300

[SeattleUte]

I saw 300 recently. What a strange film. On one level, it's a ridiculous farce. Also, I kept thinking that this movie has much in common with Nazi propaganda films. On another level, it's a terrific entertainment. It captured much of that bleakness, the tribal flavor, and vivid imagery of nature and violence that make the Iliad so memorable. The writing is also admirable; simple and direct andhard bitten like beaten and polished iron. The sentimentality did not seem overdone. The battle scenes were terrific. The violence, extreme but very stylized, did not offend me. The only female of moment in the movie was beautiful, satuesque, eloquent, and a terrific lover.

For better or worse this may also be the least PC movie I've ever seen. It unabashedly associated "Asia" with emperor worship, mysticism, lack of respect for human life, overpopulation, false pride, and stupidity, as well as extocism (based on this movie, its one virtue). All the worst villians were black and/or disabled and wore kaftans and head scarves or turbans, like Muslims. All the heroes were toned and white and delightsome, and they talked about "freedom" and "liberty" as if Sparta (as opposed to Athens, which it eventually subjugated but not in this film) were ever a free place. Athenians are dismissed as lovers of boys.

I guess I have a grudging respect for this movie which I also find pretty loathsome in myriad ways. As I say, a very strange piece of work. God bless America for tolerating art like this and not banishing it. It really is an abomination in many ways, though an entertaining abomination.