The 300 - "Prepare for Glory"

The 300 "Prepare for Glory"

On Friday, March 9, 2007, Hollywood's latest epic, The 300, was released at midnight. In the audience waiting with anticipation was a young Greek American student. Having heard the stories of his father's ancient ancestors, he waited with some reticence to view the story of 300 men guarding the Hellenic nation from an overpowering Persian conquest at the pass of Thermopylae. Anticipating another commercial attempt to pander history to the masses, the young man was gratefully surprised. Incredibly, director, Zack Snyder, had managed to ably capture the story, remaining true to its participants and introducing another generation to the Glory of Greece.

As he began to relay the tale with obvious enthusiasm, the young man quoted Sir Winston Churchill, "Greeks don't fight like heroes. Heroes fight like Greeks." He continued to highlight the movie's strengths. "I really liked how the film introduces the main characters, providing an understanding of family, politics and education that was the "Spartan Life." The film is at first narrated by a lone survivor, and then as the characters are more fully introduced, they too begin to contribute to the dialogue, dramatizing events and personalizing the unfolding action.

By developing the character of Leonides, the King of Sparta, from birth to manhood, the audience becomes one with his history and belief system. A belief system based on a oligarchic militaristic code of ethics, so engrained that it produces a man that can knowingly sacrifice his life to protect and preserve his way of life, home and freedom against overwhelming odds.

Cinematically, the use of, chiaroscuro lighting, using a bold contrasts between light and dark, enhances the overall experience. "I know that much of the film was digitally manufactured with backgrounds and panoramic shots of ships and warriors, however, it was so well done that the audience is left awe struck with the "realistic" projection." The student continues to describe the action shots that are further enhanced by the use of slow motion and zoom techniques to capture the drama of the moment. The young man further shares how one review reports that the director was challenged by producers to under take an epic film within the constraints of a limited budget, and having managed so well, may someday be acknowledged for having changed the future of the film industry.

Todd Gilchrest in his five star review for ign.com elaborates, "Combining old-school mythmaking with ultramodern technique, Snyder has crafted a one-of-a-kind masterpiece that is unlike any movie audiences have seen, and in so doing he may have sealed his own fate as a possible redeemer of modern moviemaking."

John Kass of the Chicago Tribune (see below), of Greek ancestry, states of the film, "..it is also true to histories preserved by Herodotus and other ancients, a story of free men, fortified by discipline and fear of shame, determined to die free rather than live as slaves, a story of men who said, "No."

The 300 and their sacrifice may have been violent and the films depiction brutal, however the film was true to the simple story of mankind's basic desire to protect his individual liberties, home and country. The 300 effectively preserves and portrays a pivotal point in history, for had the pass at Thermopylae remained unguarded, would Western Civilization have evolved as we know it today? The question in the mind of the young Greek student was answered resoundingly, "The film made me proud to be Greek. It was fantastic!"

Malista!

John Kass,
Chicago Tribune

Publiched March 11, 2007-

Truth of `300' is tale worth telling today

Published March 11, 2007Only after watching the epic movie "300"--about free men of the West willing to die at Thermopylae rather than kneel to an Eastern king--did I read the reviews.

I'm conflicted about the film, but the reviews were quite entertaining.

Especially the reviews that were so turgid with praise, focusing on the rippling chests and rippling abdomens of the near-naked Spartan warriors, the slo-mo blood globules and the thrusting, thrusting, thrusting of the spears. OK, OK, I get it. Warnography is hard to define, but you know it when you see it.

Some ripped the movie, including one East Coast reviewer upset there were no African Spartans in the film. But surely this outrage can be remedied with a few federal judges and a time machine.

Others examined "300" in the current U.S.-Iraq-Iran context. They ask if America is anything like Sparta, or are we now more like decadent Persia, with our celebrity culture and people rendered almost numb by narcissism.

A few fear the film is a Karl Rovian Republican plot--but isn't everything? Included among Rovian schemes is the TV show "24," except for the parts when the noble President Barack Obama archetype struggles with scheming white Southern conservatives who want to toss out the Constitution.

Reviewers using allegory wondered if President Bush is the doomed Spartan King Leonidas.

Or, is Bush the boss of the new decadent culture, which, in the film is led by the muscularly massive yet simpering King Xerxes, wearing lots of eye shadow and lip gloss.

I guess it all depends on whether you think Al Gore should be finishing his second term by now, yet I'm told that the comic book on which the movie was based was written before any Florida chads were hung. Or is that hanged?

As I watched the movie, I kept my brain still and munched my popcorn, enjoying an amazing and violent and uplifting story of true history:

A few hundred Greeks, knowing they were to die, holding off hundreds of thousands of Persian soldiers for days in the narrow pass near the sea, the pass called Thermopylae.

Yes, the movie is violent and stylized and ridiculously overdone, the way a comic book is ridiculous and overdone. In this the movie is true to its source.

But it is also true to histories preserved by Herodotus and other ancients, a story of free men, fortified by discipline and fear of shame, determined to die free rather than live as slaves, a story of men who said, "No."

It has been argued that the deaths of Leonidas and his men allowed Greece to rally and later defeat the Persian host, and that if Xerxes had marched unencumbered, the whole of Western history would have been altered.

America is still part of the West, though many wish to change that, and sometimes I wonder if we're like Greeks of a later age, and the Romans and the Byzantines. With barbarians at our gates, we're paralyzed with doubt as to whether it is legitimate to project our power upon other nations.

Rome and Byzantium doubted themselves, too, once, forgetting who they were, inviting less introspective people to come and take them.Those who enjoy history often play counterfactuals, the mind game of "what if?" and I hope you don't mind if I play it now:

What would have happened if Leonidas capitulated without a fight? What would have become of Hellenism, of the idea of the primacy of the individual?

If Xerxes had triumphed, would there have been an Alexander to follow, to conquer and then Hellenize the known world, spreading the culture everywhere, so that it took root and became the vine upon which Christianity was grafted?

The story of Leonidas and his Spartans was told to me as a boy by my papou (my grandfather) and other old men in the coffeehouses in Greek Town. They reminded me that those who said no to Xerxes were the ancestors of those who said no to Mussolini and Hitler at the outset of World War II.

As an American of Greek descent, the story of Leonidas has always made me proud. As the child of immigrants, I coveted it, jealously, and used it as psychic armor.

So I did enjoy "300," even the violent parts that seemed choreographed by modern dancer Twyla Tharp, if Tharp were a bloodthirsty maniac.

But I regretted other aspects. Not so much the minor historical inaccuracies--like the use of broad head spears that would have become stuck in an enemy's ribs and rendered useless to the Spartan phalanx.

No, I regretted the constant warnography and the lack of development of characters as popularized in "The Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield.

Unfortunately, the movie wasn't based on Pressfield's novel, nor on Herodotus, nor on the wisdom of modern classical historians Victor Davis Hanson or Donald Kagan, as much as on a comic book by Frank Miller.

I accept it, but wished for much more, because the story of "300" is so important, and has been for thousands of years, but especially now.