"Sin City"-like Miller adaptation. Relatively close to source material. It's nice.....

Rating: 7/10 (17 March 2007)

I saw 300 last night. I could have written something last night, but I wanted to let my limbic system soak all of what I had seen. This morning, while watching a rather swashbuckling maneuver performed by a certain young Jedi on a desert barge, I realized something. There is a condition present in most homo sapien males. I like to call it "Pretty Woman syndrome". I do not know the correct medical term, but it is present. Pretty woman syndrome can be defined by the subconscious desire to reconcile the "life partner" as both a friend, confidant, mother,etc. and the sexually aggressive and insatiability of the "whore". How does one reconcile these two ideas, without having one or the other, but both? Hollywood and the movies have perpetuated such ideas and fantasies. In Pretty Woman, a man "rescues" a prostitute with a heart of gold and turns her into a lady. Star Wars reconciles the princess to slave girl back to princess, in a strange turn of movie moral and symbolism. I know what you are thinking and yes I know it's his sister and thats the symbolism.
I also just realized that Pretty Woman was geared toward females, so there must be some cultural/feminine aspects to my theory as well. The idea of ultimate redemption and cleansing. Past sins can be erased. This isn't just a male fantasy. I also realized that the ultimate realization of said fantasy for males is having two partners, each with their respective sexual role.
You are probably wondering what that has to do with this movie. It is simply the first thing that resonated immediately after letting 300 soak into my subconscious and sleeping mind. It is the idea that movies provide, project and proliferate desires. 300 serves as the carnal blood lust that "modern living" tries to suppress and diminish (i.e. - Fight Club logic). It stimulates that desire.
The story is the aboriginal template of a few-against-many scenario in a no-win-situation (Gladiator, Conan and the Kobayashi Maru). It is based on the 5 part Dark Horse comic series in which Frank Miller adapts the historical Battle of Thermopylae. To be quite fair even back in 1998, I felt the story was not the greatest. I wasn't knocked down by the story and its execution. The dialog and interactions are a bit peppered and melodramatic. Unlike most movies that work from a terrible source and then bury it (or the occasional great material being stifled), this movie was working with an average source and elevated it to the highest it can achieve. It is stunted by the source. What it does well is that it does the interpretation by the book, literally almost. The only exception would have to be the lapse of the failed suicide attempt of Ephialtes. Also the director takes some artistic licensing with the "exoticism" of the Persians. There are units and situations completely fabricated by the movie itself. Their inclusion is simply for the visceral effect. It increases the campiness, while decreasing the realism. Maybe that will change on the DVD. It will probably include the all nude, unedited and extended version of the movie - a.k.a the "Spartan Version".
Director, Zack Snyder (who did a great job of re-imagining Romero's Dawn of the Dead), should get kudos for creating a visually stunning and faithful to the source movie. The problem lies with Frank Miller. I believe he might be better at writing noir and noir-like material then sword and sandal epics. I mean lets not forget what Miller did to his futuristic, female protagonist , Martha Washington. He stranded her in space. The movie overdid the use of the action speed "effects". They were quite good, just overused. The other major problem was with the dialog. Though accurate to the comic, when done by actors it seemed quite melodramatic. The sheer number of speeches and over narration, gave the movie a comical aspect at times. We've all heard the "freedom"/"revenge" speech right before a do-or-die battle. Here it didn't do much but give me the chuckles. Even though there is action in the movie, it is not a typical action movie. It does have a political agenda, but it is hard to discern exactly what that is at times. All I know is that after watching V for Vendetta, I felt like blowing stuff up (at least in a game environment). This movie makes we want to do the same with a sword or maybe a spear.
I recommend watching this movie without the dialog. Just watch it with the soundtrack or maybe even substitute your own music tracks. Watch it in silence. It seems quite spartan that way. The advantage of the book is that the dialog can be skipped. The comic retains the "cave man painting on the wall" type communication. You don't need the dialog. It is art. It has a message. By proxy, if the movie is a faithful adaptation, then it also retains that same message.
The trailers are starting to hurt the movies. At this point it seems like trailers have become bullet points for the content. This is far from the 21st Soul Music Awards. It is good. It has value and it should be repeatedly watched. I wish that I hadn't seen the trailer. Anyone know a bald Hatian mutant I can consult with ?