Stop throwing those bloody spears

Rating: 7/10 (11 April 2007)

Well, well, this seems to have got the hackles up. Let's face it, it's not Citizen Caine, but nor is it Howard the Duck. It's a pretty decent slab of visually stunning untaxing entertainment which spreads the pathos a little too thickly. It seems most people leaving their opinion here would have preferred an Ibsenesque piece involving two characters emoting round a kitchen table while grappling with some contrived character arc and displaying 21st-century sensibilities.
Spartans were not people who believed in multi-culturalism, neither did they adopt sophisticated and nuanced philosophies, I doubt they had much time for self-reflection and in the small time frame of history dealt with in the movie, those that went into battle had little opportunity to evolve their persona. They simply went from being alive to being dead (preferably on their shields). Of course, militaristic, brutal and slave-owning Spartans banging on endlessly about freedom grates somewhat, but they were determined their city state would remain free from outside interference at least.
Athenians were a more thoughtful breed but then they probably wouldn't have lasted three days at Thermopylae. The original source material from Herodotus - and indeed the comic book by Frank Miller - is pretty threadbare in terms of story and the characters involved, so to crowbar personality nuances, plot devices and complex relationships into this simple and eternal story would be ludicrous and tiresome. Herodotus was also a Greek propagandist so to expect a fair depiction of Persians from Hollywood is perhaps naive. To claim the film has some kind of neo con agenda in this era of clashing civilisations is disingenuous and frankly gives the film an importance it doesn't deserve.
300 of course deals with unfashionable ideals - heroism, duty, sacrifice - and in a selfish and cynical age these often jar, and while historical epics are often portentous (Kingdom of Heaven), a rambling mess (Alexander) or just dull (Troy), this movie at least never takes itself too seriously - unlike many who have watched. It's a bloody, brutal pantomime and at a mere couple of hours (short for this genre) fairly rattled along.