300 (Zack Snyder, 2007)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#1 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Thu Sep 21, 2006 10:17 am

The ShoWest trailer is online

Looks interesting visually but lots of over-the-top shouting. We shall see...

Cinesimilitude
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am

#2 Post by Cinesimilitude » Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:39 am

As soon as I heard Miller's 300 was being made into a film by Snyder (dawn of the dead remake was one of my favorites in 04), my ass was in the seat.

That trailer has got me really excited. I cant wait to see some trailers in HD.

User avatar
Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#3 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Thu Sep 21, 2006 12:50 pm

I dunno, Dawn of the Dead didn't wow me but I'm intrigued to hear that Snyder shot 300 much in the same fashion as Sin City. I'm curious to see how that plays out on the final product.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

#4 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Sep 21, 2006 3:41 pm

Kind of amusing to see the movie (as far as I can tell by the trailer) making the battle between the Greeks and the Persians about Freedom, when in fact Sparta was a rigidly controlled and ruled polis--as opposed to, say, their allies the Athenians--and so makes a difficult subject for political allegory. And while it's not too politically correct to make a movie about preserving the nobility of one's nationality against a barbarian "other," it's certainly more historically interesting than the more simplistic idea of maintaining freedom.

It seems they're also really pumping up Sparta's military-obsession into mythic heights; so while historical accuracy is doubtful, I welcome the approach, since Sparta would have encouraged this herself, and anyway tales about ancient Greece, and Thermopylae itself, beg for such handling.

But, yeah, a lot of yelling: this looks to be a very teeth gnashing, testosterone driven epic. Might be a lot of fun, if handled carefully. I'm certainly seeing it.

User avatar
Via_Chicago
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:03 pm

#5 Post by Via_Chicago » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:41 pm

Yeah, I don't think historical accuracy is what they're going for. I think that giant ogre should have been the tip off.

An allegory about our diplomatic situation with Iran perhaps? Maybe, maybe? No? OK.

User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

#6 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:37 pm

Via_Chicago wrote: I think that giant ogre should have been the tip off.
I thought it might have been a deformed person. Sure, the trailer tells us right off that Sparta exposed all ill-formed babies to the elements, but the thing looked like it was wearing hoplite armour, and it's certainly less ridiculous than a random ogre. Maybe he grows up in secret and in his heroism shows the worth of the misshapen?

User avatar
Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#7 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:17 am

The official trailer is online.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

#8 Post by Antoine Doinel » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:00 am

Very impressive. My only hope is that the actors don't scream every line of dialogue like they do in the trailer.

User avatar
Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#9 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Fri Oct 06, 2006 8:55 am

Antoine Doinel wrote:Very impressive. My only hope is that the actors don't scream every line of dialogue like they do in the trailer.
Oh, I know. It's like they have to declare in big bold letters, "I'm acting!" But it certainly looks like fantastic eye candy.

User avatar
Joe Buck
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 6:59 pm
Location: New York

#10 Post by Joe Buck » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:38 pm

Looks good. The comic was terrific too.

User avatar
lord_clyde
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2004 4:22 am
Location: Ogden, UT

#11 Post by lord_clyde » Fri Oct 20, 2006 1:56 pm

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Looks interesting visually but lots of over-the-top shouting. We shall see...
Yeah, me and my friends imagined the conversations that guy would yell in everyday situations all the way home.

COULD YOU PASS THE SALT?! THANK YOU!!

jcelwin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:09 pm

#12 Post by jcelwin » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:36 am

Pretty much every line in that trailer is delivered melodramatically. Hope the movie is a little more subdued.

The comic is good, but compared to other accounts/stories it is very over-the-top (and probably less powerful because of it). So I guess the movie is in keeping.

I don't think he would use salt though. Just kill the cow, drink the blood and eat it raw.

User avatar
Fletch F. Fletch
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:54 pm
Location: Provo, Utah

#13 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:08 am

A Q&A with Snyder and Miller, here.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

#14 Post by Antoine Doinel » Sat Dec 09, 2006 2:39 pm


User avatar
Mr Sausage
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:02 pm
Location: Canada

#15 Post by Mr Sausage » Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:43 pm

Now more than ever this movie appears to be a strange fantasy rather than an historical epic, what with the repeated shots of ogres, and weird explosions, among other things. It's pretty hilarious, tho', the way these Spartans keep speaking in modern terms of "freedom," ect., when historically their whole society revolved around an enormous scale of slavery. Essentially, they captured the neighbouring polis of Messenia and converted the entire population into a new social stratum called helots, who were slaves that performed all the menial tasks in the city so everyone else could train to become warriors.

Still might be good fun, but I can't help but wish there were a real historical movie on the battle of Thermopylae.

Cinesimilitude
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am

#16 Post by Cinesimilitude » Sat Dec 09, 2006 10:48 pm

Antoine Doinel wrote:New trailer
Excellent trailer. April is going to be amazing, Rodriguez/Tarantino's Grindhouse and The 300 within a few weeks of eachother. How Ironic that a Miller property would be competing against his box office brotha' from anotha' motha'.

User avatar
solaris72
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 3:03 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

#17 Post by solaris72 » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:53 am

Early review:
Wiley Wiggins wrote:This adaptation of Frank Miller's historically dubious, nationalistic, bloodbath-comic consists of pretty much one big slow motion battle scene. I think the title is the number of slowed-down spear impalings in the movie. You may not have known this, but the Persian king Xerxes I was evidently an 8 foot tall effeminate bald man of indeterminate, dusky ethnicity who was really into facial piercings. Also, the Persian army filled its ranks with giant troll-monsters and partied with anthropomorphic goats.
To be fair, the director (who was on hand for an early morning Q&A) explained the deviation from historical fact by saying the film was like a 'Spartan fever dream'- that it was a mythologized version of the battle that might be retold to children to rouse them to fight themselves, and in fact the movie closes with the narration wrapping up as the end of a pre-battle speech. But this is really side stepping the truth, that the story is really Frank Miller's fever dream. One that exalts a completely militarized culture that practices eugenics, condescends neighboring Athenians as 'philosophers and boy lovers' and demonizes an enemy so alien and 'other' that some of them seem to actually be devolving into half-human half-animal bogeymen (and ninjas!).
While I thought Gerard Butler has a very screen worthy presence in the film, no one is given much to say other than he-man posturing and cliche platitudes. The Spartan queen actually challenges us with the line "Freedom isn't Free" at one point, and you would have to be pretty dim not to see what Miller is getting at, especially with Persians as the enemy. I'll be interested to see how much director Snyder has internalized the politics of this movie when he starts filming Watchmen, the landmark Alan Moore comic from the 80's that couldn't be more polar opposite in either its politics or in the sublety of its execution. It's hard to predict, because what I remember of the comic version of 300 didn't go so far as to present the Persians as actual monsters, but I may have to re-read it.
The audience whooped and cried for joy at this movie. Maybe it will convince them to join the army. The only thing I liked about the film was its color palette. Oh, and the fact that the Toxic Avenger has a role as the genetically inferior Spartan who escaped from being thrown off a cliff at birth to betray the king. They should have given him his mop though, instead of a spear.

User avatar
Antoine Doinel
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 1:22 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Contact:

#18 Post by Antoine Doinel » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:05 pm

It was just announced today that 300 will be released simultaneously on IMAX screens as well.

User avatar
jbeall
Joined: Sat Aug 12, 2006 9:22 am
Location: Atlanta-ish

#19 Post by jbeall » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:38 pm

Oh, how relevant!! A film about how we've got to suppress democracy and the rule of law in order to protect it from some swarthy invaders out of the Middle East!!! #-o


I thought the comic was good, but that everything was a bit too 'black vs. white' in terms of characterization. At the time, it didn't bother me too much because, well, it's a comic. I'm a little less thrilled about audiences flocking to see such a wooden worldview presented on the big screen, although it looks beautifully shot.

User avatar
sevenarts
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 7:22 pm
Contact:

#20 Post by sevenarts » Fri Jan 26, 2007 7:57 pm

That trailer looks like some horrendous, ridiculous shit, and this from someone who actually liked Sin City. Miller was once a great artist and an interesting writer, but his worldview is seriously one-dimensional and it seems to have taken him over to the extent that most of the stuff he's done in the last 5-10 years has been extremely dubious. If you ask me, he's the VERY rare case of a comics artist whose work on big company titles (Batman, Daredevil) has generally been much stronger than his creator-owned work (Sin City, 300).

Anyone curious to see where the politics behind 300 are coming from, just listen to Miller on NPR (about 30 minutes in), commenting inanely on the current war and American politics.

User avatar
exte
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:27 pm
Location: NJ

#21 Post by exte » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:47 pm

sevenarts wrote:Anyone curious to see where the politics behind 300 are coming from, just listen to Miller on NPR (about 30 minutes in), commenting inanely on the current war and American politics.
Inanely? Fine, then explain the Taliban. Start with the Buddhas of Bamyan...

Cinesimilitude
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:43 am

#22 Post by Cinesimilitude » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:48 pm

You know, I'm all for sweeping epics that are attempting to break stereotypes and quiet, emotionally impacting films with heart wrenching stories of the triumph of the human spirit, but sometimes I just want to see 2 hours of colorful raucous violence and sex.

User avatar
sevenarts
Joined: Tue May 09, 2006 7:22 pm
Contact:

#23 Post by sevenarts » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:37 am

exte wrote:Inanely? Fine, then explain the Taliban. Start with the Buddhas of Bamyan...
I've read this like 10 times now and I still have no clue how it relates to what I posted...

User avatar
exte
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:27 pm
Location: NJ

#24 Post by exte » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:56 am

Well Miller was saying how he's sitting in front of a microphone which their culture couldn't have ever produced. I don't necessarily agree with all he said, but I don't see how it was entirely foolish or inane either. He may have a point or two when it comes to folks like the Taliban. I listened to the recording you mentioned, so I responded...

User avatar
toiletduck!
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 5:43 pm
Location: The 'Go
Contact:

#25 Post by toiletduck! » Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:09 am

SncDthMnky wrote:You know, I'm all for sweeping epics that are attempting to break stereotypes and quiet, emotionally impacting films with heart wrenching stories of the triumph of the human spirit, but sometimes I just want to see 2 hours of colorful raucous violence and sex.
And more importantly, violence and sex that looks really neat! I'm with you on this one, Mnky. Whether or not I will enjoy it remains to be seen, but I can guaran-fucking-tee that the politics of the film won't be the dealbreaker.

-Toilet Dcuk

Post Reply