300 - What did everyone think?

[Gaius Decius Aquilius]

Ok...
I quit posting because of what I consider PC over-moderation on RAT but I cant pass up on posting: The Ultimate Review of the 300! This was overheard in a loud cell phone conversation in a local video store. I should note the speaker was wearing black pleated pants, a deep red leather shirt , white suspenders and tie, a fedora and one large loop ear ring. As I can recall:

"... so I was with [friend] in [unfamiliar named club] in Santa Fe. We said 'We know you guys!' They said they were some extras in that 300 something movie. And they were hot! And I mean Hot! That movie. It was about some tribe. About a hundred years ago. Somebody started some issue with them, but they all got pushed off a cliff. We are all going to see it, but I heard it was very violent."
The rest of the conversation centered on the subject being (wrongly) arrested for DWI and driving on a suspended (now revoked) license in a car borrowed without the owner's permission. There was the ritual denunciation of the police, etc, and how the owner was not happy when he found out his car had been impounded.
The speaker then drove off in a BMW with a person wearing a white double breasted suit without a shirt or tie. I should note Albuquerque is jeans and sneakers town. I cannot attest for the veracity of the speaker's story, but Santa Fe does attract a sizable Hollywood crowd. So those above noted were film critics, I suppose.

Best review so far, IMHO.

Ralph I.
spell check not working

[Niedel]

I finally just saw it last night. I have to agree with Jona. Any changes made compared to the graphic novel seemed to push a political agenda.

[Avatar]

I finally just saw it last night. I have to agree with Jona. Any changes made compared to the graphic novel seemed to push a political agenda.

Let us not forget the necrophilia friendly Corpse Bride, or the fact that Dirty Harry is an attempt to expose the corrupt fools that have power. Or the fact that all the good guys in LotR are white, and the bad guys are all black or arab.

See where I am going? It's a movie, dammit. Leave it at that. Or as a friend of mine put it: "the only reason to read anything into it is to get into an argument".

EDIT: From Wikipedia:

Prior to the release of 300, Warner Brothers expressed concerns about the political aspects of the film's theme. Snyder relates that "There was a huge sensitivity about East versus West with the studio." Media speculation about a possible parallel between the Greco-Persian conflict and current events began in an interview with Snyder that was conducted before the Berlin Film Festival. The interviewer remarked that "everyone is sure to be translating this [film] into contemporary politics." Snyder replied that, while he was aware that people would read the film through the lens of contemporary events, no parallels between the film and the contemporary world were intended.

At a press junket following a February screening in Los Angeles, Snyder was again asked about the film's political implications. At the Berlin screening, Snyder claims that a reporter asked, "Don’t you think it’s interesting that your movie was funded at this point?" Snyder clarifies, "The implication was that funding came from the U.S. government."

Outside of current political parallels, some critics have raised more general questions about the film's ideological orientation. The New York Post's Kyle Smith writes that the film would have pleased "Adolf's boys," and Slate's Dana Stevens compares the film to The Eternal Jew. Roger Moore, a critic for the Orlando Sentinel, matches 300 to Susan Sontag's definition of "fascist art." David Kahane of the National Review praises the movie for valorizing "Real all-American stuff," in which "heroes [stand] up for God and country".

However, Newsday critic Gene Seymour dismisses such reactions as misguided, writing that "the movie's just too darned silly to withstand any ideological theorizing." Snyder himself dismisses ideological readings, suggesting that reviewers who critique a "graphic novel movie about a bunch of guys...stomping the snot out of each other" using words like " 'neocon,' 'homophobic,' 'homoerotic' or 'racist' " are "missing the point."

[Niedel]

See where I am going? It's a movie, dammit. Leave it at that. Or as a friend of mine put it: "the only reason to read anything into it is to get into an argument".

Simply stated my opinion. Don't want to get into an argument. To each his/her own. No reason to cuss at me, bro.

[Cornelius Quintus]

Avete omnes,

here's a 300 trailer for critics :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67zujIzZ ... ed&search=

[Robert Vermaat]

Or the fact that all the good guys in LotR are white, and the bad guys are all black or arab.

You call that a fact? I call that a severly mistaken statement. How black/arab is Saruman? (to name one)
But true, Tolkien was not a friend of southern and eastern peoples, and the asian, negroid and arab people seen in his books are helpers of Sauron.

See where I am going? It's a movie, dammit. Leave it at that.

Absolutely. I mean, I like Donald Duck, but I would never quote what he, Daisy Duck, Scrooge, Huey, Dewey and Louie are doing as tipickal for your ordinary duck in the pond at the back of the house.



Trouble is, many people do make such claims about this movie, and that's (for me personally) the reason to speak out against it. Not as a brilliant piece of action movie (which it no doubt is), but as a 'movie based on hisstorical facts'. For that is a blatant lie - If I made a movie about Alexander who became emperor of China I could make the same claim (well, there was an Alexander who conquered lands in the east, right?), with the same veracity.

Why can't they leave history alone instead of having to (harsher word edited) violate it? It's a fantasy comic, dammit!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
That sums it up for me Heiko! :wink:

[Zenodoros]

That movie. It was about some tribe. About a hundred years ago. Somebody started some issue with them, but they all got pushed off a cliff. We are all going to see it, but I heard it was very violent."

Fantastic. :lol:

I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm still not sure if it's out in Australia yet, I asked a worker at a cinema here earlier this week, who claimed a release on the 29th, though even if that was true, I haven't had time to see it yet. It's very difficult, as I was following it as early as December '05.

[Magnus]

There isn't anyone who is ever going to truly educate all the morons who mistake this movie for anything more than a hollywood film. We can't...you can't, I can't....in many cases even when the attempt is made it's futile.

So why get your panty hose in a knot over the population that has a reality based on a VERY limited IQ?

[Robert Vermaat]

So why get your panty hose in a knot over the population that has a reality based on a VERY limited IQ?

Ah, you mean Hollywood... For a minute or so I thought you meant the public. :twisted: