Now that I’ve officially seen 300, I can officially comment on it. And I will start off by stating unequivocally that it’s been a while since I last saw a good propaganda movie. What was the last propaganda movie I saw, you ask? Go to my last review for the answer.
This motion picture is a modern interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans effectively held off the hordes of the Persian Empire for three days before succumbing to superior numbers and betrayal by a quisling. It is also an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name.
Comic artist and author Frank Miller, also known for Sin City and a known conservative in entertainment circles, takes $60 million, a bunch of relatively unknown actors, films them in front of bluescreen to capture the milieu of his original graphic novel...and makes it all back on the first weekend of release. Hollywood still doesn’t get it. Allow me to spell it out for you.
Western Civilization, for all its flaws, IS WORTH DEFENDING. So what if the Persian Hordes are costumed like the Muslims, right down to the battle burqas, and includes mutant monsters in its legions? So what if Xerxes is portrayed as a metrosexual (which was definitely a Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment)? The message resonates that it IS better to die on your feet than live on your knees, and that’s why moviegoers are continuing to attend this film in droves. We’ll stop when we’ve had our fill, thank you very much. And then we will demand the cowardly Congress to allow our troops to kick the Islamofascists’ a**es!
300 is rated R for Graphic Battle Sequences Throughout, with Some Sexuality And Nudity. A movie to definitely make the el cubos squirm. My rating: 9