300
Okay, so, normally this would go on my basic journal because ultimately it has no bearing whatever on my writing. Given how this poor thing has stagnated (due to my incredible procrastinating spring fever), I figured I'd throw it in here for fun. Except it's really a rant, so take it as you will. ;)
I went to see 300 last night with the hubby and one of his school pals. I only had two real beefs with it, since it was supposed to resemble a comic book and be more entertaining than true-to-life. One, there is no need to shove a bunch of half-naked women in, just for the hell of it. There are also better ways to explore the depravities of bad guys than showing what they do with their women. And two, since when are elephants the size of mammoths? I'm sure it had something to do with perspective, given the Spartans sounded like they had never seen one before. Not a big deal, overall, since again - comic book - but it made it look more like a Lord of the Rings rip-off than necessary.
The part that really annoyed me was the audience. More specifically, the girls in it. If a queen, stuck at home, full of warrioress protectiveness and duty and glory and all that Spartan stuff, gives herself to the enemy in exchange for the only help she's going to get in saving the two things she loves most in the world (namely her land and her husband), it does not render her a slut. Nor a whore. Nor out of character. She was a warrior queen, told she was not allowed to be either while her husband was away. They stripped her of everything, so the only thing she had left was herself. Giving that up, breaking the bond with her husband, that was the ultimate sacrifice she could make. (Her son, which is the only other thing she could give up in her battle for freedom, she was losing in two days anyway, so he doesn't count.) She didn't say, "Take me now, while my husband is away!" She said, "Do this for me, help me save everything these people hold dear, and I will give you what you want." It wasn't out of character at all, and, in a way, it was a noble, selfless act.
On the other hand, it also means she wasn't very bright. Any woman with a brain knows to uphold her part of the bargain AFTER he upholds his. But then, throughout the movie she showed her brain and forethought followed behind everything else. It had to, as far as the movie is concerned, or else the baddie would never be able to accuse her of bad things. Which means, of course, that it was a bit contrived, but that's okay. It wasn't exactly the intellectual's movie to begin with. It did have some funny lines that would have been supremely cheezy if said in any other circumstances by any other sort of people.
I don't think this would've bothered me much, except the hubby had just been relating how at the end of watching Casablanca in class, one of the girls complained that all the women are portrayed as hussies. To have a girl of today say that about one of the least slutty women in great film history is just insulting. The other women in the film, fine. They're in Casablanca. There are soldiers everywhere. A certain sort of woman tends to go where there are soldiers. I just don't understand how any girl who has grown up with MTV and the internet can say that.
See? This has to do with writing. It's all about the character motivation. Obviously the movie didn't pull it off well enough for most female minds of today. And if there's one thing a writer must remember, it's their audience. (Then again, I suppose it could be argued that college girls aren't the target audience of 300, so it doesn't matter.)
I went to see 300 last night with the hubby and one of his school pals. I only had two real beefs with it, since it was supposed to resemble a comic book and be more entertaining than true-to-life. One, there is no need to shove a bunch of half-naked women in, just for the hell of it. There are also better ways to explore the depravities of bad guys than showing what they do with their women. And two, since when are elephants the size of mammoths? I'm sure it had something to do with perspective, given the Spartans sounded like they had never seen one before. Not a big deal, overall, since again - comic book - but it made it look more like a Lord of the Rings rip-off than necessary.
The part that really annoyed me was the audience. More specifically, the girls in it. If a queen, stuck at home, full of warrioress protectiveness and duty and glory and all that Spartan stuff, gives herself to the enemy in exchange for the only help she's going to get in saving the two things she loves most in the world (namely her land and her husband), it does not render her a slut. Nor a whore. Nor out of character. She was a warrior queen, told she was not allowed to be either while her husband was away. They stripped her of everything, so the only thing she had left was herself. Giving that up, breaking the bond with her husband, that was the ultimate sacrifice she could make. (Her son, which is the only other thing she could give up in her battle for freedom, she was losing in two days anyway, so he doesn't count.) She didn't say, "Take me now, while my husband is away!" She said, "Do this for me, help me save everything these people hold dear, and I will give you what you want." It wasn't out of character at all, and, in a way, it was a noble, selfless act.
On the other hand, it also means she wasn't very bright. Any woman with a brain knows to uphold her part of the bargain AFTER he upholds his. But then, throughout the movie she showed her brain and forethought followed behind everything else. It had to, as far as the movie is concerned, or else the baddie would never be able to accuse her of bad things. Which means, of course, that it was a bit contrived, but that's okay. It wasn't exactly the intellectual's movie to begin with. It did have some funny lines that would have been supremely cheezy if said in any other circumstances by any other sort of people.
I don't think this would've bothered me much, except the hubby had just been relating how at the end of watching Casablanca in class, one of the girls complained that all the women are portrayed as hussies. To have a girl of today say that about one of the least slutty women in great film history is just insulting. The other women in the film, fine. They're in Casablanca. There are soldiers everywhere. A certain sort of woman tends to go where there are soldiers. I just don't understand how any girl who has grown up with MTV and the internet can say that.
See? This has to do with writing. It's all about the character motivation. Obviously the movie didn't pull it off well enough for most female minds of today. And if there's one thing a writer must remember, it's their audience. (Then again, I suppose it could be argued that college girls aren't the target audience of 300, so it doesn't matter.)