Art on a wide canvas

Rating: 9/10 (12 May 2007)

300 is not an historical film, as we understand and define it. It is, for the lack of a better definition, a super-realistic (as in beyond surreal) vision over an historical fact that is in no small way vital to our western identity and culture. Like an art photograph, or a portrait, it attempts to distil the emotions and broad canvas of a time and place. And in it succeeds far beyond what I thought possible from an adaptation of Frank Miller's comic book (or, if you wish, graphic novel). I am a lover of history, and have studied for quite a while ancient Greece, and, as a personal favorite, the Battle of the Thermopylae. Anyone that approaches 300 on hopes of historical accuracy will be sorely disappointed, as almost nothing fits. But one who approaches it from that angle does so in utter ignorance, against all that has been written, promised and otherwise mentioned about it. I must have seen this movie, on my computer, more times than any other movie that I can remember, and always with the pleasure of immersion not on a different time and place, but on a gripping story well told, where 21st century technology meets old campfire story telling. As for Iranians or others feeling offended by it any old story is bound to leave someone offended, if offense is what you constantly seek in this world.