300-Two takes
This is what I think of 300:
As beautifully photographed as a Valentino perfume ad, 300 is the story of a small Spartan army facing anihilation by millions of Persian fighters. Ruled by the evil god-king (that needs a double check to be sure whether its a man or a woman) the Persians outnumber the Spartan's by a ridiculous amount of soldiers. To me this is a classic good vs. evil battle, the only twist is that is not always easy to define who is the good in it. The Spartan's are the safe bet, the little man overcoming adversity, protrayed as air brushed pec's gods that cannot be defeated. However nobody notices the grand masacre that they are displaying against the Persian's, stacking them up as a wall of corpses, stabbing them once they are down to make sure they are dead. On the other hand, the Persian's all from different etnicities, most of them being forced to fight for a cause they dont believe in. But of course, hollywood would never make them into the good guys, after all they are trying to kill poor strong Spartan's and take their land. For me it was 2 hours of mixed messages and slow moving coreographed battles. I must admit however that it did entertain me for those 2 hours so it has done its purpose.
This is what my brother thinks of 300:
I am truly glad that after some time I got to see a movie with a certain degree of polical undertone. However its a pity that its content is so disgustingly American. I dont have anything against americans. They are human beings like everyone else. To me its unberable though when they try to convince the rest of the world they are some god - given gift to earth. 300 is a movie that tells the story about a small group of Spartan soldiers (300 of course) that fight against a huge Persian army that treathens to colonize them and deprive them of their freedom. I'm not very familiar with the historical background of ancient Greece and I dont knwo if this happened in real life. Truth is I dont care. What I do care about is how can we relate to this story in contemporary times. The movie basically yells out: "To defend our freedom we have to kill a lot of arabs". The only thing is that instead of calling them Arabs, in the movie they are Persians. Funny thing is that from the beggining we are seeing a small group of white Spartan's killing millions of Persian's like ants, to then pile them up in a moutain of corpses. The only justification that the movie offers for this behaviour is that "Spartan's never give up and they are willing to shed blood for their freedom". The movie is full of crap like that. Crap that we've heard a thousand times over already in the last six years for the 'fight for freedom'. While the Spartan's (americans) are protrayed like real epic heroes, atheltic, fake muscles, the Persian's (the Arabs) are shown as an army of disfigured monsters, with a stricking resemblance to Orks in The lord of the Rings movies. The only difference with reality this film has is that in it, the roles are reversed. In it the Persian's (arabs) are the imperialistic force and the Spartan's (americans) are the threatened people. This is what creates the main conflict in the plot: the lack of reinforcements for the small Spartan army. There is a scene in which the Spartan Queen tries to convince congress so that they can send more soldiers into battle, but her efforts are crushed by corrupt politicians. Hours before I went to see this movie I was watching a CNN news coverage in which George W. Bush asked the U.S congress to aprove more funds to finance the troops in Irak. 300 has been a blockbuster in the U.S and if I was an Arab in that country right now I'd be pretty afraid. I'd ask you to not waste your time seeing it, but since its the most popular movie at the time, I know you will anyway, but please, just burn it instead and see what you think.
Translator's note: This review is originally in Spanish so a lot of the feel for it, may have been.. well, lost in translation.
As beautifully photographed as a Valentino perfume ad, 300 is the story of a small Spartan army facing anihilation by millions of Persian fighters. Ruled by the evil god-king (that needs a double check to be sure whether its a man or a woman) the Persians outnumber the Spartan's by a ridiculous amount of soldiers. To me this is a classic good vs. evil battle, the only twist is that is not always easy to define who is the good in it. The Spartan's are the safe bet, the little man overcoming adversity, protrayed as air brushed pec's gods that cannot be defeated. However nobody notices the grand masacre that they are displaying against the Persian's, stacking them up as a wall of corpses, stabbing them once they are down to make sure they are dead. On the other hand, the Persian's all from different etnicities, most of them being forced to fight for a cause they dont believe in. But of course, hollywood would never make them into the good guys, after all they are trying to kill poor strong Spartan's and take their land. For me it was 2 hours of mixed messages and slow moving coreographed battles. I must admit however that it did entertain me for those 2 hours so it has done its purpose.
This is what my brother thinks of 300:
I am truly glad that after some time I got to see a movie with a certain degree of polical undertone. However its a pity that its content is so disgustingly American. I dont have anything against americans. They are human beings like everyone else. To me its unberable though when they try to convince the rest of the world they are some god - given gift to earth. 300 is a movie that tells the story about a small group of Spartan soldiers (300 of course) that fight against a huge Persian army that treathens to colonize them and deprive them of their freedom. I'm not very familiar with the historical background of ancient Greece and I dont knwo if this happened in real life. Truth is I dont care. What I do care about is how can we relate to this story in contemporary times. The movie basically yells out: "To defend our freedom we have to kill a lot of arabs". The only thing is that instead of calling them Arabs, in the movie they are Persians. Funny thing is that from the beggining we are seeing a small group of white Spartan's killing millions of Persian's like ants, to then pile them up in a moutain of corpses. The only justification that the movie offers for this behaviour is that "Spartan's never give up and they are willing to shed blood for their freedom". The movie is full of crap like that. Crap that we've heard a thousand times over already in the last six years for the 'fight for freedom'. While the Spartan's (americans) are protrayed like real epic heroes, atheltic, fake muscles, the Persian's (the Arabs) are shown as an army of disfigured monsters, with a stricking resemblance to Orks in The lord of the Rings movies. The only difference with reality this film has is that in it, the roles are reversed. In it the Persian's (arabs) are the imperialistic force and the Spartan's (americans) are the threatened people. This is what creates the main conflict in the plot: the lack of reinforcements for the small Spartan army. There is a scene in which the Spartan Queen tries to convince congress so that they can send more soldiers into battle, but her efforts are crushed by corrupt politicians. Hours before I went to see this movie I was watching a CNN news coverage in which George W. Bush asked the U.S congress to aprove more funds to finance the troops in Irak. 300 has been a blockbuster in the U.S and if I was an Arab in that country right now I'd be pretty afraid. I'd ask you to not waste your time seeing it, but since its the most popular movie at the time, I know you will anyway, but please, just burn it instead and see what you think.
Translator's note: This review is originally in Spanish so a lot of the feel for it, may have been.. well, lost in translation.