Today's post beings with a fractal titled Arabesque 18. I picked it because it has a certain "Persian Rug" quality and the post at least vaguely relates to the Persians. The colors aren't right but there's only so much I can do.
Sometimes I have strange reasons for the movies I choose to see. 300 usually isn’t the kind of thing I would go to--especially with Robyn--but when I heard the complaints from Iran that the movie was “anti Islamic” and opinions from Iranian-Americans that it was setting up American sympathy for an attack on Iran I knew I just had to go.
300 tells the story of three-hundred Spartans who hold off Persian King Xerxes and his army of Persians--numbering a million or more at the Battle of Thermopalae. Character development is minimal and the story has about as much depth as a comic book (but, then again, this movie was based on a Graphic Novel by Frank Miller) so I guess that is to be expected. In fact, this movie is little more than a testosterone-soak gore-fest, artfully animated by computer.
Gerard Butler (Phantom of the Opera) barely sketches out the character of Spaartan King Leonides (but he doesn’t have a lot to work with): Roberto Santoro (Lost) looks like what would happen if Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock) and Ru Paul had a child. The rest of the cast are people I’ve never heard of before and probably wouldn’t recognize if I saw them again but they chew the scenery with verve.
The real star of the move (and the primary reason to see it) is the computer animation. This entire sword and sandal epic was filmed on a single Canadian Soundstage. Everything from the landscape to the eight-pack abs on everyone was digitally rendered in post production--and the effect is spectacular. Even the voices get run through a computer for enhancement. Almost every scene is rendered in monochrome so the occasional shots of color are particular effective: the violence is stylized and extremely graphic--not for the faint of heart. Still, the movie is a technical triumph--almost worth the price of admission for the craft alone.
When we saw the movie (on Sunday March 18) the theater was about 90% young adult males. 300 is not for the squeamish or fans of "pure" historical epics but the target audiences will eat it up. As for me, I’m glad I saw this movie but I can’t really say I enjoyed it.
As for being “anti-Islamic,” I confess I didn’t see that--but I am no “Son of the Prophet” so maybe I’m just not looking for the right things. And the idea that 300 is trying to set the stage for an attack on Iran--that’s just silly. Yes, the “freedom isn’t free but must be paid for in blood” message (delivered however heavy-handed) is frankly jingoistic but it’s just standard “war-movie” talk that has been around since movies were first being made.
-
FINAL GRADE: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment