I watched’300’ yesterday. I had heard about it being a great hit in the US and was looking forward to seeing why.
First some history lessons:
The Spartans were renowned in the Grecian world for their military discipline and laconic tongue. While the rest of the Grecian states were democracies, Sparta remained a military monarchy. Emphasis was laid on strength and discipline. Legend says that weaker children were killed so that they would not taint the society.
The Spartans under their king Leonidas, gained world-fame by their heroic stand against the numerically superior Persian army under their king Xerxes at the battle of Thermophylae.
They resisted for three days holding a narrow mountain pass against Xerxes. However, they were finally betrayed by a local shepherd who showed Xerxes’ army another goat path bypassing the Spartan defence. Finding themselves overwhelmed, other Greeks in the Spartan army(Thebians) defected or fled the battle field.
The remaining Spartans fought to the last man and were slaughtered. However, the delay caused by this defence gave Athenians enough time to send their navy across and blockade Xerxes’ navy before finally defeating Xerxes’ land forces
Now enough of history lets get back to the movie:
I went to watch the movie, determined to view it purely for its artistic merits and not from any other view point. But halfway into the first half, I was feeling definitely nauseated. It was like watching one of our ridiculous Tollywood/Mollywood/Bollywood movies in which the hero disposes of numerous pock-marked and mole-faced baddies in slow motion.
Some of the scenes stretched my belief:
1) The Persian messenger asks Leonidas to lay down his arms to which Leonidas replies "Come and get them".
2) The Persians says "Our arrows will blot out the sun", to which the Spartans reply "Good, then we will fight comfortably in the shadow"
These seemed at first glance like dialogues from our own movies.
But surprise surprise, they are historically accurate. The laconic Spartans were famous for their wit and these are real episodes from history.
The utter annihilation of the initial Persian attacks is also true. Xerxes was using his newly enslaved colonies as canon-fodder initially.
But what really pained was the blatantly biased depiction of the Persians. Xerxes, one of the more popular Persian emperors is shown to be androgynous. The Persians are all black, ugly and hideous looking. Ephialtes, the Greek who betrays the Spartans is a hideous hunch-back. Where is the objectivity? It was like a primitive East versus manly West thingy. How pathetic?
Fighting the rising bile back, I kept watching. At least the Spartan side of the story was being depicted true to form, but the Persians got vilified further and further.
Leonidas’ wife pleads with the council to help her husband by sending reinforcements. She even sleeps with the council leader to get his favour. But sadly enough reinforcements do not come in time.
After Ephialtes’ betrayal, the Spartans are encircled and slaughtered with Leonidas falling at the very end.
Did I like it:
Tragically enough, when the brave Leonidas fell I did not feel too much of pain or empathy. That is a measure of the directors failure.
I do know that the story is but an adaptation of the comic book version. But does that matter at all? I do not care if the director has remained true to the comic book or to Herodotus. The visual experience of watching the movie fell flat. The end result is definitely NOT appetising.
However for me as a cinema goer, the one-dimensional sketching of the Persians and the glorification of all things Spartan, caused me to disconnect from the movie.
There is also some controversy over the music with some claiming that it has been lifted from a Macedonian album.
On the whole I would not watch this movie again.