Title: 300Rating: R
Released: 2006
Format: Blu-Ray
Version: The first Blu Ray release, not the Ultimate or whatever edition that came with a book and all sort of cool stuff.
Run Time: 1 Hour 57 minutes
Purchased: Black Friday shopping at Target last year.Price: $5
Plot according to imdb.com: In 480 BC, the Persian king Xerxes sends his massive army to conquer Greece. The Greek city of Sparta houses its finest warriors, and 300 of these soldiers are chosen to meet the Persians at Thermopylae, engaging the soldiers in a narrow canyon where they cannot take full advantage of their numbers. The battle is a suicide mission, meant to buy time for the rest of the Greek forces to prepare for the invasion. However, that doesn't stop the Spartans from throwing their hearts into the fray, determined to take as many Persians as possible with them.
Plot according to Allen: Okay so there are these guys that are total badasses, and they are all ripped like you would not believe. Through out their lives they are trained to do nothing but kill people. Well it turns out these other guys are trying to take over the world and enslave everyone. The Spartans (the badasses not the cheerleaders) aren't going to take that crap and they devise a plan to save their land and to teach the Persians (the bad guys not the cats) a lesson that size doesn't matter. Oh and a lot of people die.
It really is hard to find fault with 300. It is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever seen, even at four years old. The style at the time was groundbreaking, though thanks to the unoriginality of Hollywood it's style has now been driven into the ground while being simultaneously raped and murdered. The first time I saw it my initial response was wow this is such a great movie full of masculine role models in a day and age where everything is trying to make men devoid of their inherit masculinity. Instead of giving these 300 soldiers feelings and emotions they give them swords and shields and free reign to murder in slow motion. The fights scenes are some of the most majestic and moving pieces of the movie. While hand-held camera effects seem to dominate the action genre (Dear Michael Bay and the Bourne series - eat a dick.) this takes the exact opposite approach and leaves you to witness every cut, the stabbing, every single bit of grit and beauty there is to war.
The attention to details in painstakingly being honest to the source material shows just how much the director loved the original graphic novel. It really does seem to play like a living and breathing comic book. The deep and rustic colors of each frame seem to act as a character of the movie more than some of the actual characters. Each turn will drag you in deeper and deeper into this land where you really feel like you are there.
Now this does not mean the movie is without faults. The movie is an unapologetic love story to the male fraternity that is soldiers, which means developed male characters, but it definitely leaves the few female characters underdeveloped and weak. Even some of the male characters are developed simply by saying hey are soldiers that will die for their King. The movie seems to run about fifteen to twenty minutes too long, thanks in part to that slow motion fight sequences I praised just 2 paragraphs back.
All in all this movie isn't one of those that I would deny owning or feel I need to make excuses for it. It was well worth the price that I spent on it, and in fact I would most likely pay full price for it and gladly add it to my collection if for no other reason than it is one of the most beautiful looking films I have ever seen in HD. Simply a must own. No seriously go buy it right now. I will wait.
Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5
