Mysterious. Fierce. Formidable. Spartans are among the most enigmatic cultures in history. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender, they are the perfect warriors. "The Spartans remain a mystery to everybody," says Frank Miller, who wrote the graphic novel 300 which inspired the film. "They are arguably unique in that they are completely a battle culture, absolutely dedicated to warfare. They have a code of honor on what it means to be Spartan, and out of that arises a heroic class like the world has never seen before." (From the films Production Notes)
Saw 300 tonight with some friends--the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the battle of Thermopylae. Here's what I learned...
Spartans possess superhuman traits/abilities/strengths. A kind of Jedi of antiquity if you will. Spartans are of course White, muscular--with abs that would make Leisa Hart blush. Spartans rarely died--when they did, they died in the most honorable and heroic fashion. Spartans posses only their shields, pikes and an occasional knife/sword of sorts. Spartan savagery/excesses are always justified (we'll gloss over the baby tossing thing..)--because freedom is not free we are told (who writes this stuff?! Is Mr. Frum writing Hollywood screenplays now?!). Spartans fight for truth, justice and the Sparta way. And reason of course. Spartan ideology is a self serving mix of idealism, nationalism, patriotism, militancy, and authoritarianism (rather undemocratic really, with no room for dissent or the state's institutions). For Sparta! (And no place else!)
Persians (barbarians from the East) on the other hand possess no real redeemable traits--culturally or psychically for that matter. Easterners are a hideous, deformed, mutilated, degenerate lot led by a lanky, sexually ambiguous, pierced, megalomaniacal, [peculiarly] African looking fellow! Adorned in heavy jewels and gold, he even had a slight lisp! Sweetie. The antithesis of the hyper masculinity of a Spartan. Persians all die miserably, mercilessly, humiliatingly. Persians use arrows/bombs/spears/monsters. For the Empire!
At one point in the film, we couldn't contain our laughter, I don't even think the scene was meant to be humorous, but for some reason the monolithic Eastern hordes had in their possession a wide array of Jurassic era creatures to be used in their conquests--one after the other managed to fall off a cliff fighting the Spartans. This bizarre sequence where small groups of Easterners would meet their dooms by fighting the Spartans on a narrow cliff. The Easterners even had a Goliath-like monster on their side (chains and shackles removed only for battle!). I rolled my eyes at the depiction of rank stupidity of the Eastern armies and rolled them twice at the rank absurdity of the "speeches" in the film. Hell, at one point I was seriously expecting our intrepid Spartan leader--King Leonidas to yell out Semper Fi! The script seemed like it was written by one of Bush's speech writers. Then we have the blatant biblical imagery--David & Goliath and the Christ-like death pose of the Spartan King covered in the empire's arrows for the final frame of the film. Visually stunning but ultimately quite nauseating. I digress...perhaps we shouldn't read too much into this film and simply take it as good old-fashioned violent, stupid entertainment. Given the current state of the world today however, one cannot easily overlook the overtly political themes/messages in the film.
Clearly, the goal was to identify with the protagonist Sparta, as my fellow moviegoers did--booing, cheering, and hissing on queue. Frightening...perhaps the underlying point of the movie escaped them, which is simply that people do not like to submit to foreign domination...interesting...people will resist the hegemonic/occupying power...people really don't like to be occupied! But we're the Sparta right?
Okay...it's late, I did get to see some bare ass...so I should get off my high camel...
I'll end with this...it's a take on a joke I read on a t-shirt, referencing the events of WWII...
Say what you will about the [Spartans]...they sure killed a lot of [Persians].
2 comments:
My 17 year old took me to the movie last saturday. If the movie is to be seen as an adaptation of a graphic novel for videogames lovers, it should have made at the box office the same success as the adaptation of Dungeaons and Dragons.
However, signs of the times, people applauded at the end of the movie and I couldn't help but think that these poor people in the west, more children of Athens - not for the intellectual pursuit of Reason and Happiness which was replaced with the material pursuit of pleasure - then of Sparta, will never never be able to live and fight like these Saprtan heroes they are worshipping. Indeed they resemble more the Persian villains than the Spartans they so much admire.
At least, Hollywood can supply with a certain amount of fantasy yo forget the bad taste of reality !
Good review !
Hi Bookstamper!
You might like Gary Brecher's review of "300"
http://www.exile.ru/2007-March-23/war_nerd.html
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