March 10, 2007
Go tell the Spartans...
I saw 300 yesterday. I have to say I was a little bit disappointed. There was too much talking, too many scenes that weren't fight scenes. The fighting itself was fantastic, no question about that. But... I think it could have made a great 90 minute movie, but as it is it's merely a good two hour movie.
300 does manage to be more Homeric than the execrable Troy, which is great. But at times it seems that Snyder is hearing too much Locke and not enough Pericles. This may be a faithful adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel: I've not read it so I can't comment. But there were too many 18th century rhetorical cliches for my tastes.
As far as characterization: yeah, not so much. But this movie really isn't about that. It's about visuals - the coloring is classic, though I found the use of green screens a bit claustrophobic - and kicking tremendous amounts of ass. Still, we need to have some motivation for these people and somehow giving them post-Enlightenment things to say just isn't cutting it. Not really enough history to get a feel for the struggle: who is Xerxes, what is he doing in Greece, who are the Athenians, and where are they? Why is Sparta the only one at the Hot Gates? (They weren't, actually: there were indeed 300 Spartans, but there were up to 7,000 Greeks from other cities.)
I spent a few minutes looking for Thermopylae this evening, but nothing doing: the river at the head of the bay has deposited 3-5 miles of sediment in the last 2500 years, and what was once a pass is now just the bottom of a hill. Apparently at one time it formed a cliff overlooking the bay, but now it's a road with hills on one side and farms on the other. So yeah, it's in there somewhere, but the local topography is unrecognizable.
I am rather bemused by the reviews coming out. Aaron seems to spend much time on the fact that it isn't a particularly good movie, but few others do. Some people are just put off by the bellicosity. Apparently it is now no longer permissible for cultured people to think that war has its uses. It's certainly no longer permissible for there to be anything admirable in Europeans fighting non-Europeans. Still others note the puzzling lack of message in a film that could be entirely relevant if it wanted to (we're currently fighting a war against Persians [at least some of them are anyways] in what used to be part of Persia, so... you figure it out).
Me, I'm waiting for someone to write a screenplay called The Hammer, set in AD 732, within a hundred miles of Paris, when unarmored Franks defeated heavily armed and armored charging Berber cavalry at the Battle of Tours. Stick that in your multicultural pipe and smoke it.
I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I loved this one. In terms of its "depth," it doesn't have too much to offer, and I for one am glad they didn't make it into a statement on current affairs. They basically just made the most badass film they could, and released it.
I can speak to the graphic novel, and yes, it is quite a good adaptation in terms of the visuals. Not quite as far as Sin City, but closer than any others I've seen. Interestingly, there's actually a bit more political intrigue and less grotesquery in the book.
Ultimately, though, I love that it comes down to Leonidas and Gorgo. When the king is facing obvious destruction, it's his love for his wife, not personal glory or ideals, that drives him. I find that gripping (as evidenced by my blog posts to that effect).
I did think the last fight scene should have been a bit more than it was (as it basically wasn't), but I'll forgive it that for its earlier uneclipsed greatness. Also for giving us a sublime hero-death.
A final point of interest: After this one, and his previous excellent remake of Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder is now officially a director to watch (no pun intended; his next film is The Watchmen).
Posted by: Dave at March 12, 2007 9:12 AM