300: Old Story, New effects.

Rating: Null/10 (27 January 2008)

300: Old Story, New effects.
While most movies about the classical period have the epic feel of a long bedtime story, Zack Snyder's 300 broke from the flock with its much shorter length and its cool special effects. Arguably, that was the whole movie.
King Leonidas, played by Gerard Butler, leads his Spartan elite corps of 300 against Xerxes' Persian hordes- fighting for freedom, reason, civility, and the like. Obviously the Spartan warrior culture hardly stands for those concepts by today's standards, but for them, it was something to die for. A modern day equivalent of Leonidas' plight might take place in a courtroom in the form of an "Erin Brockovich" versus "some corporation".
The film, however, doesn't really focus on the didactic potential of the story. But instead showcases the grind of ancient combat, souped up by effects we may more closely associate with the Matrix series.
Personally, I dumped those thoughts out of my mind, as well as obvious similarities to Gladiator (partially because of certain scenes, partly because I think Butler totally looks like Russell Crowe) and found the movie overall very enjoyable.
I analyzed it to death afterward, and it went something like this: The film was obviously unreal. I mean I don't doubt that the 300 Spartans must have been a clever and disciplined bunch, but Xerxes couldn't care more with his melange of immortals, Mongoloid mercenaries, elephants, and such. It was a modern adaptation, for a modern audience, done through modern cultural vision goggles- it can't possibly be real.
So what, then, it's about the special effects; the shock of gore and the psycho-emotional thrill ride (it was Frank Miller's idea, so expect Sin City elements), isn't it? If so, is it all bad? Doesn't this idea encapsulate all modern media? If we were to take the spunk out of it all- action without effects, comedy without laugh track, drama without constant music- would it stand on its own? Would we be interested without the hype of glamour and gloss? Reality blows, obviously, and story-telling is an art that requires those psycho-emotional thrill rides.
This is a depressing thought but I'm sure most of you will continue to enjoy media's special effects, I know I will. I enjoyed 300, albeit it lacks the aftertaste of other better movies. The silly analysis of modern media came later, which isn't very important.
Upon second thought, this movie is actually a cash cow. Whenever a movie lacks original plot, didactic plot in favour of special effects, the cash cow possibility kicks in. To compound that, I know I've mentioned that the film can't possibly be real, here's one more reason why (pay attention ladies and 10% of you men): Those buff Spartans are all half naked! Please refer to your Classics professor about whether or not Spartans wore breast plates and shin pads like the rest of those classical soldiers. As if that wasn't enough, I don't know what you all use for shaving purposes but I find it dubious that the Greeks of old had such luxuries(so they were fit, cleanly shaved, and half naked, whew).
For what it's worth, 300 is a good cash cow.
-G.G.