I've seen this movie a few dozen times, and love it more each time I see it. Why, then, am I chosing to write a review of it now? I don't know, perhaps it's fitting to my life circumstances at the moment, perhaps it's just because I just started writing movie reviews on my blog and like the Google Ads that turn up when I do so. Take your pick, I don't give a shit.
Whatever the case, 300 is one of the best graphic novel adaptations this side of Sin City. If Jessica Alba did a strip tease in 300 it might top Sin City on the list, but alas, she didn't, and so it doesn't. 300 is as good as it gets for blood-pumping heroic war / patriotic movies though, and that's what this review is about.
This review is not about how the directors let Gerard Butler's strong Scottish accent come through so strongly and ruin the impression that he was a Greek king, what it's about is the underlying theme of the story.
300 is about a nation of people who were united in a way that no nation has since been united. They had dissent, to be sure, but most of the men, women, and children of the country were of the same mold. They shared the same beliefs. There's a scene early on where King Leonidis turns to look at his queen as if to say "Are we on the same page here love?" and she nods her ascent and then he kills some dude at the same exact time that his soldiers kill the dude's friends. That's powerful. To be able to surround yourself with people that are of one mind with you - who are willing to forgo their personal agendas to fulfill a common mindset - that is something that might as well be relegated to the realm of fantasy. I would love to be with a woman that I was able to trust that way, but the truth is that people just can't make connections like that any more - too much of today's bullshit gets in the way. Way to go, modern times.
Because that's the thing, isn't it? What makes 300 such a moving movie is that it portrays a people that are willling and ready to think as one. Who are willing to put aside their petty and meaningless personal drives to serve a greater good - and then persevere because of it. It was the countries that served their selfish sides that failed against adversity in this (true to life historic story) - and only Sparta, standing up together against the common enemy - that prevailed. That's something that's best left to history I guess.
There's a scene where King Leonidis' wife send him off to battle - to save their country - and says "Spartan, come back with your shield, or ON it.". She didn't want him to go off to battle and die for what he believed in, but she knew he had to and supported him because she loved him.
That's dedication.
That's love.
That's poetry.
That's fantasy.
