300 is a classic epic of an underdog that rises up to battle an oppressive regime. But, I won’t waste time with semantics. You can get that anywhere.
300 is, quite frankly (and no pun intended against the creator Frank Miller), the best comic book based movie adaptation to EVER hit the silver screen. But what makes this movie stand out from its predecessors is the amazing cinematography. Larry Fong has proven that a brilliant Director of Photography can turn any monotonous tale into something legendary. Now, the tale isn’t boring. Not by a long shot. But we’ve seen it before. It follows in the spirit of movies like Braveheart and Gladiator. The plot is simple: man wants freedom, sacrifices everything (for his family, his love, and country), man goes to war against a more powerful adversary, man becomes legend and man ignites his nation’s spirit to gain freedom.
Frank Miller’s tale is topped off with an epic narration by David Wenham, who plays the role of Dilios. Fans may remember him from his role as Faramir in the Lord of the Rings.
Here’s a warning. The fight scenes are far from what you may call “historically accurate,” but that was Zack Snyder’s intention. Frank and Zack purposely shunned historical accuracy in favor of a visually stunning tale. If you ask me it only adds to the movies dramatic on-screen flavor.
300 earns itself a place in the annals of cinematography right next to movies like Casablanca. You can count on film schools using 300 as a means to teach film students for many years to come. The movie will be cheered by special effects aficionados for its revolutionary visuals, much in the way the Matrix did just under a decade ago. There are 1500 cuts in the film, 1300 of which involved some sort of visual effect. The film crew used bluescreen 90% of the time, since the felt it augmented the red Spartan colors more than greenscreen.
The Bag Man gives 300 a 4.5 out of 5. The DVD will easily find a place on my movie shelf, someplace between Mob/Gangster movies and Edge-of-your-Seat-All-Out-War-Action-Packed Thrillers.
