300 Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Bros.
Grade: B
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written By: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon,
from graphic novel by Frank Miller
Cast: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David
Wenham, Vincent Regan, Michael
Fassbender, Tom Wisdom, Andrew Pleavin, Andrew Tiernan,
Rodrigo Santoro, Peter Mensah, Stephen
McHattie
Screened at: Dolby 88, NYC, 3/1/07
Opens: March 9, 2007 I taught high school history for so many years that the kids
began to ask whether I was the one survivor out of 300 from the
Battle of Thermopylae. At least that comment showed some
wit, a clever connection between history and put-down. Then
again anyone holding a piece of chalk in the front of the desk
who is 98 years old like most of my own teachers is thought to
have prepared for a teaching license in Plato's Academy. The standard question we used to summarize our lesson on
Ancient Greece was: Where would you have preferred to live; in
Athens (home of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Democracy, and
right living, etc.) or in Sparta, where you start training for the
military at age 7? We always got the same answer, until one
kid, the only one who, ironically, showed he was really thinking,
said, "I'd rather live in Sparta, because there, you don't have to
think." We teachers didn't spend much time on military battles partly
because we couldn't compete with the movies, but we didn't get
paid like Tom Cruise, either. If we dealt with wars at all, we
might ask: what were three causes of the wars between Greece
and Persia?
A)
B)
C) What were three results of the wars between Greece and
Persia?
A)
B)
C) Anything warm and red from this bloodless give-and take would
have to come from anecdotes from the teacher–the equivalent
of bedtime stories that your daddy read to you in the pre-TV
age. There were movies like the 11-Oscared William
Wyler's "Ben-Hur," about the title figure, a proud Jew and his
boyhood friend friend Messala, whose blind allegiance to Rome
turns him into a bitter enemy, but kids nowadays would yawn at
the special effects therein. They show their age in 2007, even
the climactic chariot race. "300" in up-to-day visually, though. It may lack the depth of
narrative and the more literary dialogue favored by "Ben-
Hur"–though, who knows? Zack Snyder's new movie adapted
from Frank Miller's graphic novel could revive an interest in
classical civilizations, maybe even make youngsters set aside
their interest in becoming millionaire hedge-fund traders and go
into archaeology. The story stars Scottish-born stage-actor Gerard Butler, who I
longed to hear break out into song; perhaps "Floating, falling/
Sweet Intoxication/ Touch me/ Trust me/ Savour each
sensation/ (Do you ever fondly wish that the villain in a movie
would run away with the treasure? I was DYING for the virile
Phantom (played by Butler, a terrific singer with his delightful
Scottish accent, in Warner Brothers' "The Phantom of the
Opera" to win Christine away from the epicene Raoul). He
didn't. Still I tapped "Phantom" as my favorite film of 2004. But I
digress. "300" climaxes with the Battle on the cliffs of Sparta's
Thermopylae–where Leonidas, King of Sparta, illegally, without
council consent, led just three hundred of his special forces to a
narrow gorge hoping to delay Persian King's Xerxes' 250,000
forces on their way to conquer Hellenic, i.e. Greek lands.
Director Zack Snyder, whose previous claim to fame is his
helming of the "Dawn of the Dead" remake in 2004, stays close
to the novel of Frank Miller, who remained on the set as
executive producer. The action, filmed most in sepia earth tones but with emphasis
on red capes and a focus on the tight, dare we say, spartan
bathing suits of Leonidas's men, is filmed by Larry Fong almost
completely indoors, the only outdoor scene being the ride by
Persian messengers into Sparta. The actors are in bare (uh,
spartan) studios, performing against blue-screen backdrops,
dependent upon Chris Watts's awesome team of visual effects
people. Gerard Butler, in most of the scenes as the Spartan king,
emphasizes the code of his city-state, which is no mercy for the
enemy, no prisoners, no surrender, and no retreat. We see him
at age seven, being taken away from his mother for military
training, not many years later fighting a hungry wolf and
presumably winning, something that anyone in the audience can
do considering that the cgi condition of canis lupus tundrarum.
The king is not fond of Athenians, whom he calls philosophers
and boy lovers. He ignores not only his own city's council which
favors appeasement over war with Persia and is ruled by the
loathsome Theron (Dominic West), who has eyes for the queen
Gorgo (Lena Headey). On a roll, he blasphemes the Oracle of
Apollo (a young woman, no less, drooled over by hundred-year-
old priests). Much of the balance of the movie is taken up by battles royale,
which include the usual LOTR-style flying arrows, shields,
swords, beheadings, stabbings, some animal-house fraternity
yells, a few quotes like the queen's "Come back with your sword
or on it" (well, how else?), the retort to "We'll blot out the sun
with arrows," with "Well, then, we'll fight in the shade," etc. Intent on combining history with mythology (hey, it's a comic
book), the production team includes a pronounced hunchback
who acts as traitor, telling Xerxes of a secret passageway
behind the gorge; Xerxes himself decked out with seventeen
types of metal jewelry that would be the envy of the most
pierced of Goths; members of Xerxes' army with masks that
make them look as though they are trying out for parts in
Oedipus Rex. Gerard Butler carries the show with seriously pumped-up abs, a
voice that could easily carry well across not only the Theater of
Dionysus but Giant Stadium in New York. Fans of graphic
novels will eat the movie up, others, who knows? the
archaeology and ancient civilizations departments of Columbia
University will have reservations. Rated R. 116 minutes 2007 by Harvey Karten
Member: NY Film Critics Online | 
