The truth is NOT the point

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2007)

First things first: this film rocks! And it rocks hard. Visually stunning. Viscerally exciting. Seemingly shot not, as claimed, digitally, but in fact assembled out of pure testosterone, 300 is a hard case and no mistake. One review that I read suggested there was little by way of character development, but that misses the point  this is history as myth, so archetypal characters are painted with broad strokes  there is no need for nuances. The story is this: 300 immensely tough guys fight off 1,000,000 less tough guys for three days. And that's it. What's their motivation. Well, conquest for the million and not being beaten despite ever-so-slightly unfavourable odds for the 300. Who needs backstory? Another criticism I've seen is overuse of slo-mo, but my assumption was that this was in homage to the graphic novel, allowing some scenes to come almost to a standstill, a tribute to Frank Miller's art. Again, I felt it worked well. Another criticism is that it promotes a USA/western European agenda against Iran. Clearly this makes perfect sense as the Persians didn't sweep across Europe conquering everyone in their path and there is no room in art for telling stories from one perspectivehang on, that's stupid! Once again, this is history as myth. It is not an accurate portrayal of facts, and makes no pretence about this. If you see a subtext that involves the Spartans sneakily thieving Persian oilfields you are an imbecile.
Whilst primarily I'd say this was a guy film, my girlfriend thought it was great too. Simply, if you liked Sin City and are able to appreciate different forms of storytelling you'll love this. Go see!!!