That's 2 paws up from me, meow!Last night, I watched Jon Stewart talk about how Iran has taken offense to the movie 300 and it intrigued me. With so many Hollywood movies that portray other countries and cultures in many demeaning and insulting ways, I wanted to see what about this movie is so bad that a whole country is up in arms against America. So, we went and saw it today.
Iran, step down and step back. There is nothing in the movie that's culturally insulting. It portrays how a very proud, very few fought very bravely and died very much in honor to protect their way of life. The invaders were of course portrayed as evil, heartless butchers who wanted to kill the men and enslave everybody else. How is that different from other movies where brave countrymen fight against bloodthirsty marauders? The weirdly shaped men in the Persian army aren't even Persians. They are portrayed as slave armymen from countries the Persians had taken over.
I didn't recognize any of the actors' names but almost everyone was wonderful. Gerald Butler was commanding as King Leonidas and Lena Headey perfect as the beautiful and headstrong Queen Gorgo. The King's Captain, played by Vincent Regan, was loyal, brave and ready to sacrifice his oldest son because "he had others to replace him."
David Wenham plays a soldier, Delios, who's forced to leave the battlefield at the end so he can tell the story of the rest to the council back in Sparta. He portrays a brave and very eloquent storyteller, whose voice plays the background narrater. Dominic West who plays Theron, a traitorous Councilman, who sells to the Persians for money. He plays the unlikable character so perfectly you want to applaud when Queen Gorgo kills him for insulting her and the King in front of the Council.
If there was 1 character that could have been portrayed better, it was the Persian invading king, Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro. There was something missing; he came across as effeminate; he had bunches of jewelry all over him, including his bald head. He just wasn't the strong, evil, plundering bastard he needed to be.
The musical score through all the fight scenes was beautiful and invoked thoughts of bravery and honor. The imagery was very old-photo like in sepia colors and graphic novel like in how the bloodspill was shown.
