Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West
Classification: 15 (but very violent)
300 is not just another swords and sandals epic. Epic, yes. Swords, lots. Sandals, yes those too, but probably squelching over a limbless corpse. This is a cartoon book fantasy transformed to the big screen, brilliantly.
The story of Leonidas and his 299 Spartan comrades holding the line against countless Persian hordes at Thermopylae is told pretty straight, and historical accuracy is surprisingly tight, with proper references to the Spartan political system and to the Battles of Marathon (before) and Plataea (after). But that is not the point. This is other world, fantastic stuff. The entire film is shot with a slightly eerie brown tinge, which takes us into a different dimension from now.
All Greece is menaced by Persia, and its god-king, Xerxes, bent on revenge after the defeat of his father Darius’s army (by Athens) ten years before. Every Greek state must submit or be crushed under the Oriental juggernaut. At Sparta, King Leonidas, (Gerard Butler) and his magnificent queen, (Lena Headey) urge total resistance. For Sparta to wage war requires not only legal and political approval but also the blessing of the priestly ephors, who interpret the oracles spoken by the nubile young priestesses in a state of trance. The ephors, loathsome slavering old men, have already been bribed by the Persians. The oracle pronounces: no war during the festival of the Karneia, i.e. Surrender now to the Persians.
Well placed
Leonidas is a product of the Spartan warrior system. From the age of seven he has lived a life of total militarism. He cannot allow capitulation. He kicks a Persian envoy down a conveniently sited well shaft, shouting “THIS IS SPARTA!” and the die is cast. He alone has brought the wrath of Xerxes on Sparta and must face it with just a handful of loyal soldiers, leaving behind not just the bulk of the army, but also his young son and his queen, vulnerable and impotently urging despatch of reinforcements.
The battle scenes are, counting pints, as bloody as anything in cinema. Even the Texas chainsaw massacre does not have bodies piled in mounds, and limbs and heads fly freely. However, the violence is not mindless, and the dynamics of the plot are razor sharp all the way through. While Leonidas is at the “Hot Gates” (Thermopylae in ancient Greek), there are machinations both back at Sparta, and in Xerxes’s camp.
Shady stuff
This film has caused ruffled feathers in Iran, because of the depiction of Xerxes as effeminate and his troops as misshapen and servile Asiatics. The bad guys here are really bad. However the acting is totally convincing, and several months in the gym to produce bulging pectorals does not mean beefcake in the brain department for Gerard Butler and friends.The dialogue is laconic. A tender moment of parting: The Queen tells Leonidas “to return either with his shield or on it”. The sky fills with arrows: “Then we will fight in the shade”.
By the end of this film you really feel you know what being Spartan was like. The “Voice of God” narrator style works well, here, although over-used in other films. This is great stuff. You will either love it or hate it. Go and see it.
Rating 5/5