300 (RL, movie)

[thistlechaser]

I've not gone to see a movie in the theaters for a couple years now. It's way too expensive, I hate having to see it with other people, and often I have a hard time sitting still for 2-3 hours. However, the trailer for 300 looked so good that I thought it might be the movie to get me back into the theater.

A friend works for a magazine and got to see 300 last night so that she could interview the stars today, I was so very happy to see her review before I had a chance to go see it.

"This was the most disgusting piece of pro-Iraq war propaganda I have ever seen."

Quoting: Then, ignoring the advice of the oracles, who are depicted as physically mutated men who prey on young girls, and the law, backed by a council who are portrayed as cowardly, corrupt politicians, Leonidas gathers 300 of his best soldiers and goes to bravely take on the Persian army. There's lots of talk about how "Freedom isn't free, it must be paid for, and the price is blood!" and how the Spartans must think of their wives and sons, and how they go to fight to spread freedom and stop the slavery of the Persians. Okay, yick. I think that's pretty clear propaganda right there, and it alone would have bothered me. But this movie takes it EVEN FARTHER.

The Persian army is depicted as an army of monsters. They are all less than human: they're all horribly mutated in one way or another, hunchbacked and grotesque. They're not white. They're sexual perverts! (And while we get jokes about boy-loving men [this from Spartans, mind you—Spartans who are all dressed in very manly and heterosexual giant leather jockstraps], of course what we see is women engaging in some form of pantomime lesbianism—because why not titillate while also casting moral judgment?)

And:
And then there was even more to feel sick about, like the fact that the sole female character's only role seemed to be to allow herself to get raped by her husband's rival—and this was presented as heroic.

I feel bad for her, she has to interview the stars when she feels of the movie:
- What a vile, vile piece of trash.
- Never has a film made me feel so physically ill to be in the theater watching it.

So anyway, yeah. If you were like me and interested in the movie based on the trailer alone, you might want to rethink it.

Her whole review here.

Comments

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Leaving out any and all political comparisons... I'm curious why you were ever interested in a movie in the first place. It looked... really just like a bunch of senseless violence and bad acting from the trailer. Then again, I'm not a fan of the more 'epic' movies where small groups beat overwhelming odds and the whole 'plot' is usually around mindless slaughter, heavy womanizing, and maybe some thread of story if you're lucky.

Seems more like a 'look at me, I'm macho and badass' movie than something with an engaging plot. z.z Good to know I was right in that guess.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hm. Well, what I saw wasn't the real trailer, it was like a super-long TV advertisement. Maybe 60 seconds instead of, what's a real trailer, 3 minutes? It looked flashy and the costumes looked interesting and everything moved at a fast pace. I should check out the "real" trailer and see what it's like.

the whole 'plot' is usually around mindless slaughter, heavy womanizing, and maybe some thread of story if you're lucky.

Heh, that's exactly how this sounded.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*rolls* Okay, the trailer is, um, quite different. And OMG, so many "heterosexual giant leather jockstraps"! The arrow scene (which was on the TV trailer as well) was pretty cool, but the rest... *snerk*

[niffy.livejournal.com]

The trailer kind of struck me as pretentious. x3 I used to be into that kind of stuff after Kill Bill, but then Sin City came out, and while I thought the previews looked really great, it just didn't have anything there besides the dark mood and atmosphere. I'm expecting this to have little dialogue, lots of artsy junk and slow motion effects, but little else. :/

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I watched the trailer (instead of the "trailer" they were showing on TV) and I have to say I think you're right. :)

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Okay, this six degrees of separation stuff going on with my friends list is starting to get weird. toft_froggy put up a link to that post earlier this morning (or at least that's when I read it) and now you've posted it too.

Er, anyway, the review turned me off the movie as well, but my interest in seeing it wasn't that high anyway due to Frank "WHORES! WHORES! WHORES!" Millar. I swear, the man should've just stuck with being an artist.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Frank "WHORES! WHORES! WHORES!" Millar.

You make me giggle. :)

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

I wish I could laugh, but that's what they really call him. He's a misogynist who categorizes most women as expendable whores in his stories (Sin City was infamous for it).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

... ack. Sheesh. >< Blech.

[tacrozar.livejournal.com]

I think the Battle at Thermopylae is probably one of the most massive one sided moral victory. It was actually a battle the greeks lost but what they did was manage to slow down the Persian army and inflict losses.
As always... WIKI!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! *goes to read*