Posted on 03/11/2007 9:20:06 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
Only after watching the epic movie "300"--about free men of the West willing to die at Thermopylae rather than kneel to an Eastern king--did I read the reviews.
I'm conflicted about the film, but the reviews were quite entertaining.
Especially the reviews that were so turgid with praise, focusing on the rippling chests and rippling abdomens of the near-naked Spartan warriors, the slo-mo blood globules and the thrusting, thrusting, thrusting of the spears. OK, OK, I get it. Warnography is hard to define, but you know it when you see it.
Some ripped the movie, including one East Coast reviewer upset there were no African Spartans in the film. But surely this outrage can be remedied with a few federal judges and a time machine.
Others examined "300" in the current U.S.-Iraq-Iran context. They ask if America is anything like Sparta, or are we now more like decadent Persia, with our celebrity culture and people rendered almost numb by narcissism.
A few fear the film is a Karl Rovian Republican plot--but isn't everything? Included among Rovian schemes is the TV show "24," except for the parts when the noble President Barack Obama archetype struggles with scheming white Southern conservatives who want to toss out the Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Jack hasn't killed enough people this year. The snipping of the finger was cool though.
I look at the season as what happens when you have weak leadership at the top and "too diverse" an administration.
This reading of various political conspiracies into movies is really getting tiresome.
Is America like Sparta? Not even close. Sparta's people were totally dedicated to their country and its survival. Our country has turned into a bunch of liberal cowards. The closest we come to Sparta is our military. If we continue to show our weakness, the rest of the world will turn on America. The world in general relys on our strength, even though some of them won't admit it.
In Sparta a mother said to her son as she handed him his shield (something like this) "Come back carrying your shield, victorius, or on it." They weren't into body counts like we see everyday from the media.
Uh, Jack has tortured his own brother this season on multiple occasions - until Jack's father finally offed his own son. Moslem terrorists blew up California with a nuke. PC?
The reviewer in our local paper said he couldn't decide whether "300" was a wildly over-the-top action movie or simply big budget gay porn.
I'll probably skip this movie.
My son saw it and said it was "AWESOME".
Ahhh...but it's the evil russkies who are manipulating the Muslims and their pure intetions who are behind the nukes. The Muslims are the victims - at the hands of the government and their detention centers as well as the Russion schemers.
Last season started likewise and ended up being all the Republican president's fault.
Movie Kicked ass...
I liked Leonidas' take on Multiculturalism
If you consider the West as the Spartans and the forces of Islam as the Persians it all fits rather well. The story even has backstabbing politicians back in the Spartan council that sound pretty much like today's defeatocrats.
Any RAT watching this film with even a small ability to perceive themes is going to see things reflected in himself they will not like and will therefore respond the way a RAT normally does, by hating the film!
I really liked this film and find it hard to believe it even got made, much less distributed. The thought police of the left really blew it this time.
The Spartan warriors were not hand tied with seven steps of rules of engagement either.
There was one really freaky sex scene.
I don't think I've ever scene anything quite like it: it was the king and the queen makin' it on the night before he heads off to Thermopylae. Freaky. Who knew that married couples did such things. I thought it was just teens and unmarried types.
Live and learn, I always say…
In all seriousness, I'd give the movie 3 out of 4 stars. What nudity there was, was artistic. The oracle, the harem (or whatever) around Xerxes (the purpose being to demonstrate yet another Greek/Persian difference, Spartan beauty vs. decadent/exotic beauty, IMHO).
It lasted a BIT longer than it could have, and I was somewhat bummed that (SPOILER ALERT) the 1000 Thespians who stayed behind with Leonidas and the 300 weren't mentioned at all (they were, briefly, in Miller's graphic novel).
Some good lines, definitely. Probably as historically accurate as one can expect.
Definitely no 'brokeback 300;' I'm afraid homosexuality is not played as a high ideal of Sparta (Athenians are referred to as 'boy-lovers' and a couple of the soldiers trade good natured barbs, including 'offering your rear to those Thespians')
I'm not advocating a return to Phalanx warfare :)
Oh you're no fun.
Hey, at least I didn't say a return to Hoplite warfare
The Phalanx Light is lit.
The Left looks for the political message in films today because they put political messages in seemingly apolitical films already.
Rather than confront a movie about making a stand against invading hordes or the death of Christ, they focus on things like reviewing the physique of half-nude men.
I guess they have to find something to hold their attention when they disagree with the concept of the film.
A nuke provided by Americans working for a shadow government.
Not really. The film is based on the comic-book version of the Battle of Thermopolaye, not the history book version.
If 300 is a gay movie I must be as dense as a rock and blind as a bat(saw it yesterday), Leonidas made a comment about queers and it wasn't condoning!
I found that hilarious. They did this after they agreed to "tone down" all of the "torture." As I watched it, I was thinking that the Islamofascist lovers down at the DNC must be going insane right about now. LOL!!!!
In case anyone is interested, here's Victor D. Hanson's take on "300."
http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson101106.html
It will be rebroadcast:
Friday, March 30 08:00 AM
Friday, March 30 02:00 PM
Then the comic book was making the point and the film makers wanted to echo it. Deliberate in any case.
I'm not sure how much you'd want the US to be like Sparta. Sparta is no more.
IS '300 A RIGHT-WING OR LEFTY CONSPIRACY?)
Chicago Tribune ^ | March 11, 2007 | John Kass
Hey John Ass (sp?) IT"S A FRICKEN MOVIE end of dicussion.
sheeeesh!!
Anyone remember the old film "The 300 Spartans?"
One of Xerxes men said of the Spartans, "They fight light machines!"
Very funny since machines hadn't really been invented yet. ;)
hehe...thanks for the recommendation.
...the (THE 300 SPARTANS, 1954?) production w/Richard Egan, wasn't bad either.
I believe it was, "Return with your shield, or on it!"; meaning she'd rather see him dead in battle than have him throw down his shield and flee.
I read somewhere I believe it was Robert kaplan who said that the book Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield was required reading before and during the Iraq War in 03. The book tells a similar story. Fantastic. i recommend it to all who don't believe that the classical greeks were not all flamers.
ROTFLMAO! Is this true?
I think '24' is PC this season too. WAY too many tortured FEELINGS.
I'll have to look at that
I've been on a Military History kick recently, so this was a much enjoyable break from slogging through the books.
He also recommended not taking kids under 21 to see it.
Something like 18 beheadings in it.
Yhea, Very Good Movie. :)
It was on FMC/TCM (DirecTV) a few wks ago......The 300 Spartans:Richard Egan,Ralph Richardson,Diane Baker,Barry Coe,David Farrar,Donald Houston,Anna Synodinou,Kieron Moore,John Crawford
I guess it just doesn't "look like Sparta."
That was early Rome. Later that practice declined ... so did Rome.
Tone and Theme were awesome, BUT the graphical bloody killings got kind of overpowering? boring? overdone?, not sure what words would descibe my feelings the best. Some great one liners, acting a bit on the canned side, would give it a 7.5 on a 10 scale
That scene you describe sounds really good. Thanks for the input.
You're answer is incorrect also.
Go back and read Herodotus' accounts. THey are well documented in a book called 'Archaic and Classical Greece' by Crawford and Whitehead. This movie is actually fairly accurate.
Herodotus leaves an account of the people of Sparta in general not wanting to engage the Persians. That's whole point of the movie and the story, that only a small group of Spartans including the king recognized the threat and responded.
You'll miss a good movie then. The only thing gay about it was the persian king Xerxes. It's a well documented fact that the Greeks felt the persians were effiminate.
I also thought it was awesome.
And for those who are thinking there is no politics in the movie, I think there is. One of the early lines by the Queen of Sparta was 'Freedome isn't Free'. Where have we heard that before.
I also liked the artistic depiction of Leonidas at the end of the movie where he looks like a crucified Christ.
See the movie and tell me what you think.
I haven't seen it yet - going tonight - but I think you're right. There is little to like about the Spartans. However, as Herodotus realized, it's the point that counts.
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