300
Reviewed by David on March 13, 2007
300 details an epic battle between a small band of Spartan soldiers--exactly 300 of them--and an invading Persian army of hundreds of thousands strong. Fortunately for the Spartans, the Persians have apparently never fought a war previously and are completely incapable of killing even one Spartan soldier. When throngs of inexperienced fighters are dismembered by the Greeks, they send in a rhinoceros. When the rhino fails, they send in the elephants. When elephants don't work, they send in creepy dead guys called 'immortals'. Without ruining any surprises, you can probably guess how long they remain immortal.
As with every great epic battle, the overly-optimistic expressions of hope flow like Greek wine. Crowd-pleasing speeches, which even William Wallace would be proud of, espouse the values of freedom, science, and non-homoerotic sex. Such valuable lessons abound throughout the film. The 300 men aren't just fighting the invading horde. They're fighting against its unusually tall god-king, slavery, misogyny, and rhino mistreatment. The film-makers also see fit to throw in some homophobic jabs at fellow Greeks just to make it clear that these Spartans aren't like those dainty Athenians.
300 is a beautifully violent and wonderfully-shot adaptation of Frank Miller's (Batman Begins, Sin City) graphic novel. Miller-based films rarely disappoint, and this one remains faithful to his original storyboarding. Director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead) delivers opulent amounts of blood and gore, which the audience is eager to bask in, and moves the film along at a nice horde-slaying clip, with plenty of lens filters to give the film that classic olde-timie Greek feel. Snyder also provides a pleasing dose of gratuitous eroticism. After all, it's easy to forgive the Spartans for their British accents when you're distracted by teenagers performing pole dances for leprous priests.
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