Blood

Rating: 10/10 (11 April 2007)

This is just an awesome film. It combines the feel of a video game with the realism of cinematography and the fascination of ancient history. Gerard Butler is outstanding as King Leonidas of Sparta, a warrior, a husband, a poet, and a king.
The bloody action is incredible, with heads chopped off, arrows and spears piercing every organ of the body, and all the majesty and paraphernalia of ancient warfare, including elephants and a rhino and monsters and a hunchback traitor and shields massed together in the phalanx formation. The well-known story of the decisive heroism of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae in Central Greece in 480 B.C. against the invading Persian hordes of Xerxes is explored in detail.
The male bodies are well-developed, as Spartans should be. Their attitudes toward warfare and freedom are also full of definition. War is seen as a chance for glory and beauty, even in death. And, the death of the 300 Spartans offered Athens the time to prepare for the naval battle of Salamis during the following month, which forced Xerxes to retreat back to Asia.
Warfare in this film is shown to be an artistic exercise, in many respects. And, Homer would have been proud to endorse this film, which combines many of Homer's themes of warfare as found in the Iliad. Finally, perhaps freedom is not "free," but rather simply the consequence of sacrificial heroism in the face of almost overwhelming odds, a feast of patriotism, warrior skills, and death.