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jackAccording to 300:
* Fighting is good
* Physical perfection is good
* Having slaves is good
* Posing pouches are good
* Slaughtering helpless enemies without mercy is good
* Following the letter of the law is good
* Diplomacy is bad
* Being deformed or black is bad
* Acknowledging having slaves is bad
* Gold bikinis are bad
* Sending waves of people to die in your stead is bad
* Mysticism is bad
I won't say whether I thought it was good, but I expected it to be very interesting, and it was. Thanks to Becky for arranging it! Comments on the film will be controvertial. I think I can fairly say it was a very visual film, and I think very true to comic. Oh, and funny in several places, without being over the top. And it's funny to hear the entire cambridge cinema sniggering at the homoerotic bits :)
From what I can tell, it was even fairly true to history. I don't know the history, but I had a shufti at wikipedia and the only thing that stood out was that there was originally a greek army of *some* size, but that retreated when outflanked, and the 300 held the rearguard only at the end.
I've opinions on both sides. I don't think the Persians were necessarily supposed to be a snub to people in Persia now. And Xerxes was sort of cool. But Greeks and Iranians are not that different, swarthy, or mediaranian, or whatever, but in this someone drew a line on the map and said "everyone on this side is white, as in american, and everyone on that side is black, as in african", and when everyone on the other side is also blatantly evil, it is disturbing.
Ditto deformities. No-one is in the middle (apart from maybe Xerxes). The only greeks who aren't paragons of physical perfection are horrendously deformed and evil.
Sparta is shown as rough and tough and better than everyone else. Which is sort of cool. But unlike many other societies, it's not suggested they're doing what they have to to survive, but that slaughtering any children not physically perfect is an end in itself. Sorry, I'm ranting.
* Fighting is good
* Physical perfection is good
* Having slaves is good
* Posing pouches are good
* Slaughtering helpless enemies without mercy is good
* Following the letter of the law is good
* Diplomacy is bad
* Being deformed or black is bad
* Acknowledging having slaves is bad
* Gold bikinis are bad
* Sending waves of people to die in your stead is bad
* Mysticism is bad
I won't say whether I thought it was good, but I expected it to be very interesting, and it was. Thanks to Becky for arranging it! Comments on the film will be controvertial. I think I can fairly say it was a very visual film, and I think very true to comic. Oh, and funny in several places, without being over the top. And it's funny to hear the entire cambridge cinema sniggering at the homoerotic bits :)
From what I can tell, it was even fairly true to history. I don't know the history, but I had a shufti at wikipedia and the only thing that stood out was that there was originally a greek army of *some* size, but that retreated when outflanked, and the 300 held the rearguard only at the end.
I've opinions on both sides. I don't think the Persians were necessarily supposed to be a snub to people in Persia now. And Xerxes was sort of cool. But Greeks and Iranians are not that different, swarthy, or mediaranian, or whatever, but in this someone drew a line on the map and said "everyone on this side is white, as in american, and everyone on that side is black, as in african", and when everyone on the other side is also blatantly evil, it is disturbing.
Ditto deformities. No-one is in the middle (apart from maybe Xerxes). The only greeks who aren't paragons of physical perfection are horrendously deformed and evil.
Sparta is shown as rough and tough and better than everyone else. Which is sort of cool. But unlike many other societies, it's not suggested they're doing what they have to to survive, but that slaughtering any children not physically perfect is an end in itself. Sorry, I'm ranting.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-03 09:04 pm (UTC)