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Posted Mar. 9, 2007, 9:26 p.m. PT
300 Certain to Kick Cinematic Ass
By Ann Magnuson
I caught the 300 special on The History Channel the other night and the 11-year-old in me is gonna drag my middle-aged carcass to the movie theater to see this Sci-fi-Ray-Harryhausen-meets-ancient-Greek-beefcake-in-hell cinematic blockbuster! (It was the same 11-year-old who dragged me out of the house to see Apocalypto... and my chakras are STILL shredded!)
I think there are gonna be a lot of 11-year-old boys citing this movie in about ten years time as the defining moment when they realized they were gay. YOWSER! The homoerotica on display in 300 beats the hell out of those '60s era bodybuilder magazines!
One might question thehistoric authenticity on display in this movie but as long as the special effects whisk us away to trippy fantasy worlds, who cares!? (I believe I heard on the History Channel that the Spartans were actually clad, head-to-toe, in Bronze Age armature. But that wouldn't show off awesome washboard abs very well now, would it?)
In the History Channel special, the director of 300admitted there were a few clashes between history and what appears in the original graphic novel/ comic book 300 by Frank "Sin City" Miller. Given the choice, they usually went with Miller's more fanciful comic book version. Fortunately, the History Channel also provides a more sober but no less fascinating account of the Battle of Thermopylae in another special The Last Stand of the 300.
I hope Miller does some graphic novels later sold to the movies about the real-life pillages of the Ghengis Khan and the Vikings. (This History Channel has had some very riveting programs about both recently.) You can't have too much historical violence on the silver screen! (Then again, maybe they should just edit together some footage from Iraq?)
This movie is sure to ignite debate amount historians. Not to mention folks prone to histrionics ("Is 300 pro- or anti-Bush?"). Dig the comments posted on this YouTube trailer (But where, pray tell, do the Zulu fit into all this?):
atila989
The Spartans were an elite trained military force, that were trained their entire life for one thing, WAR. The Zulu were using animals skin shields and spears. They did not have bronze or have anykind of armour as good as the spartanso. The Spartan's phalanx would have torn the zulu apart.
GraveFoxVII
The Spartans only lost because someone from one of the other city states(forget who)told the Persians the way around their flank. If their flank was never revaled chances are that the Spartans may hav been able to hold on for much longer.
fireshadow99
lol people die who cares hwo accurate it is
princedime11
WHERE DO YOU FUCK HEADS COME UP WITH THIS BULL SHIT HA HAAAA HISTORICAL FACT PSST PLEASE!!!! THEY CAN FIND DINOSUARS BONES BUT THEY CANT FIND 100,000 BODIES WHERE THEY **KNOW** THIS CRAP TOOK PLACE!!!! IT IS A FUCKING ))FABLE(( A MYTH TO MAKE THE FUTURE GENERATIONS STRONGER THE SAME THE WHITE AMERICANS DID AND THE NAZIs's all lies. LIKE I SAID BEFORE ZULU'S WOULD HAVE DESTORYED THE WHOLE GOT DAMN COUNTRY ****BITCHES****
princedime11
what where are you people getting this bullshit they the fucking greatest lol Quit blowing each other and learned other race history FACTS with BONES AND WEAPONS THAT WHERE ACTUALLY STILL THERE AFTER HUNDRADS OF YEARS LOL THE ZULUS WOULD DOMAINATE THEM BITCHES
Shintao
I dont care how historically accurate it is, or what the acient sexual prefrence was, or how exagerated it is, it just looks like a kick ass movie so im going to see it tomarrow (opening night) and hopefully it will kick as much ass as the trailers say it will. But I will walk out at the first gay sex scene thou.
ak2lis
OO DAMMM THIS MOVIE IS GONNA BE THE SHIT
Comments
Oh yeah this movie is gonna ROCK! ! ! !
.....Im ther this weekend.I read the graphic novel when it first came out almost ten years ago.....I dont go the movies for a history lesson .....I like Myths far greater( which sometimes hold their own truth ) and thats what this book is about .....the director is making my other favorite graphic novel soon wATCHMEN by Alan Moore ......we can compare notes after I see it.....for the second and third timE.
Posted at 2:03 p.m. PT on Mar 09, 2007 by randy focazio
The greatest male "chick-flick" movie since Robocop 2.
Posted at 3:50 p.m. PT on Mar 09, 2007 by Jerell
I think they are referring to the film Zulu Dawn perhaps ....which if you have seen is a british last stand against hundreds of thousands of Zulu warriors in which the ritish soldiers..( or michael Caine if you like )win but to much of their surprise the thousands of zulu soldiers killed are but a small fraction of the tribe as the ending reveals ....Hmm dont know if you wanna know about the iraq war check of Battle of Algiers a film which the u.S. government actually used as a training strategy for its soldiers because the film was so accurate and realistic.Hmmm some of those comments are kinda scary....there is actually a Viking movie coming out this Summer .....or about the Vikings coming to America many many moons ago....people still do not know what Vietnam was all about so I imagine the accuracy is that it happened and beyond that little else is known ...kinda like the Gilgamesh story ...its very similiar to Christian mythology.....I bet Joseph Cambell would have liked this movie.....for about 10 or 20 minutes he makes me feel comfortable about lifes origins but then my head wanders into other theories and existential nightmares follow....
Posted at 2:23 a.m. PT on Mar 10, 2007 by randy focazio
Hmmm, what would Steve Reeves think?
Posted at 5:48 p.m. PT on Mar 10, 2007 by toni
OH MY GOD .....THIS MOVIE PUT FAITH IN ME THAT HOLLYWOOD can make something good....this SO ACCURATELY tells Frank Millers book word by word in voice over......if any one complains about it they missed the point completely....
Posted at 9:04 a.m. PT on Mar 12, 2007 by randy focazio
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Posted at 9:04 p.m. PT on Mar 12, 2007 by Human Rights Campaign
The Zulu armies did well, and were among the best infantry of their age. A fine hollywood movie, and the start of Micheal Cain's film career, Zulu, describes what happens when western hubris doesn't set-up a defeat. The battle of Rorke's Drift was modestly well portrayed for a 1964 popcorn flick. Mainly its cool for the righteous Zulu war chant later used in Gladiator.
People are really trying too hard to make every movie an issue of "pro bush" "anti bush." Its a freak'n movie people. 20 years from now, its message will be that which it was when the actual battle happened. If the European trash and Iranians are in a tizzy about it, who cares. If the movie shows anything, it is that even in the pre-Islam world, there were still hordes marching to and fro. This is about demigodery and fanaticism vs. free men, as much as it is about anything. And the details of the battle aside, the lack of bones to be found aside, it did happen. It was more like 700 vs. 200,000, but lets face it, dead is dead, or so Custar would say.
This movie was as artistically done as any I've seen in a long time. The lack of plot and cherector development can be forgiven. Its an older and more basic form of story telling which Hollywood hasn't tried in some time. The old silent movie makers would approve of this movie. Owing to the origin of the story in Miller's graphic novel, you could show this in B&W, sans sound, and still follow the story and be moved.
And as for lasting effects? I'm not sure a lot of 11 year old boys will pin this as the moment they learned how to create window treatments, but a whole lot of boyfriends just realized they are going to need to go to the gym a lot this year.
Posted at 10:42 a.m. PT on Mar 13, 2007 by NWLB
Hmm well I do not agree with the above statement that this film lacked chacter developement and plot ....Um the plot was 300 soldiers face a army ten times their size in order to inspire the Spartan senate to go to war with Persia which they initially reject due to a traitorous oracle reading from the gods ....what does it say ..? That any indigenous peoples will go to any lengths to maintain freedom against a foreign invader ....that submission does not equal freedom ..( that goes for relationships as well )....in the end both sides are right ...its equally justifiable for a powerful nation to seek out and dominate any one deemed a threat to their kingdom ......whether its Persia or the United States ...war is a part of man and it is necessary in order to retain ones culture ...it is law of the jungle it is what we are it is nature .....ants do it.But yes I do not see 11 year olds getting in touch with a feminine side froM this picture ...... what it does show is the power of Martyrdrom.
Posted at 6:46 p.m. PT on Mar 15, 2007 by randy focazio
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