Posted on 03/12/2014 11:15:50 PM PDT by lee martell
I don't usually go see gladiator movies, but I thought I'd give the new '300' a try. Within the first five minutes of the film, I realized I'd made a mistake, because of the very graphic violence, violence that is, actually appropriate to the storyline. I suppose I was just curious, because the first '300' got such rave reviews. I was so glad chose not to see the movie in 3d, especially when the warring sides began their sword to sword advance. The director had a visual gimmick of depicting the moment when one soldier slices or skewers the other; there would be a roundhouse swinging motion with sword drawn, followed by a spray of blood shown in slow motion and suspended in air. I started to leave the theatre right then and there, but I thought wait, don't be so quick to cut and run. Let's see where it goes from here. Maybe the director is finished playing with his new FX toys.
I like seeing good fighting techniques, battles with evenly matched opponents. There was a lot of that. You can tell there was a lot of practice and drilling to coordinate timing, accuracy of placement and dispensing of strength. I like seeing the blocking the parrying the sneak up garroting of the enemy. The woman cast Eva Green is incredible as Artemisia, Queen if the Persians. I would not want her as an enemy. This is the kind of Xena-on-Steroids role the Angelina Jolie used to have. The leader of the Greek Army appeared to have just stepped out of Super Cuts Salon. The dialects and accents were all over the place. Maybe that was on purpose to say the armies were manned by citizens throughout the respective countries.
When they were not depicting on land battle, with all the mud and the blood, there was battle on the water. I found some of the Greek at sea tactics against the Persians were creative. The Greeks were vastly outnumbered, so they had to plan carefully. During their initial on water confrontation, the Greeks came forward with about 12 ships in circle formation. They approached the Persians, about 30 ships in V formation as with a flock of birds. Themistokles; the Greek leader instructs his men to aim for the weakest spot in the Persian formation, which would be the absolute center. This plan works very well, disorientating the Persians to the point of ramming into their own ships while in pursuit of the tiny Greek formation. That was good. This scene was soon followed by Artemisia beheading a prisoner, sweetly kissing his now loosed head, then cast the useless head over the side. At that point, I had seen enough for the day.
I haven't seen this one, but she did well in Casino Royale.
Well, if you’d like to see a really well done battle scene (with a good measure of historical accuracy) try this -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOVVYswNE-c
By the way, the whole movie “Mongol” is available on YouTube.
I found it to be fascinating and really well done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWt-FXJhLdI
Good performance by Eva Green. As Vince mentioned, we both enjoyed her performance in Casino Royale.
At least the popcorn was good and as always, enjoyed the precious time with my wife.
That WAS good! I learned a lot just watching that battle. Notice how they rode in on horseback, while clutching two swords, literally slicing their way through any resistance. Of course in those days, if you fell off your horse, or worse, got your foot caught in a stirrup, you were probably a goner. Not a lot of second chances. I liked the airal shots, to study the formations, some similar to American Football plays. The director does more here with less buckets o blood.
Exactly.
Just a bit of trivia, Lee:
Stirrups were not used in Europe or the Middle East until the Huns invaded the late Roman Empire, around 450A.D. Stirrups are a Far Eastern invention.
Timely review, thanks. Just last night someone recommended we see it. They couldn’t say enough good about it. Glad we didn’t head right out there.
Oh really. I thought the Mongols had their feet tucked into something to keep from falling off their horse. Maybe it was just an open knot or loose noose. Sometimes, our sense of order makes us think something should be there subconciously, so we actually imagine it IS there.
There were at least several thousand from different cities and stuff, this 300 thing is a huge misnomer. It was lopsided in numbers but not as much as Hollyweird would depict
The stirrup hadnt been invented at the time of the greek persian wars.
Bossy girl gone wild!
Love that stuff. I guess I’ll never grow up! One thing;I have a feeling more horses were knocked off in real battle than is shown in the clip.
I’m sure you are correct about more horses being killed in actual battle vs onscreen. This would have to be so,because the horses had no method or inclination of defending themselves. Still, I’m glad that was not shown in full and lurid detail for the sake of authenticity.
Pass
The fighting female cliché has ruined the Sword & Sandals (as well as Sci_FI) Genre,
Every movie of the genre now seems to have a 90lb waif empowered woman who can somehow easily take on and beat multiple 250lbs+ guys.
Once the "wow, she is really hot factor wears off", It get's pretty old and silly fast
Since I knew the story of the 300 I purposely avoided this blood fest
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