Great choreography in a astonishing piece of propaganda

Rating: 4/10 (24 March 2007)

From the point of view of images this movie definitely follows the path open by "Sin City", another movie from Frank Miller's comics. It is very well made with an amazing use of contrast between brilliant colors and shades of darkness. The sets are very suggestive and the photography really impresses the viewer. The acting is not bad at all especially in the person of King Leonidas (by the way Spartans always had two kings at the same time. In fact while Leonidas was fighting, Pausanias, his brother, was ruling the city). But the best part of the movie id definitely the choreography of the battle scenes. A lot of scenes are filmed in slow time but the action moves, apart from the goriness, are very impressive and convey the absolute mastery of war of the Spartan warriors. The qualities of the movie stop here. The rest of it is really an annoying piece of historical errors but above all a disturbing example of propaganda for the current war that US is waging against the evil in the world. Let's first address the claim that the Spartans are fighting for the freedom of the people in Greece. Nothing more far from the truth. Sparta was one of the most totalitarian society in ancient history. The dominance of the warrior class was possible due to the diminished condition of a much larger chunk of the population (Perioeci) that was devoted to cultivate the land and do menial jobs, and to slaves (Helots) owned by the state. This people were treated like an inferior class for the only benefit of the dominating warrior cast. Not what you would call a democracy. So why Leonidas claims, in the movie, more than once that he is fighting for freedom? Is the movie trying to set an example of sacrifice for the better freedom of all? Well, if that is the case sorry you got the wrong example. And what about the Persians? Well actually, at that historical time, the Persian empire was the most civilized and ancient society existing (if one excludes the Egyptians). Besides that, is there any reason to make Persian soldiers (the immortals in particular) look deformed and so blatantly evil? Moreover they obey this King, Xerses I, that proclaims himself a god and make them kill in his name. Aren't there too many analogies? Persia is pretty much the Iran-Iraq of today, people killing in the name of god sound too much like some Muslim fanatics, soldiers looking like monsters (the so called immortals) give a sense of absolute evil. This is all too much. I was expecting a good action movie, an inspiration to the strength of few against the sheer power of the many and it all ended up as a pure propaganda for the current state of war. This movie, from this point of view is not only disappointing but insulting to the intelligence of the viewer.