300: A Review

Last night I went with three good friends to see the movie 300. I'm a bit late in going to see it, and most of you have probably already gone, but here goes my review anyway:

Over-the-top, impossibly fantastical, historically wrong, gratuitous in all regards, stylized beyond belief, and by far, one of my favorite movies that I've seen in a long, long time. Please don't think you're going to walk away from this movie with a history lesson. This movie is an unabashed tribute to the legend of Sparta. The Battle of Thermopylae, having been fought so long ago, is shrouded in myth, and some even question whether the battle even happened, though I think the current scholarly consensus is that it did indeed happen at the "hot gates". But again, for this movie, none of that matters. This is a story, a darn good story, and kept me glued to my chair the whole time. It's a masculine movie, no doubt there. These aren't the "fancy lad" Greeks you may have heard about. These guys live for battle, kill with glee, ignore maiming wounds, and die with a smile on their face.

So if you go and see it, I suggest leaving your history book at home. This is Tolkien meets Rambo, and it's not a good day to be a Persian. And that brings me to one other thing. I've read a lot about it being a metaphor for our current worldly situation. Well, I don't know about that. I take it more as a guys movie simply being a guys movie, though I know several girls that have liked it. But yes, I see the connections to today's wars and conflicts, but while I was watching it, that never crept into my mind.

I give it a 10 out of 10. And man, I hate most movies. The last three movies I've watched have been The Wild Bunch, James Bond's Casino Royale, and 300. Violence, mayham, and a strange sense of ethics. Loved em' all.