One hell of a movie

Rating: 8/10 (19 March 2007)

Gods and God, Heroes, Legends, Fables, Mentors - even Movie Stars. Figures we look up to, that inspire us. External, made in our own image, or just something that we latch onto. We escape from ourselves for a moment, become more like them. With comic-book heroes we explore broad brush-stroke ideas of heroism, romance. Cinema has been used throughout its history to raise morale or for more overt politics. Comic-book adaptations span many genres from Batman stories to examinations of existentialism (Ghost World) or reinventing neo-noir (Sin City). Based on a comic based on a film based on ancient history, 300 explodes onto screens with stark adult images of bare-chested warriors and overtly sexual Oracles. It sweeps us into a world of fantasy, but with intense bloody violence like Tarantino movies, and "Freedom" battle-cries reminiscent of Braveheart. It tells of 300 heroic, highly trained warriors that pitch themselves against an army numbering one million. If they die, they don't die in vain. They will inspire. They will stand for liberty. They will be the catalyst for ultimate victory and the establishment of a far-reaching moral order.
King Leonidas of Ancient Sparta receives an emissary from the Persian Empire. Earth and Water, if you please, the Spartans are told, else we'll kick you to a kingdom near you where you don't wanna go. Leonidas responds to this bit of diplomacy by unceremoniously kicking emissary and entourage down a big pit.
Before Leonidas can whop these aliens from Asia for being so damn cheeky, he has to ask the Oracle, a beautiful, writhing, naked young blossom being letched over by particularly ugly, deformed mystics (called Ephors - think Orcs with sex drives). Xerxes, the Persian ruler, knows well the oracles will tell Leonidas to back off as there's a religious festival due, which they do. Guessing the cunning plan, but unable to go directly against holy Ephors, Leonidas "goes for a walk" - together with his personal bodyguard of 300 crack soldiers.
Leonidas' wife, Queen Gorgo, stays behind. Although women can open their mouths at formal events, she's still regarded as pretty second class by the all male politicians. Gorgo shows she's a Sparta woman through and through. Brave, intelligent, willing to sacrifice herself as forcefully as any male warrior, she gives a speech that would out-Maggie Thatcher. And unlike most women leaders, she's sexy and feminine.
Leonidas' men, helped by woosey Athenians, acquit themselves in a manner that to put CGIs to shame (if they weren't so awesome). Like Mel Gibson in Braveheart, he has learnt to shout words like 'freedom' and 'democracy' until his men go into a hypnotic rage of murderous joy. And he has his wife to thank for it. What's a king to do, faced with the choice between religious law and a threat to his country? She tells him to ask, "What should a free man do?" Gorgo made no mistake in taking his mind off the 18-year old slut down the temple.
"A new age has come, an age of freedom!" echoes through the film. "We rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny." But although historians are already arguing over the historical accuracy or lack of it, it seems palpable that much was invented or changed to make the story, visuals, and moral imperatives 'more cool' than they ever were in ancient times. The shred of historicity seems a mere device to assist suspension of disbelief. Landscapes have the menacing simplicity of Sin City. Unlike Sin City, they are more seamlessly lifelike, yet still retain an air of fantasy. It's almost like Lord of the Rings for grown-ups.
Acting is gritty throughout. Special effects could send you into Exorcist mode if you've just had lunch. Cinematography is consistently atmospheric. It feels like a two-hour descent into Mordor that makes Gladiator look gay. But if this movie can effectively get your rocks off, no review is entirely complete without acknowledging the political upheavals even as it is released.
"Hollywood declares war on Iranians," read a headline in Iran's independent Ayende-No newspaper. A Persian journalist (born of Iranian parents in Greece) wrote, "There has been no agenda on the part of the original novelist, movie director, cast and crew to promote an anti-Iranian agenda. The movie however (no matter how sincerely it was intended as entertainment), is nevertheless purveying messages; messages most certainly unintended by Miller or the film producers." Which is probably a bit closer to the truth. But is that wrong?
Decent Americans, at the time of the movie's release, are going through a period of schism and intense self-doubt over their increasing losses in Iraq. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the war, the families and friends of those who have lost men and women there need sources of succour and belief in themselves. The film provides heroic stereotypes who die for their beliefs and find ways of justifying or coming to terms with the accompanying grief. In 300, reverence for race, religion and sexual preferences are given short shrift. If the movie claimed to represent history and the peoples in it accurately, it would be offensive to common sense. But it does not. It is, feels like, and looks like, a comic-strip simplification and glorification of a battle. It will make much of its target audience feel good about itself. As propaganda, it is no worse, or rather far less harmful, than the propaganda churned out on a smaller scale by many Islamic countries for internal consumption. I did not find the depiction of Persians at all belittling. They look as glorious in their majesty and technical achievements as the Spartans look ferocious. The main audiences understand it is light entertainment, however baffling it may be to eastern minds (just as Manga can be baffling or even offensive to Western minds).
300 is, at a pinch, not a beacon of political correctness, but it is one hell of a movie.