300

[DotCommunist]

El Sueno, last wednesday

 

[camouflage]

Just saw 300 last night at the cinema.

Brilliant stuff.

Complete Glorious Fascism throughout of course, but undeniably poetic with it. It's actually like some sort of... war poem or something. Loved the use of slow-mo, the billowing cloaks an'at.

Xerxes was definately my favourite character, brilliantly played as well.

 

[isvicthere?]

Being an amateur scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, the trailer put me off seeing it. There was an elephant in it. The first time Greeks encountered elephants in battle was under Alexander the Great, some 150 years after Thermopylae.

 

[Crispy]

Being an amateur scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, the trailer put me off seeing it. There was an elephant in it. The first time Greeks encountered elephants in battle was under Alexander the Great, some 150 years after Thermopylae.

You have completely the wrong attitude

 

[Bob_the_lost]

I was more entertained by my brother's comment that "there's no body hair in the film at all"

So, did the spartans wax or shave?

 

[Stigmata]

Being an amateur scholar of ancient Greece and Rome, the trailer put me off seeing it. There was an elephant in it. The first time Greeks encountered elephants in battle was under Alexander the Great, some 150 years after Thermopylae.

Having an A-Level in Classics (C), I was perturbed by the high proportion of mutants in the Persian army. Bear in mind that this is c2500 years before the Iranian nuclear programme...

 

[spacemonkey]

Having an A-Level in Classics (C), I was perturbed by the high proportion of mutants in the Persian army. Bear in mind that this is c2500 years before the Iranian nuclear programme...

 

[Termite Man]

watched it this morning after downloading it and I have to say it was a good film , probably wouldn't bother paying to see it but worth watching anyway !

 

[Cloo]

Well, it was fun seeing it at IMAX (although it gave me a headache)

Not a great film (cheesetastic script) but a fantastic envisioning of a story.

 

[DarthSydodyas]

Watched it last nite and also thought it was fun, but no ground-breaking/shaking material.

 

[camouflage]

"I am Xerxes, Emperor of Persia, son of Darius, grandson of Cyrus. My grandfather Cyrus liberated the Jews from their Babylonian exile and let them return to Judea and rebuild their temple. My father Darius urged our people to revere the 'God of Daniel.' I myself married Esther, a Jew."

"I come from a long line of believers in the One God preached by Zarathustra, our Persian prophet whose teachings have influenced the Jews during their exile among us. I refer specifically to their concepts of Satan, Heaven and the future Messiah which weren't part of their pre-exile belief system and are clearly borrowings from our Persian religion.

"I am now embarking on the conquest of Greece, a backward region populated by primitive polytheists who worship capricious amoral deities and practice absurd religious rites. But my ancestors and I, having already conquered many Ionian Greeks, respect Greek philosophers and indeed have many of them in our employ. We have established a multi-ethnic empire. In that empire, Greeks fill important roles from the Mediterranean to India.

"These Spartans confronting us at Thermopylae are cruel men who annually--for sport!-- make war on the defenseless helots that live around them. They have nothing to tell us Persians---or the world in general---about 'freedom.'!"

Leftist rant here.

 

[absinthe pirate]

Well worth a watch, taken in context, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and does it well. Interesting CG, some excellent one liners and some truly impressive fight sequences.

But if you are looking for a gripping/thought povoking cinematic masterpeice with intelligent dialogue etc then why did you but a ticket for this film?

 

[absinthe pirate]

greasy muscles and blood, it's great!

I want to see this film edited down to 30 minutes of non-stop violence. It's some of the best movie violence ever actually.

Take out the slowmo, it would be hilarious/intense!

I was more entertained by my brother's comment that "there's no body hair in the film at all"

So, did the spartans wax or shave?

Lol all my housemates noticed this...

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

just saw it at the imax

if gladiator and lord of the rings had sex 300 would be their deformed basted love child


it was too unrealistic to have anything to do with actual history

yet

it wasn't quite ridiculous enough to really be truly great

it needed giant robots

 

[stroober]

I saw it last night

Loved it!!! the cinematography was fantastic.

 

[treefrog]

saw it again last night with my mum and sister. Half way through, during all the gore and violence, my mum turns to me and whispers
"This is the ultimate girly movie. I don't understand what men see in it at all"
"What do you mean? What about all the violence?" I ask.
"What violence? I'm too busy watching the Spartans thighs"

Ace film!

 

[Allan]

Carry On Shouting.

 

[Crispy]

I love the way that when leonidas has something really macho to say, his mouth twists to one side, you can see him tense his diaphragm and then the words come out at Force 12 like he's trying to push you over with the force of his breath. Great stuff. If I was still a student, I'd get all the boys round and we'd get completely leathered and cheer the spartans on.

 

[Gromit]

Only saw this the other day.

Oh my god what a movie. I'll by buying on DVD.

I haven't read this thread which is probably full of rants about how historically inaccurate it all is but i don't care. Its a mythological exageration which makes for great fantasy.

 

[Gromit]

I love the way that when leonidas has something really macho to say, his mouth twists to one side, you can see him tense his diaphragm and then the words come out at Force 12 like he's trying to push you over with the force of his breath. Great stuff. If I was still a student, I'd get all the boys round and we'd get completely leathered and cheer the spartans on.

Was it just me or did anyone else detect a hint of Sean Connery in the way he spoke occasionally?

 

[Stigmata]

I wish I was a Spartan.


*does some star jumps*

 

[MooChild]

Was it just me or did anyone else detect a hint of Sean Connery in the way he spoke occasionally?

I did notice that, sometime it sounded like he had watched a lot of bravehart to get into the mood for the film.

Come Shpartans, me musht fight

 

[Reno]

I thought it was tedious and rubbish and the kind of film Leni Riefenstahl would make if she was making films today. Gerard Butler was nice eye candy though.

 

[Crispy]

Only saw this the other day.

Oh my god what a movie. I'll by buying on DVD.

I haven't read this thread which is probably full of rants about how historically inaccurate it all is but i don't care. Its a mythological exageration which makes for great fantasy.

Nope, it's full of rants glorifying spartan thighs, manly battle courage and powerful gay overlords with huge hands. It's great

 

[zed]

It's just fascist, moronic, US propoganda-fuelled bullshit.

A film whose probable target audience is acne-riddled, virgins below the age of 30 who will no doubt now form a '300' sub-culture, like all those transexual nerds did for the Rocky Horror film. I can just see them now, all turning up for 'special viewings' of 300 in a few years from now, clad in chain mail, leather thongs and wigs ...and still having never touched a woman.

When so many people come in their pants about a film such as this, you realise how far we still have to go as a society.

 

[Reno]

It's just fascist, moronic, US propoganda-fuelled bullshit.

A film whose probable target audience is acne-riddled, virgins below the age of 30 who will no doubt now form a '300' sub-culture, like all those transexual nerds did for the Rocky Horror film. I can just see them now, all turning up for 'special viewings' of 300 in a few years from now, clad in chain mail, leather thongs and wigs ...and still having never touched a woman.

When so many people come in their pants about a film such as this, you realise how far we still have to go as a society.

I agree with you that the film is fascist and moronic, but don't understand the comparison to Rocky Horror, which was speaking to a very different audience in very different times.

One of the problems with 300 and part of its conservatism is that the Persians are shown to be disabled, deformed, black and gay, while the Spartans are all white and thoroughly heterosexual and thoroughly manly males. Don't even get me started on the films endorsement of Eugenics to keep its Spartan heroes pure. In its message 300 is the complete opposite of Rocky Horror, which at least was celebrating freaks and sexual liberation. Rocky Horror was speaking to teenagers who felt marginalised, while 300 holds up an ideal of the human race that is as crass as any Nazi propaganda film. It's exactly the kind of film Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers took the piss out of.

Having said all of this, I didn't find the film particularely offensive, because it doesn't engage the emotions or the mind on any level, with it's non-characters spouting ponderous speach bubble dialogue that makes Lord of the Rings sound like Harold Pinter. Its pretty images go for zilch, because the director is unable to make any of it count and it's like one long Calvin Klein Y-front advert that comes down to no more than muscled hunks posing.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Urban's two biggest killjoys don't like a violent action film?!

 

[Reno]

Urban's two biggest killjoys don't like a violent action film?!

Not that I think you bothered to figure out what I was saying but if you are having a dig at me, I do actually like violent action film, just not one as ineptly made as 300. I think Sin City succedeed at everything 300 failed at for instance.

 

[madamv]

Yup, I really enjoyed this film too!

Enjoyed the 'roaaarrr' of it all, the whole fantasy debarcle. Except for the girly wifey moments of her hands through the wheat scene. Bit smushy for me.

Loved the colouring, and the particularly camp Persian Queen

 

[zed]

Urban's two biggest killjoys don't like a violent action film?!

Unlike you, I like "violent action films" to have less of an agenda, more roots in fact and less homoerotic posturing.

BTW ...I don't find it at all surprising that the same person that posted a wankfest to the film 300, should aslo be dumb enough to consider putting his body up for clinical trialling as a way of earning extra money, before asking his employers if there was any chance of some overtime. It all fits.

Have you ordered your pretend chain-mail body armour yet?