300 movie premiere tonight in Los Angeles - Drudge on the story

[DesEtoiles]

that 300 is supposed to be some sort of political statement

posters on imdb were THRILLED - because Drudge is so "popular" and has such a large readership it would be good for the movie!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. What's the political statement?

Is it about protecting the homeland against invading middle easterners?

What I've seen of the TV commercials promoting the film looks terrible. It looks like a cartoon with little relation to the actual story of the 300 Spartans. Maybe I'm being unfair because I haven't seen the film and when I do get around to seeing a film I usually try to find something positive to say about it. But from what I've briefly seen and heard in the promotions, of modern-sounding music accompanying cartoonish images, it looks like it's going to be quite awful.

[DesEtoiles]

6. Is Xerxes supposed to be Bush

[Swamp Rat]

7. More like Ahriman

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. Maybe Cheney is Xerxes

Bush might play the the role of Xerxes' head eunuch, Hermotimus.

[Connie_Corleone]

16. The film is based on the graphic novel. That's why it looks like that.

Kind of like Sin City.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. It's about the Spartans

A group of 300 of them held off the entire Persian (Iranian) army at the Battle of Thermopylae. That's what the movie is probably about, except that the real Spartans didn't have heavy metal music or allow scantily-clad biker chicks to fight (or any women at all).

The Spartans were then the heroes of Greece, but they fell into a macho decadence quickly, which several of the classical Greek philosophers wrote about. Although their name is used as a moniker by a thousand sports teams, the Greeks came to know the Spartans as the great heroes who quickly turned into a rabble of incompetent thugs. Their government was totalitarian, secretive, proudly moralistic, and punitive -- sound like anyone we know?

So of course the Cons identify with the Spartans.

--p!

[GreenZoneLT]

10. Well, sort of

300 Spartan nobles, accompanied by about 6,000 allied Greek hoplites, held off the Persians at Thermopylae for a few days. Eventually, after their flank was turned, the Spartans sent the allies away, and along with 700 Thespians died where they stood, inspiring Greek armies to defeat the Persians later.

But the Spartans were arrogant, parochial, moralizing thugs from the beginning; that's why their army was so good. "Gates of Fire" by Stephen Pressfield is an excellent fictionalized account that relates the best guesses of historians and archeologists as to how it exactly happened.

The Athenians are a much closer parallel to the U.S. A democracy and the world's top naval power, with a vibrant, creative urban culture, whose miiltary success led it to imperial overstep, culminating in a disastrous foreign war of choice (invasion of Sicily and attempted conquest of Syracuse). And what did they do when it was clear the campaign was a failure? Appealed to patriotism and "surged" a bunch more troops, and lost them all. Which led to eventual Spartan conquest of Athens in the Peloponnesian wars.

The Spartans, being such jerks, were eventually overthrown by their onetime allies, and Athens rebounded as a trade and cultural center, while Sparta dwindled back into a rural farming village (they had weird sex rules that kept their nobles' birthrate very low, so their population dropped over time).

[melody]

3. Drudge??

But he's so ... Y2K.

We used to make fun of him on Usenet all the time, back in the day. lol

[shadowknows69]

4. It's mainly based on the comic by Frank Miller

which is based on the battle of thermopolye, except with heavy metal music cool green screen digital video, geeky goodness.

[lies and propaganda]

5. it looks so awesome and true to teh graphic novel.

Im going to see it Imax, every scene already looks like a painting on my tv so i can only imagine!

[Goat or Panic]

9. I CANNOT imagine why

Drudge would be interested in a movie about incredibly buff half-nekkid men swinging their swords at each other.


:eyes:

[Hissyspit]

11. dupe - self-delete

[Hissyspit]

12. dupe - self-delete

[Hissyspit]

13. It's war porn. Of course they love it. There was a version filmed in 1962 called

"The 300 Spartans" based on the Battle of Thermopylae. The 1950s/early 60s were all fetishizing on macho ancient/Classic war, too - the Richard Burton as Alexander The Great movie from 1960 is pretty boring considering the source material. Look how the cultural context ended up after those movies - the revolutions of the 1960s and the debacle of Vietnam.

[GreenZoneLT]

14. That was called "The 300 Spartans."

I LOVED that movie when I was a kid; they used to play it on Sunday afternoon TV. It's probably a piece of crap; I was pretty much into war porn up through my teens.

Gets decent imdb reviews, though:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/

[Hissyspit]

15. I was just looking at them. Note the comment about Spartan homosexual relations:

That may explain Drudge's interest :P
"bond the unit more tightly" Heh, heh.

19 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Very credible job, 16 May 2004

Author: boethius-4 from New York


This was one of the last of the great sword-and-sandal epics. Unlike many before it or since, it managed to get the facts generally correct. The story, recorded in Herodotus, concerns a small band of troops from Sparta who held off the advance of the Persian army in the 5th century B.C. In doing so, they gave their fellow Greeks time to organise a larger army. Themes include: democracy vs. despotism, and sacrifice for the sake of the common good. Ever stoic Richard Egan (star of "Pollyanna," "Esther and the King," and other fun films) does a great job of projecting the inner strength of Spartan leader Leonidas. This film is not to be missed and ranks with other memorable epics of the 1960s, such as "The Long Ships". Note: this is newly remastered and should not be confused with the botched version released some months prior.

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26 out of 35 people found the following comment useful :-
Should be shown more often., 17 November 2003
Author: Rob Halpin from London , England

I remember this film, it was well set and the acting was good. I notice comments directed at Spartan culture and social organisation has been reflected on. Yes, Spartan life was extremely tough. Spartan warriors practised a strict code of coming back with their shield or lying on it. In other words, they did not yield or surrender, they fought to death or to victory. The warriors were also encouraged to pursue homosexual relations with their fellow warriors as a means to bond the fighting unit more tightly. Believe it or not, this was extremely effective in battle. I have the honour of actually visiting Thermopayle, and a massive statue dedicated to Leonidas can be viewed. I did notice the battlefield and how it must've looked a long time ago. It is extremely narrow and the area is extremely rugged, yet very beautiful.Leonidas chose his defensive position well. High hills to his left and deep water to his right, an army of Persian soldiers heavily armoured were compelled to attack the thin passage held by Leonidas. However, imagine 3 days of continuous hand to hand fighting in a hot climate such as Greece, these men were indeed super-men. The film did it great justice, but this is a film that should be shown either more often or re-made completely. We owe Leonidas that much.