REVIEW
300 Packs a Surprising One, Two Punch

I’ve never had the capability to comprehend war.  The one time I tried to play Risk with my family as a kid, I burst into tears after contemplating the fact that with one roll of the dice I was killing my men, widowing their wives and robbing their children of their father.  It didn’t matter that my “men” were green and plastic and didn’t really have families back home.  I was devastated.

Thus, when billboards and advertisements for 300 began popping up all over the LA landscape – I wasn’t too excited.  Another war movie about ancient Greece where everyone is going to die . . . fantastic. 

But I found myself in a darkened theater anyway, ready, or not so ready, to take in this bloody feast.  By movies end, I discovered that I was . . . pleasantly surprised. 

300 is the story of Sparta – its pride, its glory, its desecration, its continuation.  King Leonidas (the solid and dependable Gerard Butler) is the proud and strong Spartan King who looks Xerxes pitiful offer of peace (aka slavery) squarely in the eye and spits in its face.  Gathering three hundred of the greatest fighting men from the renowned Spartan army and going against the commands of the local oracle, Leonidas leaves home and family to do what he does best – kill.

It’s a suicide mission – 300 Spartans plus a measly 700 thespians against the enormous Persian army that historians number in the hundreds of thousands.  Despite impossible odds, the Battle for Thermopylae must be fought . . . for the fate of Sparta and by extension all of Greece hangs in the balance.

Writers Kurt Johnstad, Michael B. Gordon and Writer/Director Zack Snyder didn’t stray very far from tradition and format in this typical war flick.  300 is ultimately a lot of pride, a lot of blood, a lot of dying.  There is the beautiful wife, Queen Gorgo (a strong Lena Headey), who struggles back home against the evil and greedy General Theron (an unnerving Dominic West) to gain support for her noble King who is doing what’s best for the nation.  Blah, blah, blah.  It’s all pretty predictable.

But it’s all pretty beautiful too.  Larry Fong’s cinematography and Isabelle Guay, Nicolas Page and Jean-Pierre Paquet’s deft handling of the artistic direction deliver a delectable stylistic feast for the eyes.  The inventive, artistic approach 300 takes, that was alternately praised to the heavens as pure genius and then ridiculed as major overkill, was actually quite perfect.  Lending an air of magic and mystery to this era, this society, this culture that has long fascinated the hearts and minds of so many, the visuals shocked, awed and impressed.

Couple these astounding visuals with battle sequences that were like elegant, composed dances and an impressive original music score by Tyler Bates and you’ve got a fluid, powerful and precise glimpse into the realm of the warrior.  When some not so subtle rock and roll drifted out into the theater as the rumblings of battle began, I think I understood, in some small way, the insane adrenaline filled sensation of war.  Pretty good for a girl who cried her way through Risk right?

There is just one more thing I must mention about 300 . . . and it’s a bit of spoiler.  So if you haven’t seen the movie – don’t read on.

I mentioned above that I found the overall storyline pretty predictable.  That is true . . .until one specific scene that comes late in the film.  The slick and smooth Theron has remained at home, looking to capitalize on Leonida’s expected death by taking over country and Queen.  Needing his help, Queen Gorgo does the only thing it seems women can do to get men to bargain with them and seconds later she is left to watch helplessly as Theron doesn’t keep up with his end of the deal.

I didn’t realize until this scene that movies had conditioned me with expectations for feminine behavior.  Fully expecting Gorgo to walk away - frustrated, angry, destroyed - while Theron mockingly and gloatingly enjoyed the upper hand, my mouth fell open in shock when she pulled the dagger and with one swift move ended Theron’s life.  It made me so happy I nearly clapped.

Even if the rest of the movie sucked, that scene would have made everything else well worth it.  Fortunately, everything else didn’t suck.