Visceral and Awesome

Rating: 8/10 (17 December 2009)

The best thing about "300" is not the jaw-dropping visuals, not the muscle-toned heroes or the gorgeous women, nor is it the story. The best part about "300" is its visceral enjoyment factor. You gotta love a movie where the characters don't just kick ass and take names, they thoroughly enjoy doing it.
The film is about the Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) who takes 300 of his best soldiers to hold off the Persian advance. Meanwhile, back at home, his beautiful wife, Queen Gorgo (Lena Heady) is getting ready to appeal to the Council of Elders for sending more soldiers to assist Leonidas. But to that end, she has to get them to listen to her instead of Theron (Dominic West), the slimy Elder who wants the position of king for himself.
The first thing one notices about "300" is its visuals. They're spectacular. It's like a painting come to life. The people look like a mix between real and computer generated, but the effect works. The film is highly enjoyable on regular DVD, but it's even better in HD. In his late-written review of the film, Roger Ebert criticized the film for having all the Spartan soldiers be perfectly toned musclemen. He's missing the point. This is a highly stylized film, and having them look like that adds to the visceral enjoyment of the film.
The acting is solid, although unspectacular. Gerard Butler got his big break here as Leonidas. Butler is great as the warrior-king, and knows exactly how to play the character. The film is over-the-top in a very stylized sort of way, and Butler fits right in. It helps that he can scream some of the famous lines in the film, ones that are already going down in history. As his wife, Lena Heady is equal to him. She may be a female, but she's no meek housewife (as one Persian finds out the hard way). One immediately gets the sense that if she could, she'd be fighting right beside her husband. Dominic West is perfectly slimy as the traitorous Theron. Imagine the villainous alter-ego of Mark Wahlberg, and this is who you get. David Wenham is also good as the Dilios, who is also the narrator. He has an interesting voice, and it is used to great effect. Rodrigo Santoro is perfect as the androgynous, but no less menacing Xerxes.
Zack Snyder has a clear knack for visuals. Even if the story was dull, which it's not, it would still be worth watching just to see the visuals. His trademark technique of slowing an image down then immediately speeding it up is used very effectively here, and while he keeps the film over-the-top, he never goes overboard.
This is a very violent film, almost cheerfully so. A story like this needs to have blood, guts, and brutal finishing movies to have its effect. Thank God the studios realized this and allowed it to have an R rating. The film would have been ruined had it been neutered to anything less. It's a shame to think about how many films have been rendered inert from diluting the violence.
Historical accuracy was not a concern to Frank Miller (the author of the comic book which the film is based on) nor the filmmakers except where it suits the story. The film portrays Spartan culture very well, probably because it suits the story. The training of boys into men is very true, and the Spartans were ruled by a council of Elders (although since the council was made up of men who became too old to fight, West is too young to play the character, but never mind). Also, Spartan women were given a lot of freedom, and the portrayal of Queen Gorgo is reasonably accurate. More importantly, the film's version of how Spartans viewed military endeavors was also very true. The quotes "they were taught that to die in battle was the greatest glory a Spartan man could ever achieve" and "Come back with your shield, or on it" are very true of Sparta. The Persians don't fare as well, though. The actual number of Persians who fought at the Battle of Thermopylae is debated, and there certainly weren't any of the bizarre creatures that Frank Miller dreamed up. Not that this is a bad thing...
"300" has everything an action movie should have. You want action? You got it. You want visceral enjoyment? It's here. Blood, guts, naked women and hot sex? Yup.
In short, "300" is a thoroughly enjoyable and unapologetically violent film that every guy will love.