300 (A-)

BF and I just got back from seeing 300. He wanted to go on Friday, but I hate going to movies on opening night. You have to wait in line, only to be seated in an over-crowded nasty theatre.

As for 300, I really liked it! In fact, I liked it much more than I thought I would.

It was visually stunning! The film truly had the genuine, honest-to-goodness, look and feel of a graphic novel. Black and white sections of action set amid beautiful, lush, almost hand-colored looking scenes, slowed down and sped up for effect.

It was violent and gory, but hey! It was stylish. “Stylized” would actually be the correct word. It did not cause a visceral, horror response in me, nor did it cause me to curl my lip back at the cheesiness.

When in film, a severed head is shown falling to the ground and the director allows the rubber-hitting-wood sound to remain audible, or worse, permits the rubber-hitting-wood visual to be seen, I groan. Yes, I groan out loud in the theater (even louder at home). Upon first viewing (and I did look somewhat carefully at background action) I can find nothing wrong with the death and dismemberment in 300.

I thought that the monstrous, Persian, creatures were a little over the top (and a little too similar to the creatures I remember seeing in Lord of the Rings)…but it was pointed out to me that they were represented as depicted in Miller’s, pre-Lord of the Rings graphic novel. I think this is an important point to consider when viewing and judging this film as a whole. It is based on a graphic novel, NOT on historic accuracy. When I was able to suspend my disbelief and keep this in mind, I thought the film was pretty damned good.

I think the first film that really registered, as a graphic novel to me was Blade. It hit the nerve in a much subtler way…and then of course there was Sin City. Sin City was visually stunning but ultimately not as uplifting as 300.

300 was an impressive first, big effort for director, Zack Snyder, who previously did a bunch of music videos and advertisements. It is not surprising though. His background makes sense, given that the film is a collection of tightly edited, set pieces.

On Friday, Yahoo! posted a bulletin board for folks to respond to Zack Snyder’s question “What do we learn from Greek history?” The first response I read was from some ninny who went on about how Greek culture sets an example for us to respect and preserve art and architecture. Did that person even SEE the film!?! Come on!!! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of art and architecture!…BUT… Greek history teaches us what it means to be free men!

[BF now wants to debate the difference between “comic book” (ie:Blade) and “graphic novel” (ie; V for Vendetta?). Aaghh! The only difference I can see is the stock they were printed on!]