300 (2007)
Directed by Zack Snyder
A story very loosely based the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his army against the advancing Persians.
5 connections found
View:
5 films that influenced 300
What critics say influenced 300
…and Leonidas in particular kneel before him, Xerxes recalls Jaye Davidson’s Ra in Stargate, evoking manly men’s anxieties about transsexualism and unfathomable desire.
Not since Jaye Davidson descended from Ra's throne and into camp history in 1994's "Stargate" has a villain been so totally, laughably non-threatening.
The commanding Gerard Butler, a British stage and screen actor (he was the Phantom in the movie version of The Phantom of the Opera), accomplishes what sulky Brad Pitt in Troy and pouty Colin Farrell in Alexander could not: He makes you forget he is speaking English.
In addition to the truly fine Butler, standouts include Vincent Regan ("Troy," "Unleashed") as the Captain, devastated when his eldest, Astinos (Tom Wisdom), falls and Michael Fassbender's striking Stelios.
They only lust for blood and liberty; and if they were as pretty as the baby-oiled hunks in Troy or Kingdom of Heaven , you'd suspect Donald Rumsfeld had come out of the closet.
While the finite story of “300” might not be as strong an original work as Miller’s “Sin City,” it has the benefits of being a historic war epic, a genre that’s thrived in cinema from “Ben Hur” to “Gladiator” and “Troy.”
Chuckle away all you want �while offering your backside to the thespians� on your journey through �the hot gates� but at the risk of sensitivity rehab, 300 is far less gay than both (the similarly WB-produced) Troy and Alexander (no matter how many versions Oliver Stone recuts for DVD) and through its respect and honor for Miller�s work actually elevates the genre to a former glory.
When ancient Greece was the cradle of democracy, it was threatened by the Persian God-King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro, "Carandiru," Paulo on TV's "Lost") who sent a Messenger (Peter Mensah, "Tears of the Sun," "Hidalgo") to Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler, "Dear Frankie," "The Phantom of the Opera") promising him power and reaches if he would just kneel before him.
When ancient Greece was the cradle of democracy, it was threatened by the Persian God-King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro, "Carandiru," Paulo on TV's "Lost") who sent a Messenger (Peter Mensah, "Tears of the Sun," "Hidalgo") to Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler, "Dear Frankie," "The Phantom of the Opera") promising him power and reaches if he would just kneel before him.
Advertisement
There’s no moment like the one in The Two Towers where you stand on the battlements and look out over a seething mass of enemies and really feel rattling sound of death walking towards you.
The resulting texture is more like that of the Battle of Helms Deep in The Two Towers than something one might assume to be a closer kin, like the war scenes in Troy .