300 (C) I went in wanting to hate this movie, but it's too technically proficient for me to do so. On the other hand, my conscience won't let me rate it any higher than a 'C'. If I had to sum it up in a single sentence, I'd say that it's the type of film the fresh-faced teens from Paul Verhoven's "Starship Troopers" would be allowed to see as state-sanctioned entertainment.
Not that I think director Zack Snyder and writer Frank Miller are closet Nazis or anything like that. I believe that Miller's original intent was to pay tribute to the concept of ultimate sacrifice in a historical context, (the Spartan battle at the Hot Gates of Thermopylae) and Snyder saw an opportunity to shoot some wicked cool sword-and-sandal fight scenes in a CGI setting where he literally has dominion over every rock face and blade of grass in the film. The problem is, in the present context, the audience has no choice but to view this film as pro-Iraq war propaganda. And because Snyder and Miller ignore or gloss over some of the more unsavory aspects of classical Sparta, (state-sanctioned homosexuality and pederasty, Sparta's warrior elite supported by a massive Greek slave caste, the fact that the 'boy-loving, ho,ho' Athenians won the war at sea later.) the viewer has no choice but to come to this conclusion.
In the context of the film, King Leonidas' (Gerald Butler) sacrifice seems pointless, since the best he can hope for is to stall the Persians advance a few days. The film has an added sub-plot not in Miller's original comic about Queen Gorgo's (Lena Headly) attempt to rally the other Spartans to aid her husband. The thorn in her side in this case is a Spartan diplomat who's made a deal with the Persians behind everyone's back to undermine the Spartan defense. Interesting to note, he's got a little hipster-left-wing soul patch, which ties him into the Democrat's anti-war stance. No, I don't think that was intentional either, but again, the movie doesn't leave us any choice but to think otherwise...
For what it's worth, Zack Snyder's direction is genuinely thrilling, especially in the battle sequences, which come across as both violent and bloodless, the CG spurts of black-red gore notwithstanding. If he'd shown the same level of sadism that was in Robert Rodriguez' 'Sin City', the movie would be unwatchable. The thing with CGI film making of this level, (and Sin City) is how it flattens out actor's performances. You can imagine the computer artists feverishly pixeling out Butler's spittle flying from his mouth during his speeches. If you've got a bone for comic-to-film translations, however, this movie is about as good as it gets.
As for Frank Miller...Well, if I didn't know of his stature in the comic-book community, I'd swear between this and Sin City that he was a nineteen year old nerd who got basketballs bounced off his head in gym class. (with all the hyper-macho posturing in these two movies, I'd also say he didn't have much luck getting dates, and felt 'funny' in the high school locker room getting changed around the beefy jock students...) He used to have a sense of proportion in his earlier comic work, up until 'The Dark Knight Returns'. All his post-Dark Knight stuff has a joyless, spiteful edge to it, like a surly teenager cursing up a storm after a parent tells him to watch his mouth.
It turns out my earlier jokey post about this movie appealing to gay men and single women in their thirties was dead-on, since in my circle of personal acquaintances, that's who seems to be most stoked about seeing it. I predict if it stays at the top of the box office for more than a few weeks, you'll be seeing a lot of gay porno with a 'classical Spartan' theme...("What ho, Diogestes! Say, my codpiece is loose! Be a sweetie and fix that for me, will you? My hands are full with my spear and shield!" "Ooooh, cheeky!" [cue crappy house music...]) The irony is that gay porn would be oddly more historically accurate than "300".
You know, there's a case to be made for films that explore the nature of war, from "All Quiet on the Western Front" down to "Flags of our Fathers". But this isn't that type of film. Even if it wasn't Snyder and Miller's intention, it's closer in tone to Leni Reifenstahl's 'Triumph of The Will', than Rudolph Mate's 1962 sword-and-sandals b-movie, 'The 300 Spartans'. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really thrill me in the way a hack-and-slash entertainment should, either. Given what we know about Sparta's treatment of its massive slave class, Leonidas' spittle-filled diatribes about how 'FREEDOM ISN'T FREE' (yeah, he says that...) rings really hollow. In this case, a little more historical accuracy would've made for a deeper, richer movie. Maybe in the future we'll see a more mature treatment of this battle. (Stephen Pressman's Gates of Fire comes to mind.) But I wouldn't hold my breath.
While I'm here, I might want to point out another observation of mine. That is, movies based on comics don't generate new comic readers, as much as comics generate more fodder for movies and T.V. to graze from. Once Hollywood gets a string of duds from the 'movies-from-comics' pool, they'll go back to more traditional inspiration. I'm picking Snyder's upcoming adaptation of 'Watchmen' to start the downturn. It'll come out about the time "The Sub-Mariner" hits theaters, presumably...
No comments:
Post a Comment