Great war movie... except for all that stuff about the war

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2007)

300 is a great film. It is exciting, well produced, includes great and believable acting, great story, enough blood and guts to satisfy anyone....
BUT (there's always a but) its references to today really take away from the story and all of its great elements. Hearing "freedom isn't free" come out of the mouth of a Spartan is just NOT believable. Or what about freeing the world of tyranny? George Bush, you're thinking? No. Another Spartan soldier in 300. Or of course the enemy fighting for their god - ring a bell? I won't even get into the female character's role in a pre-feminist setting but with some obviously post-feminism ideals.
In the end, I still came out of 300 feeling like it was a good film. But I also felt like I had just seen some subliminal propaganda at the same time. Which is something really unfortunate. Rather than making a timeless war film, it turned into "Iraq War & Terrorism -Except They're Persians Now."