“300” is a film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae in which, Leonidas, king of Sparta, takes 300 Spartan warriors to fight, against the ephors’ advice. The Persian Empire, led by King Xerxes, is the opposing force, and it intends to take Greece under Persian rule. The 300 hold their own, but the exhaustive Persian forces prove to be too strong, and the 300 fall. However, they buy enough time for the rest of the Greek armies to prepare to defend all of Greece.
While “300” had a high budget, there is not much substance to this film. “300” seems to appeal to the male psyche, and uses several tasteless tactics to cater to this audience, ignoring character development and plot, among other aspects that make a good story. The first of the tasteless tactics is the grotesque sexualization of “300”’s characters. There are several unnecessary sexual scenes, one of which most likely containing a minor. Not only are the women sexualized, but men are clad in only what looks like speedos, helmets, and capes that only seem to hinder their fighting ability. The 300 Spartans taken to fight are not only 300 men, but 300 six packs. This contributes to the gross stereotype that men are strong, idealistic protectors.
A second factor that contributes to my disdain of the movie, and caters to a hyper-masculine audience is what I will call ‘Masculine Ideals.’ These ideals mainly are the idea that retreat is seen as weak, and that the only thing worth fighting for is glory. The men in this movie laugh in the face of impending death, and they seem to take the matter of the lives of not only them, but also their comrades, very lightly. It is not seen as masculine to fight for your own life, though more realistically, that’s what it would come down to for even the strongest minded of us. Leonidas throws away his own life and the lives of his men in a hapless attempt to prove that Xerxes can bleed.
This film also contributes to several other harmful stereotypes. The first of which is that deformed people are not human, but immoral animals. There are two instances of this. The first instance of deformity being seen as evil is in the scene with the ephors. The ephors are portrayed as hideously disfigured, greedy, and lecherous. The ephors allow themselves to be bribed by the Persian empire, and they prey upon young girls. The other instance of deformity being treated as evil is when the disfigured Spartan betrays the Greeks to Xerxes with the promise of glory and riches. The second harmful stereotype is that the west is always just and good, and the east is barbaric and evil. This stereotype has pervaded media for decades, and this film is no exception.
The one good mark for this for this film is the lush setting. “300” uses CGI masterfully to create a fantastical and vivid landscape that illustrates the story “300” tries (and, in my opinion, fails) to tell. One example of this is the scores upon scores of soldiers that fight for the Persian Empire; the camera pans back to reveal seemingly endless rows of men, illustrating how vast the army truly is. “300” also uses CGI to mix fantasy and reality, showing orc-like fighters and magicians fighting for the Persian Empire, perhaps mixing Greek mythos and the stigma the Spartans had against the empire. These fantastical creatures may have also represented the foreign technology that the Persians used in war against the Greeks, and the Greeks, not knowing how to explain it, used their own mythology and superstitions to explain them. The filmmakers also used very dark colors such as brown, black, and gray to add a feeling of bleakness to the battlefield. It is a subtle way to push a sense of foreboding on to the audience. Though the setting is not historically accurate, it is used rather well in attempt to tell a story. Though the story itself falls flat, the setting was clearly well thought out and planned, and a lot of work went into its production. Overall, “300” was a flop, but the setting is utilized in such a way that you could possibly watch the film for that alone and come out pleased to have watched something so visually interesting.
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Canary word: Present
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125,006 Literary Works • 672,809 Reviews
First, thanks for sharing your opinion on this film. I personally have watched it three times
more for the special effects than anything else. I agree with you that it is historically flawed and that many liberties were taken for the purpose of entertainment. One that I found particularly ridiculous was the portrayal of the Immortals as subhuman deformed creatures.
Suggestion:
I think that the essay title needs to be changed for the following reasons.
First, if indeed testosterone is the cause of all male aggression, then what is instigating women to be as nasty as they are on many a too often occasion? Estrogen? I mean, there are women whose whole reason for existence is to bicker and fight. Many even take it to the physical level and injure their husbands. So I find the title of this essay to be sexually biased as would any unbiased editor. Suspicion is aroused that the author is a women's liberationist with an ax to grind and that is distracting. So I would definitely change the title.
Another thing that I find unusual about the testosterone reference as if this were a macho display, is that the film blatantly portrays the Spartans as practicing homosexuals. References are made to male on male copulation. One Spartan chides the other before the battle for having performed as a woman to satisfy the non Spartan allies the night before.
Is that macho? In fact, a comical parody was done about this film and it focuses on that homo portrayal throughout the whole parody. It even ends with the Spartans lying dead and smiling with their faces very close to one another's groins. So to me it comes across a strong homosexual propaganda film. Even the emperor Xerxes is portrayed as effeminate.
Hi there!
I haven't seen 300, but "testosterone fest" is definitely the impression I got from the previews. I like that you manage to look at the big picture of the movie in your critique and therefore are able to give us a positive about it despite the fact that you label it an overall flop.
However, since your main message was that the movie was no good, I think the review would be tied together better if you ended it on the flop note rather than the "visually interesting" note. This could be achieved by flipping around the last sentence and then adding on a few thoughts about how the setting was not enough to redeem the rest of the film - especially since I think few people are willing to sit through a terrible movie just for a well-done setting.
I appreciate the fact that you consider the potential harmfulness of this movie in talking about how bad it is: the male power fantasy, toxic masculinity, and the idea that people with physical deformities are uniformly bad. I think you covered these topics well, but I would also want to see you go a little more in-depth with the writing-related issues.
Here, you say that there's little to no character development and lack of substance and plot, but you never really address that. You mention it in passing and then get into the other topics. But you could probably tie these together. Character development would be an easy one, since you talk about the male power fantasy and how the characters in the movie will sacrifice themselves and everyone else just to prove a point. Just like how many women in movies are undeveloped characters who are there just to be sexy or to fuel a man's dreams, it sounds like the men in this movie are just there to be Manly Men or to engage in Cool Battle Sequences and sex. So that would definitely be a way to tie these thoughts together, and then to further this you could potentially show how the characters lack the clear motivations that would drive a stronger plot.
(I don't have specific examples because I haven't seen the movie.)
Before I go I want to mention one other thing I really liked about your review. I wasn't sure about it when you mentioned the fantastical elements, because I was like, "I don't think I'd want fantasy elements in essentially a war movie about a real-life ancient civilization." But you really changed my mind on that front by talking about how the fantastical elements were probably there to tie into Greek mythos that the people of this time and place believed in and to explain things - like the advanced technology of the Persians - that they had no other way to understand. I never would have thought to look at it that way, so it was delightful to get this different viewpoint that really opened my eyes to a possible interpretation to a part of a movie that might have otherwise bothered me.