300 (Discussion)

dr.bollocko

How did u see it if it isnt even out yet? Sucks I tell you!
So desperately waiting for this movie to come out, I just know it will rule.
On an aside:
Did anyone see the crazy propaganda about this movie coming out of Iran lately? Saying that it is a cultural swipe at Iranian history engineered by hollywoods "Cultural agents" to make Iran appear bad in the media.
I mean in all seriousness, how is it possible that an entire country can feed its citizens biased lies and nonsense without resorting to include even the most basic amount of relevant facts or information. I'm talking the government of Iran and frontpage stories on iran's dailies confirming this ridicilous nonsense.
It sickens me actually.

Zillah

300 is not historically accurate at all, it doesn't try to be. You will enjoy this best if you walk in expecting a fantasy movie like Lord of the Rings. That said, the action is top notch.

The acting is very good in most cases, if a little over the top. The actors were very well chosen for most of the roles, particularily Leonides (the protagonist) and especially Xerxes, the leader of the Persians. The story, while being noble in concept is a little thin in execution. The main attraction is the brutal, consistent and fantastically directed combat. Although the combat will always be a little lacking without an involving plot to bring it meaning.

Burgo

has anyone seen beowulf and grendel,made in 05? its an interesting watch,not particularly amazing tbh but worth a look ! gerard butler is fantastic as beowulf, been waiting for something decent with him in it to come out !

Raekwon

I cannot wait to see this! I got the graphic novel as a present for christmas and I'm dying to see how faithful the film is to it.

I know that it is out on Thursday the 22nd of March in most cinema's but does anyone know if there will be a preview screening in Dublin either side of this weekend???

monkeyfudge

dr.bollocko wrote:

How did u see it if it isnt even out yet? Sucks I tell you!
So desperately waiting for this movie to come out, I just know it will rule.
On an aside:
Did anyone see the crazy propaganda about this movie coming out of Iran lately? Saying that it is a cultural swipe at Iranian history engineered by hollywoods "Cultural agents" to make Iran appear bad in the media.
I mean in all seriousness, how is it possible that an entire country can feed its citizens biased lies and nonsense without resorting to include even the most basic amount of relevant facts or information. I'm talking the government of Iran and frontpage stories on iran's dailies confirming this ridicilous nonsense.
It sickens me actually.

They do have a bit of a point though. The Persians in this movie are made out to be a bunch of sub-human monsters.

But I doubt the average American cinema goer will understand the connection between Persia and Iran.

I saw 300 at the film festival last month and I enjoyed far more than I expected. It's a very well crafted action film... but it is exceptionally silly.

Venom

monkeyfudge wrote:

They do have a bit of a point though. The Persians in this movie are made out to be a bunch of sub-human monsters.

But I doubt the average American cinema goer will understand the connection between Persia and Iran.

I saw 300 at the film festival last month and I enjoyed far more than I expected. It's a very well crafted action film... but it is exceptionally silly.

No they dont have a point, it's just the usual over the top PC crap being spouted by the usual retards with internet access.

This movie is an exact adaption of Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name which came out in 1999 which if you do the math's is a good deal before any of the political climates existed which we have today.

monkeyfudge

I don't think it's PC-nonsense to be upset at your countrymen being depicted as mutants. What if a film was made that depicted the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland and showed the Irish to be sub-human monsters?

The fact that it is based on a comic makes no difference, the comic simply didn't have the marketing penetration that this film does.

mathias

But I doubt the average American cinema goer will understand the connection between Persia and Iran.

Agreed , your average American couldnt point out Paris on a map let alone Persia !!

This is history , if Iranians dont like it then tough , its still history , like it or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae

One of the few films I'm genuinely excited about this year. I'm a big fan of Miller, and of the graphic novel.

The cast in my opinion is excellent, Dominic West, Gerard Butler and David Wenham, and Lena Headley are all fine actors. Plus Zack Snyder did make the best of the recant crop of remakes, and for once I actually believe that Watchmen could work.

It's surprising that West's constantly superb work on The Wire hasn't secured him more leading roles.

PeakOutput

monkeyfudge wrote:

I don't think it's PC-nonsense to be upset at your countrymen being depicted as mutants. What if a film was made that depicted the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland and showed the Irish to be sub-human monsters?

The fact that it is based on a comic makes no difference, the comic simply didn't have the marketing penetration that this film does.

there is nothing left of the persian empire in iran at all so in my opinion its like us getting angry because people say teh celts were monsters way back when so we reply with "well we are desecnded from celts ur trying to get at us u basterd"

secondly its based on a comic which is very loosely based on true events


FACT persia invaded greece FACT 300-10000spartans held of the army for five days as the rest of the country prepared for war

other than that the movie is fiction

i havnt seen it yet iv never been so excited to see a film i would rather a historically accurate one about what happened in thermopolae but hey thisis going to be great anyway



the rest

monkeyfudge

Actually I'm glad it's portrays itself as an absolute fantasy film... I would have walked out if it was a film like Gladiator which was pretending to be historical but was actually absolute hollywood bollocks. This film has no pretensions, it knows it's bollocks... but I can understand how people might be upset about it.

And FACT: the Persians where not mutants, vampires or monsters!

lostexpectation

dr.bollocko wrote:

How did u see it if it isnt even out yet? Sucks I tell you!
So desperately waiting for this movie to come out, I just know it will rule.
On an aside:
Did anyone see the crazy propaganda about this movie coming out of Iran lately? Saying that it is a cultural swipe at Iranian history engineered by hollywoods "Cultural agents" to make Iran appear bad in the media.
I mean in all seriousness, how is it possible that an entire country can feed its citizens biased lies and nonsense without resorting to include even the most basic amount of relevant facts or information. I'm talking the government of Iran and frontpage stories on iran's dailies confirming this ridicilous nonsense.
It sickens me actually.

I don't think its that crazy at all, consider you could see this film as the progaganda in the first instance, if it wasn't coming from frank miller you might start to wonder, but of course some in iran will use it to their advantage

i thought the fim was very good, brutal and to the point, great fight scenes but you see the best one in the clips, definitly a 4 out of 5 stars film but leaves you wondering if they could have gotten an extra star out of it.

Vokes

For anyone that is over in London for the weekend, this will be showing at the IMAX - twill be pricey but worth it I think

Makaveli

I followed a link on another board to an Iranian message board where they were talking about the propaganda. It was one of the funniest reads I've had in a long although some what worrying that people actually believe some of this stuff.

Anyway, the film was a bit meh. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I thought I would. Decent action but the constant speed-it-up and slow-it-down effects during fighting became tiresome quickly. It's worth a watch but you'll take very little away from it.

TheDoc

i think some people will miss interpret what they are expecting out of this film. I am a huge fan of epic movies and old historic filming, and I think this is by far the best one to come out since Braveheart or Gladiator.

This film dominates where others in recent years have failed, battle scenes. Films like Troy and Alexander etc focus too much on the mass numbers, but not on the action and the brutality that happend in these battles.

This film is a dramatisation and really isnt historically correct in many parts.....but epics are all about battles and I thought they were done very well. The Spartan warriors have always being renowned as the worlds most elegant and finest soldiers that ever lived, the real life jedi if you will, their swordsmanship and tactics and flare where second to non. This is dramatised by the slow motion and the smoothness and elegance in which they fight.

In fact they would not have fought so beautifully, obviously, but it makes the film look stunning and gorgous. The real Spartan warriors who fought in Phalanx formation would have used spears twice if not three times the length of those in the film ,but again they would be able to whisk around spears of such length.

The over the top look of the Persians simply adds to the whole image, the Persian empire was slowly but surely conquering the world. Its an image of a tyrant, a beast. This wave of destruction and numbers invading the land of warriors. The orgrish and monstrous look of The Immortals simply adds to the myth that they were invincible fighters.

The film although historically and factually inaccuarte (it is long established that the Persian force consisted of 250,000 soliders, ) but it makes for a very good epic and portrays battle scenes and fighting which is really second to none.

As far as the Propaganda is concerned its just pure rubbish really ...... this story, the story of the 300 spartan defence, was told from a spartan perspective.... and the choice to make the persians look mutated is to symbolise an invading tyrant coming to take your freedom and land. But its also a true reflection in essence of what these people where like in those days. The Persian empire was savage and ruthless who killed men,woman and children with no mercy, who would put the heads of woman on pikes.

Just as the English where pillaging rapists in their conquest of France, depicted in Joan of Arc..... also in Braveheart....Its what actually happend, theres no point making these films which are factual and edit the cultures etc to try not offend.

I think they are just pissed they couldnt beat 300 men with 250,000 :P

And as for gore.....what do you expect :P your fighting with swords

monkeyfudge

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

i
As far as the Propaganda is concerned its just pure rubbish really ...... this story, the story of the 300 spartan defence, was told from a spartan perspective.... and the choice to make the persians look mutated is to symbolise an invading tyrant coming to take your freedom and land. But its also a true reflection in essence of what these people where like in those days. The Persian empire was savage and ruthless who killed men,woman and children with no mercy, who would put the heads of woman on pikes.

Just as the English where pillaging rapists in their conquest of France, depicted in Joan of Arc..... also in Braveheart....Its what actually happend, theres no point making these films which are factual and edit the cultures etc to try not offend.

I think they are just pissed they couldnt beat 300 men with 250,000 :P

And as for gore.....what do you expect :P your fighting with swords

But the fact of the matter is they portrayed the Persians not even being human. And at a time when Iran is on the USA's to do list I think it's understandable to think of it as propaganda. It's dehumanising the enemy.

But to be honest I was thankful for the fantasy elements in it as I'd probably have been extremely bored by the film otherwise... I can't stand films like Braveheart and Gladiator. And my real worry sitting down to watch this film was that it was going to be another Gladiator.... thankfully it wasn't... although they do get a bit carried away with their fields of barley.

Playboy

SofaKing wrote:

For anyone that is over in London for the weekend, this will be showing at the IMAX - twill be pricey but worth it I think

Going on Saturday night if everything goes to plan! Can wait

r3nu4l

Guys, I don;t understand why Iran is getting upset about this simply because there are still Persians out there and those people do not consider themselves Iranian at all.

I only learned this a few years ago in 'Howl at the moon' of all places! A friend of mine introduced me to a colleague of hers that night and he told me he was Persian, when I greeted him in Arabic he just smiled and shook his head.

He then spent over an hour explaining how Persians were culturally and ethnically different to the Arabic Iranians (comparing Persians to the Kurds in Iraq) and how they hated Arabs in much the same way as the Irish hated the English, I didn't contradict him because by this stage he was practically frothing at the mouth with zealotry!

So if anything Iran is hijacking the movie to have a swipe at the west! Propoganda indeed

As for the film, not bothered at all really. I might go to see it, we'll see.

spacecoyote

stumbled across this review of 300, which i thought was hilarious & made me wanna see the movie even more than i did before

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31520

Makaveli

r3nu4l wrote:

Guys, I don;t understand why Iran is getting upset about this simply because there are still Persians out there and those people do not consider themselves Iranian at all.

There are still a lot of Persians in Iran, they're not Arabs but they are still Iranian. What they seem to really have a problem with, is as Monkeyfudge pointed out, the depiction of them as monsters and beasts. Also a major bone of contention seems to be that there are black people presented as Persian and Persians aren't African. From what I've read, people are concerned that you're regular "hick" American is going to see this as 100% based on fact and use it as more fuel for bashing Iran.

Really it's all quite stupid because it's based on the graphic novel and not history. I think a lot of people are just looking for reasons to draw propaganda into the issue.

Rhyme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IN04nnRfFw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvDwIdqyr38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFv-q0qnTIQ&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUQVzZOWy-A

and...

http://thisisluv.ytmnd.com/

/end mood-lightening

Karl Hungus

Rhyme wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IN04nnRfFw

This one had me busting my gut laughing! Especially the last line spoken.

The rest were pretty crap though. You should feel bad about yourself for posting those.

sunzz

This site does not condone illegal activity.

Warez is bad mmmkay?

dr.bollocko

Well, obviously I havent seen the movie yet, so I cannot comment on any of the content with certainty. But as to the content of the movie, arguing that a story built around a mythic battle from Ancient Greece is being used as a cultural sword to sideswipe a modern Iran just smacks of paranoia.
Stories like this, portrayed on the news, newspapers and direct quotes from politicians seem to be designed to generate fear-mongering, incitement to hatred and another few round of good ole fashioned effigy burning.

constitutionus

not to mention you could quite easily spin it as a pro AL qaeda film too. greatest super power of the age attack a bunch of vastly out numbered and technologically inferior people who defeat them through sheer tenacity and indefatigable will to protect their homeland the aggressors are intent on invading.

sound familiar

you can read anything into any film if you look hard enough. just remember its not propaganda for any regime and is actually based on a battle that actually happened. this is history, just be glad ordinairy peeps are learing something against their will (kinda:D )

Zapp Brannigan

Just saw it there.
Have to say I thought it was great. Very stylish.

rizzla

I thought it was fantastic. Went to the first showing up in Cineworld at 11.30 in screen 17. Place was packed, couldn't believe it, thought I wouldn't have to deal with the masses so early. Strangely, not a word was spoken amongst the crowd.

The action was very visceral, the music was great, I'll be going to see it again.

azezil

Not really what I'd expected, I thought it was only 'alright'.

BlitzKrieg

Just saw it.

I feel bad saying I came out a bit disapointed.

I only recently read the comic so was actually a bit excited. Especially when the film gave the impression that it was going to stick very true to its source.

Now I really really really enjoyed the film.

and as a film my only 2 major criticisms (giving it a 8/10) was that the music was really f*cking annoying for the most part, and the direction was a bit ham fisted in some scenes.

minor niggles purely of my own aesthetic choice would be the over abundance of slow motion and speed ups through out the film.




Now the reasons for my disapointment.

Its source material was amazing because its set up was very simple but its narrative and visual delivary was perfect.

The film, adds too much into the narrative, both in the way of dialogue and in scenes. The result is the story becomes a bit bloated and there is a clear feeling (which is echoed by who have not read the comic) that the added scenes did nothing for the plot and stuck out from the rest of the material. In fact the expanding of the Queen's role in the film really hurt the film in far too many areas

Especially the ending...those last lines from the king really irked me

Other changes are not so annoying, extra character elements are added into the battlescenes (specific new monsters and soldiers) but they're enjoyable and dont interfere with the plot. Also some characters have had plot elements cut out (the storyteller/stumblios) which were really strong in the comic, and the film either ignores these elements, or replaces them with hammier ones.

Well, obviously I havent seen the movie yet, so I cannot comment on any of the content with certainty. But as to the content of the movie, arguing that a story built around a mythic battle from Ancient Greece is being used as a cultural sword to sideswipe a modern Iran just smacks of paranoia.

As someone who has seen the film:

I can see part of the argument. in a nutshell these are the points which I think have Iranians spooked.

1. The extra scenes in the film (which are not in the comic), are all focused around political debate over the king's action that he has ignored the warning of the oracle and broken Spartan law to fight a war for 'freedom' against a force which unites 'all the empires of Asia' under its banner and has a very strong religious justification.

compare that to say The Iraq war, and you might agree there are some parralels. But honestly its only there if you look for it really. And the focus Iran has put on the grotesque monsters being the problem is a bit off.


Though to be fair, hero's message was to let tyrants be tyrants if they can keep the peace and that film was huge in america *shrugs*

PeakOutput

dr.bollocko wrote:

arguing that a story built around a mythic battle from Ancient Greece

just wanted to pick u up there being a bit of a pedant

its not a mythical battle film is based on a comic which is based on another film which was based on the real events that happened.............

cant wait to see it gta wait till sunday tho as my da really wants to see it too so id feel bad going now just coz i cant wait for him to be free

brav

Man that last line took a few minutes to read!

I thought it looked very good, again agreeing to above posters, a few scenes could have been dropped/shortened, but really good movie; what I expected.

aurel

brav wrote:

Man that last line took a few minutes to read!

Yeah, I was trying to figure out what Grand Theft Auto had to do with this.

Just saw the film last night. Haven't read the graphic novel. I really enjoyed the film. 8/10. Agree with Blitzkrieg on the politicking scenes detracting somewhat from the focus. Loved the Action scenes especially the extended, complex shots. I felt the 'field of barley' type scenes borrowed a little too heavily from other films visually.

Definitely one I'm glad I saw in the cinema.

humanji

I saw it last night too, and I loved it. It was exactly what I thought it'd, violent! So that's me happy until Transformers comes out

Actually, I was a bit annoyed that some of the other weird guys from the Persian army, like the wierd elephant thing you see in the Harem, and the mad looking executioner, but sure they might make a sequel

Oh, and for a laugh, check out imdb and look at the keywords associated with the movie.

Valmont

I came out of the savoy, yelled 'SPARTA' and ran down o'connell street bashing into people.


But seriously did anyone find the whole 'queen and the council' bit really fooking annoying. It seemed to break up the flow of the battle to see her spout all freedom and dignity nonsense. I don't think it really added to it.

But I enjoyed the film and I'm glad I went to see it in the cinema.

constitutionus

jesus thats some ****ing list in the keywords

wont be able to see this till monday or tues due to work but im loving the fact any girl critic ive read seems to loath it while every bloke critic is practically coming on himself over it. methinks if you want revenge for being draged to see "becoming jane" this is it

also am i the only one who hates reviewers calling this a myth? thats just fecking lazy. read a damn history book ya trinity heads

S.M.B.

constitutionus wrote:

also am i the only one who hates reviewers calling this a myth? thats just fecking lazy. read a damn history book ya trinity heads

I think that is the best way to describe the film 'cause describing it as a historic epic would be a lot less accurate. Don't want to go into any further detail as you haven't seen the film yet!

Jello

rizzla wrote:

Went to the first showing up in Cineworld at 11.30 in screen 17. Place was packed, couldn't believe it

Went to that showing today, was packed again!

I thought it was brilliant, a bit mad in places but really entertaining stuff – 9/10. Best film I've seen at the cinema in a good while.

Although I thought the blood splattering everywhere each time someone got a spear in the chest was a bit much.

Sandwich

constitutionus wrote:

not to mention you could quite easily spin it as a pro AL qaeda film too. greatest super power of the age attack a bunch of vastly out numbered and technologically inferior people who defeat them through sheer tenacity and indefatigable will to protect their homeland the aggressors are intent on invading.

sound familiar

you can read anything into any film if you look hard enough.

Is an interesting take on it but really you have to look at the facts :
Ireland with a cricket playing population of a few thousand, beats Pakistan where 50 million play it.

The Gods on Olympus remind us through a film of the 300 against the Persians in the same week.........

Clearly the Gods eyes are on the Carribean at the moment.

koneko

Loved it

TerrorFirmer

Good film. Nothing much to it granted but the action, which it excelled at.

Pepe LeFrits

Total snorefest.

Complete case of style over substance, and the style really wasn't all that great either.

I loved it to be honest. Saw it Friday, again yesterday and I plan on heading to see it a few more times. It's nice to see a film depicting war which doesn’t preach to the audience of the evils of war.

It's also a brilliantly quotable film. Spend the past few days ringing off whole chunks of dialogue.

spacecoyote

I loved it, it delivered on what it was meant to - yes it was style over substance, but were you expecting deep political dialogue?

The political scene was quite poor & the queen was unconvincing. I agree it took away from the flow of the movie, but the blood & dismemberment soon made me forget it had just happened!!!

fitz

BlitzKrieg wrote:

Though to be fair, hero's message was to let tyrants be tyrants if they can keep the peace and that film was huge in america *shrugs*

Really?
I thought Hero's message was that today's tyrants may be tomorrows visionaries.

I'd say a big fat meh to the Iranian reaction.
It could have been any two nations involved in the story, the invaders were always going to be demonized for the sake of contrast with the underdog heroes.

dr.bollocko

It is what it it is. A series of slow motion sequences glued together by hammy dialogue, rescued by great action sequences.
But man, is it just me, or did it rip some scenes right out of gladiator!

Pepe LeFrits

spacecoyote wrote:

I loved it, it delivered on what it was meant to - yes it was style over substance, but were you expecting deep political dialogue?

I expected to care.

Like Sin City it felt like I was watching a TV show and I'd missed all the previous episodes setting up the characters. Though the characters were all so one-dimensional I don't think it'd have made any difference. I also found the dialogue extremely tiresome - Matrix Reloaded tiresome.

Seeing Marco from Mile High get decapitated was entertaining though.

humanji

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

I expected to care.

Like Sin City it felt like I was watching a TV show and I'd missed all the previous episodes setting up the characters. Though the characters were all so one-dimensional I don't think it'd have made any difference. I also found the dialogue extremely tiresome - Matrix Reloaded tiresome.

In fairness, it's from a comic and the dialogue, for the most part, was lifted directly from it. They tried to add more substance to it by adding the boring political aspects to it, but that was just executed poorly. Read the comic and you'll see that this is, and was always meant to be, little more than a live action version of the comic. It's a great popcorn movie

Pepe LeFrits wrote:

Seeing Marco from Mile High get decapitated was entertaining though.

I KNEW I knew him from somewhere!

constitutionus

lord i cant believe i missed that marco from mile high !

well i seen it today and am just back at the gaff now. loved it. felt like a david gemmel novel, if they ever do a film of legend i hope these guys get their hands on it.

was quite surprised by the humour in it, some classic lines from leonidas when talking to xerxes. and laughed out loud at the scene where he was talking to one of his men about going to see him (wont ruin it for people who havent seen it but is what theyre doing at the time and what theyre talking about thats funny )

having bought the comic when it came out i know its not exactly liftted from that but theres enough for it to be one of the few thats pretty close. personally its been that long since i read it that i was going into this taking the film as it is.

visually you cant deny its a bloody gorgeous looking film. who'dve thought a bloke in a cloak and helmet could look so lethal. ok the plots a little thin on the ground but its a film about a battle. the plots pretty much "dont die" so if your coming here looking for anything more than a bunch of lads willing to die for each other your at the wrong film

in the end is a blokes film. a good enjoyable popcorn film that gets the blood flowing. the brothers going to see it on friday and im going again with him. it may not be art but its representative of a genre of films that arent made often so im going to enjoy this while i can and hope the powers that be in hollywood get the message and make a few more of them !

Duff

There was boobs in it, I was happy

shane86

dr.bollocko wrote:

How did u see it if it isnt even out yet? Sucks I tell you!
So desperately waiting for this movie to come out, I just know it will rule.
On an aside:
Did anyone see the crazy propaganda about this movie coming out of Iran lately? Saying that it is a cultural swipe at Iranian history engineered by hollywoods "Cultural agents" to make Iran appear bad in the media.
I mean in all seriousness, how is it possible that an entire country can feed its citizens biased lies and nonsense without resorting to include even the most basic amount of relevant facts or information. I'm talking the government of Iran and frontpage stories on iran's dailies confirming this ridicilous nonsense.
It sickens me actually.

Indeed, i wondered what the fuss was about from the Iranians. The Spartans were shown to be child abusers, murderers, rapists, yadda yadda yadda. The worst the Iranians got was that for some odd reason they made their king as camp as christmas. Apart from that they were pretty much the good guys (killing a messenger hardly inspires sympathy does it)

Would give the film a five, little plot, mostly a CGI fight scene fest, saved by the tent scene

Sandwich

humanji wrote:

In fairness, it's from a comic and the dialogue, for the most part, was lifted directly from it.

No need for such 'fairness'. The source does not excuse it from being criticised. If a multimillion move was made of the average 7 year old's attempt at fiction you wouldnt excuse it by saying "in fairness, its from a 7 year old's English homework story.........". It would still probably be rubbish.