300 - war nerd - neo-cons - iraq

[Drake Tungsten]

For example it should be a bit disquieting to anyone to see Americans identifying with Sparta rather than Athens etc. etc.

Not if the filmakers toned down the totalitarian excesses of the Spartans and made them more like the Athenians. Most movie goers aren't going to know the reality of the Spartan and Athenian political systems, so they're just going to judge by what's up on the screen...

[curtsibling]

I loved the movie - Made me want to don a toga and declare war on Iran...
(Which would be not much difference anyway...)

To be truthful though, it is a movie based on a comic book written by a lunatic.

Miller is nuts, and any movie made from his worldview is bound to reflect that.

[curtsibling]

Originally posted by Dis


it was marketed as a historical type movie.

and who really cares about comic books anyways? Why are there so many damn comic books? Don't people read real books anymore?

I'd like to see a movie about the Spartans based on a real book. Not something kids read.

Not all comics are for kids.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by korn469
Why can't anybody understand it's a COMIC BOOK MOVIE???

I think everybody understands that, just that some think it isn't any excuse for the rather stupid parts.

[curtsibling]

Most sensible people know that Persia and Sparta were nothing like the way the movie depicts them.
I think that once we start treating a movie like '300' as a metaphor for reality, then we are in trouble.

'300' strikes me as a Greek version of the legendary (EG: fantasy) Kung-Fu style movies.

Also the tale is told through a narrative and in a mythical style...

[Jaakko]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
The story was written in '98.

The movie has obvious changes to fit it into a post-9/11 world (plus rape).

[Dis]

rape?

what kind of rape is in this film? I was under the impression it was mostly men. I don't want to see a woman raped (not that I care to see a man raped either)

[Eli]

It's not exactly rape. It's the part where that traitor politician promises to convince the council to send more troops to Leonidas in exchange for sex with the Queen.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Jaakko
The movie has obvious changes to fit it into a post-9/11 world (plus rape).

The story already had the Sparta defending freedom from Persian hordes bent from the begining. The only signifigant change I saw from the story I read was the fact they actually gave the Queen something to do.

[BlackCat]

Anyone seen this ? :

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Jaakko


The movie has obvious changes to fit it into a post-9/11 world (plus rape).

Yeah, they had a bit more of the wife in the movie.

Beyond that it was almost verbatim from the Comic. The only "obvious changes" were the wife subplot and no penises.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by Dis
and who really cares about comic books anyways? Why are there so many damn comic books? Don't people read real books anymore?

They're not just for kids. They're actually geared more towards people in their late teens-early twenties. I enjoy comics. They're my choice for escapist fiction. There's no real difference between reading a comic bok or reading some generic fantasy or soft-sci fi novel. I'd rather read a few comics than wade through a few chapters of Robert Jordan, Terry Goodkind, etc. Those books are basically comic books or video games in book form, and I don't consider them to be any more "real" than comics. I read plenty of "literature" and non-fiction, but a good escapist fantasy is nice every once in awhile.

Anyway, I enjoyed 300. I ejoyed the style and the combat. I realized that it was very historically inaccurate, but knowing just how inaccurate it was made me enjoy it like a fantasy movie. It was more like the battle for Middle Earth than the battle for Greece.

I didn't take the propagandistic elements at face value, simply because they were much too over the top. If this was intentional propaganda, then 300 was the 21st century Alexander Nevsky. It was that overwhelming. Some people will find that this movie validates their world view (though the baby killing might cuase Sparta to lose some luster in the eyes of the neo-con movie goer) , but who cares? They're probably pretty stupid people anyway.

[Victor Galis]

Sometimes a movie is just a movie, and I really think the movie is caused by the current climate rather than an attempt at propaganda.

Originally posted by Bosh
For example it should be a bit disquieting to anyone to see Americans identifying with Sparta rather than Athens etc. etc.

It would be equally disquieting for America to adopt Athenian-style foreign policy

[Barnabas]

The speech at the end (the one that mentions eastern mysticism) made me think of the iraq war and islamic terrorism, I think it (the speech) is quite obvious, it is not IMO a case of people reading things that are not there.

[Wycoff]

Originally posted by Barnabas
The speech at the end (the one that mentions eastern mysticism) made me think of the iraq war and islamic terrorism, I think it (the speech) is quite obvious, it is not IMO a case of people reading things that are not there.

It's very obvious. IMO, its too obvious to be taken at face value. As I said previously, if those moments of bombast are to be taken seriously and at face value, then 300 is the biggest propaganda film since Alexander Nevsky. I don't think that 300 was meant to be a propaganda film, so I don't take those scenes at face value.