battle at home, with a double-crossing politician (Dominic West, delightfully sinister) forcing her into betrayal.
Unless you dislike violence (in movies; most people dislike violence in life, though strange that we love it so much on the big screen), you’ll probably like this movie on the first go-through. The visuals are stunning. The acting is campy without inducing cringes. David Wenham’s narration is extra campy but actually makes the film enjoyable with its over-the-top, boasting grandeur. There’s the typical hero talk, the usual love of the motherland, and required defense to the glorified death. Operatic crescendos mix with grinding rock to underscore the film, which can go from full-throttle action one minute to incredibly dull intrigue the next. The intrigue isn’t really all that bad, but when it’s put alongside the action, it doesn’t keep up.
The film just looks beautiful, even during its grisly moments. Sure, everything is engineered by computers, but so what? It takes just as much skill to make a beautiful digital shot as it does to make a beautiful standard shot, just different kinds of skill. Saying digital isn’t real falsely suggests that old-fashioned filming is real. It’s all staged, and in this case, digital does it better. The color tints, the slow motion, the almost grainy, evenly aged texture — it’s all captivating.
And it’s all a distraction. Watch the film again, and you’re not awed so much as appalled. Well, that’s speaking for myself. But contemporary politics and rhetoric are spouted so vociferously by each and every character that it’s hard not to get annoyed if you’re really listening, regardless of how you feel. What’s all this talk about rights, the rights of free people, and boy-loving? “Boy-loving” wasn’t an issue back then; the concept of homosexuality didn’t exist. It was for them like video games are for us; some people like it, some people hate it, some people don’t care. But it wasn’t a big deal, probably less of an issue than video games are for us.
And rights? “What would a free man do?” Please. The dialog about these rights and the state of man is so heavy-handed that it’s insulting. Leonidas wants to follow the Law, but the Law’s preventing him from doing what he just knows is right for his people. Too bad he didn’t have his own Patriot Act.
300 is a devious, subversive film from a “liberal” point of view. Because on the one hand, it’s great entertainment. One the other hand, it strongly promotes a philosophy of intolerance and peace by whatever means, as long as that means includes violence, and as long as that peace is only secured for the Greeks (or: us).
