Review of 300 (2007) by Riren — 09 Mar 2007

Unabashed entertainment, beautifully rendered and digitally touched up, excellently scoped and choreographed, 300 is at its best when it is throwing bodies around. Much of the side drama feelings like a side drama, leaving the target audience craving even more of its ultraviolent ancient warfare.

It is a bloody and lewd picture, absolutely not for the kids, but for people desensitized enough to accept a movie where most of the warriors aren't treated as people, and by the body count alone, life has very little meaning until it is gone, if then.

It is funny that its few bare breasts and short erotic sequences receive more protest than the various dismemberments, but be prepared for both, and be prepared to enjoy them, or don't see 300 at all.

This is not a profound movie, often stopping short where it might examine greater morality or elevate the plot. Instead, its best dramatic feature is how it makes you believe things will happen when you walked into the movie theatre knowing they couldn't.

If you rate this as a high drama, you miss its point - it is a superb action movie and needs to be judged and enjoyed as such. With all its references to Greek and specifically Spartan patriotism, its bold moral values unshared by mainstream America, and a plot driven by Persian aggression on European soil, this movie is absolutely not an allegory for America's conflicts with the Middle East, and only the dimwitted could see this as supporting an American war with Iran.

However if that does happen, many marines may use this to psych themselves up.