A brief synopsis:
300 Spartans get killed
Odd that a story can be hidden in that, but there was. Very stylized movie, which I knew. But I still found some of the lighting slightly jarring (the lighting on the soundstage not matching the lighting in the effects-background). Almost laughable racial stereotypes for the roles (the only darker-skinned Spartan is the evil Spartan; all the Persians dealing with sexuality or insults are played by people of African descent, no one in the entire movie looked Persian, etc). Some sexual imagery towards the beginning that seemed a little tacked-on.
Very worth seeing on the big-screen.
But Dominic West is of Irish-Baltimorian descent! :(
ReplyDeleteThat's "Bal'more."
ReplyDeleteOn some level, the movie is a laughable monument to masculinity, Euro-American exceptionalism, and not even concealed crass Orientalism. As I was watching it, I could see an armada of critical scholarship, special journal issues, conference panel, and dissertation topics massing over the horizon to dismantle this movie.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I thought it was pretty f!@$ing cool. I'd even see it again.
"not even concealed crass Orientalism."
ReplyDeleteHow did that slip my mind? Weird amalgam of ninja and samurai.
The "myth-filter" that everything is seen through is an interesting device. I still don't know exactly how I feel about it.