Feel the wrath in IMAX
In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes lead a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians and other Slave soldiers. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw left with no options he moved. The battle lasted for about 3 days and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected, as a local shepherd, named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.
Genre(s): Action, Fantasy, War
Runtime: 117 minutes
Rating: 7.8/10 (212,817 votes)
Release Date: 9 December 2006
Country: USA
Languages: English
Company: Warner Bros. Pictures
Sound: Sonics-DDP, DTS, SDDS, Dolby Digital
MPAA: Rated R for graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity.
Director(s): Zack Snyder
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Producer(s):
Steve Barnett - co-producer
Mark Canton - producer
Wesley Coller - associate producer
William Fay - executive producer
Craig J. Flores - executive producer
Bernie Goldmann - producer
Scott Mednick - executive producer
Frank Miller - executive producer
Gianni Nunnari - producer
Josette Perrotta - co-producer
Nathalie Peter-Contesse - associate producer
Jeffrey Silver - producer
Deborah Snyder - executive producer
Silenn Thomas - associate producer
Thomas Tull - executive producer
Ben Waisbren - executive producer (as Benjamin Waisbren)
Writer(s):
Zack Snyder - (screenplay) &
Kurt Johnstad - (screenplay) and
Michael Gordon - (screenplay) (as Michael B. Gordon)
Frank Miller - (graphic novel) and
Lynn Varley - (graphic novel)
Cast:
Gerard Butler - King Leonidas
Lena Headey - Queen Gorgo
Dominic West - Theron
David Wenham - Dilios
Vincent Regan - Captain
Michael Fassbender - Stelios
Tom Wisdom - Astinos
Andrew Pleavin - Daxos
Andrew Tiernan - Ephialtes
Rodrigo Santoro - Xerxes
Music: Tyler Bates
Steve Barnett - co-producer
Mark Canton - producer
Wesley Coller - associate producer
William Fay - executive producer
Craig J. Flores - executive producer
Bernie Goldmann - producer
Scott Mednick - executive producer
Frank Miller - executive producer
Gianni Nunnari - producer
Josette Perrotta - co-producer
Nathalie Peter-Contesse - associate producer
Jeffrey Silver - producer
Deborah Snyder - executive producer
Silenn Thomas - associate producer
Thomas Tull - executive producer
Ben Waisbren - executive producer (as Benjamin Waisbren)
Writer(s):
Zack Snyder - (screenplay) &
Kurt Johnstad - (screenplay) and
Michael Gordon - (screenplay) (as Michael B. Gordon)
Frank Miller - (graphic novel) and
Lynn Varley - (graphic novel)
Cast:
Gerard Butler - King Leonidas
Lena Headey - Queen Gorgo
Dominic West - Theron
David Wenham - Dilios
Vincent Regan - Captain
Michael Fassbender - Stelios
Tom Wisdom - Astinos
Andrew Pleavin - Daxos
Andrew Tiernan - Ephialtes
Rodrigo Santoro - Xerxes
Music: Tyler Bates
Posted on: July 12, 2008
July 15th, 2009
The script for this movie is atrocious. There is no doubt about that.This is an ailment which afflicts most 'comic-book' crossovers, andusually stops the movie dead in the water. Here, it doesn't. Why isthat? Again, leave aside Scottish Spartans. Personally, I found thatquite an ingenious comparison, because of the warlike races. One man'sartistic meat is another man's poisonous turkey; but people assumethere is one particular way of making films, and build up criticalattitudes this way. Anything that violates those attitudes is likely tocause offence simply because a dividing line has been drawn. One'sparents' values get passed down through the generations, etc etc etc.
The main virtue of this film is it makes you consider what *you* aredoing with life, and whether *you*, in the same circumstances thecharacters find themselves in, would react any differently. Anothervirtue is its revitalisation of classical antiquity, but I don't wantto dwell on this too much because I suspect the facts as they areunderstood have been somewhat played with. All the characters get theirinteresting moments of deliberation and decision – except, perhaps, thekid – and they are all quite intriguing. Would a Spartan woman allowherself to be raped for her country, for instance? It's not a perfectfilm by any stretch of the imagination; by which I mean, it lacks theessential control of all the elements. Script is usually woeful,lighting all dreary darks and rumbling clouds and ethereal lightning,and the subject is not given a wide enough historical overview to beutterly satisfying – but this film as I said before is about the powerof its central stories. I know I said most scripts from comic books arewoeful; and they are; they encourage retrograde, wooden acting asactors consciously or subconsciously go for the 'freeze frame' look. AsI say, though, if you sit back and let the occasional film just beitself, it can hit all the right notes; after all, no one wouldconsider not watching 'The Italian Job' simply because of theinaccuracies and "miscontinuities", would they? Good film. I'd probablywatch it again.
July 24th, 2009
Whether you like, enjoy, rate or simply hate 300 depends almostentirely on what you expect. Don't expect history. Apart from the factthat the hero is the Spartan king Leonidas, fetchingly portrayed by amuscle-bound Scotsman in skimpy shorts and a cape, and the filmportrays – very loosely – the historical battle of Thermopylae when atiny Grecian force held a far larger Persian force at bay, this is morefiction than fact. For example, and quite crucially: a lot is made of'freedom' in 300, that no Spartans will bow to the Persians etc blah,blah. 21st century demotic thought at its finest, paper-thin andmillimetre deep. And fair enough: banging the drum about 'freedom' and'liberty' always goes down well in the freedom and liberty-loving Westwhich values freedom and liberty so much, it is prepared to sacrificewhole nations in the quest to introduce democracy to the world. Thespeech given by Leonidas's queen to the senate could have been writtenin the White House four years ago when it desperately tried to justifyit invasion of Iraq. More pertinently for Hollywood, of course, aliberal use of the word freedom lends a spurious philosophical glamourto any dross they care to churn out. But inconveniently, Sparta hadnothing to do with freedom: only one in five of the inhabitants ofSparta were free men. The rest, or most of them, were Helots, slaveswho at a certain time of the year could be killed by any Spartan withimpunity. So much for 'freedom'. But as I say, if you are looking forfact, don't bother with 300. If you expect a literary script, again theonly sensible advice is to avoid 300. It you are averse to the graphicportrayal of gore, although gore redeemed by being so highly stylisedthat it is largely unreal, don't bother. If, on the other hand, you arequite entertained by slasher movies, sword and sorcery and all thingsTolkienian (does the word exist?), give 300 whirl. Oddly enough I don'tlike slasher movies, sword and sorcery or all things Tolkienian at all,but as a piece of superior bubblgegum movie-making and movie-watching300 somehow hits the spot. It is, it has to be said, complete and uttercobblers (and that is not an obscene word, dear American friends). Butwhat I like is that it has no pretensions whatsoever. None at all. Itfollows in the tradition of Sin City, another film based on a graphicnovel by Frank Miller, and its scenes (I read) follow the graphicpanels of the novel virtually seamlessly. And that is the key to it.300, like Sin City, is the graphic novel in movie form. Naturally,simply because it is a 'comic' doesn't mean it need not have literaryquality but nor does it mean that it should have one either. Thedialogue is almost of the 'Me Tarzan, you Jane' school of writing withone or two lines of cod philosophy. But neither is there a necessitythat it should have a great script, and to criticise 300 because itdoesn't have one misses the point entirely as does taking the filmseriously on any intellectual level whatsoever. This is film-making,for goodness sake, money-making, entertainment. Viewed with that inmind and 300 can be forgive quite a lot. So if it is way, way, way overthe top, from the CGI-enhanced muscles of the Spartans and Xerxes, allmetal piercing, eyeshadow and chains who is surely a gay icon somewhereto the quite impossible battle scenes, all of whom were so obviouslygenerated on the latest Apple Macs, who cares. Was it a failing of P TBarnum's extravangazas that the elephants couldn't recite Shelley? 300is way, way, way over the top and unashamedly proudly over the top,almost like the best drag act you have ever seen. As a piece offilm-making 300 is not original – Sin City was merely because it got inthere first – but in an odd sort of way it is still satisfying. So itdoesn't matter that Leonidas sounds as though he is from Paisley inScotland, or that Xerxes seems to have just arrived from a rich man'sfetish party, or that The Immortals, the Persian king's fearsomebodyguard are superbly ridiculous. Who cares. 300 is an outright rompand none the worse for that. Elsewhere you will read, as always thatthis is either the best film ever made or so bad the director shouldhave been jailed. It's neither. If you agree to it on its own terms, itis rather good. Shakespeare it ain't, but then anyone who has seenTitus Andronicus will know that sometimes Shakespeare wasn't, either.
July 29th, 2009
I really do. I would have lived a long time ago, and not seen thiswaste of time and film.
I do NOT care that this isn't an historical film, that isn't what makesit bad – although I would love to see an historically accurate filmmade, but that's besides the point.
The CGI is terrible. It's horrible distracting, and honestly justlooks, well, gross. It distracted me from the overall film and Icouldn't take it seriously. Maybe that's my problem…nahhh, it's thefilm's.
Not only that, but the heavy metal music made me want to rip my eardrums out and stomp on them until they looked a spit out piece of gumfrying on hot pavement. Look, I get it. I really do. But what I "get",turned out to be a horrible juxtaposition of metal music and AncientGreeks and Persians fighting.
Those are my two biggest complaints.
The "acting" was decent, I wouldn't call it too much acting, but thewriting was dire at best. This movie is completely overrated, but I seewhy it is. I just happen to not agree with it.
August 7th, 2009
The world of swords and sandals is pumped up to the extreme with 300, atestosterone-tinged tale that's been operatically translated from thepage to the screen for the action-hungry masses by director ZackSnyder. Adapting Frank Miller's comic series must not have been easy.First and foremost, the books were pure eye candy. Printed in fullhorizontal splash pages brought to breathtaking life by Lynn Varley'sbrush strokes, each issue demanded your eye-time first, then paid itoff with Miller's typical tough prose later. That same dialogue figuresprominently in the film — in fact, much of the screen and page line upwondrously, even if the film does include its share of deviations. Theextra bits of action are welcomed — armored rhinos are a nice touch,as is the giant chained Persian that's unleashed on the Spartans.However, the added subplot involving the queen has raised a feweyebrows, if only because of the questionable pro-right-wing politicsit contains. Snyder himself has shrugged off much of this criticism,although even he cannot deny that this is one of the lone Hollywoodproducts of its time to align itself to such a troubled administration.
Some moviegoers might also feel a bit uninvolved in the action simplybecause the tale is as direct as it is. With little context for most ofthe characters, the whole thing runs the chance of simply being asong-and-dance number made up of quick-to-slow shots of steel, blood,and open-throated yelling. But really, there's not much wrong withthat, just as long as that's something the ticket holders are craving.Stodgy critics have compared it to video-game film-making, but it's farbetter to view it as a stylish exercise in how to bring Miller's workto the big screen in a way that's never been seen before — just asRobert Rodriguez did with Sin City. In that way, Snyder has achievedwhat he set out to do. Now it's time for him to apply the skillslearned here on something that will ignite the same kind of fire inaudiences that Leonidas instilled in his troops.
August 8th, 2009
This is the most racist piece of crap I have ever seen, I've tried towatch it twice but can't watch any longer after 20 minutes or so- it isclearly aimed at a simple American audience – and the only reason itcame to production is because of American foreign policy (war in middleeast).
Hence all the stupid macho white characters are portrayed as heroes andsimply spout out simple one liners – regarding freedom and democracy -(the type of propaganda crap that the American people have been fedconstantly since 9/11. Basically anyone that is non white is evil andcowardly and up to the point where i can't watch anymore the havehomosexual tendencies too.
I'm glad though that this finally isn't in the top 250 like it was inthe past.
August 11th, 2009
You just can't help not to love Gerard Butler.He is so good when heacts and it feels like he's just hypnotizing you.The movie has anattractive theme as there haven't been many films lately concerningancient history.It depicts the courage of the people, the unity, avalue which we have long time forgotten.I also likes the visual effectsand the way the focus was set on the emotions of the people.Therefore ,I strongly recommend IT BECAUSE ALTHOUGH THE END IS SAD IT MAKES YOUTHINK ABOUT A LOT OF ASPECTS AND ESPECIALLY ABOUT THE WAY SOCIETY HASCHANGED THROUGHOUT MANY DECADES.The best part is that the action israrely predictable and it includes many details that twist the plot, soyou will certainly not experience boredom while watching 300.
July 1st, 2010
Ok, now there is a comparison between real-life America and the film. Now, you’ll be wondering how on Earth can such a ‘waste of time’ possibly have any comparison with America. I can prove to you that if you look at this film in a different perspective than how you would usually view it, then you will realise there is much similarity between the two.
Here, there is a penis and a big one at that, now if you view it as a sexual object and not as a puppet, then obviously you will find it out of the ordinary to show it off to others. This means that you’re very insecure might I add.
Good day.