'300' Reasons to Cry

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

MORGENSTERN ON MOVIES
By JOE MORGENSTERN

'300' Reasons to Cry
March 17, 2007; Page P13

After the stunning success last weekend of "300," a hyperviolent, hypo-human version of the Battle of Thermopylae that earned $70 million in three days, I came across a quaint remark by Lena Headey, the flagrantly attractive actress who plays Gorgo, queen of Sparta. Her queen, Ms. Headey said in an interview, is "not unlike 'The Queen' -- the Helen Mirren 'Queen' -- in terms of her emotional reserve." Yes, and "300" is not unlike "The 400 Blows" in terms of using numbers in its title. It is also, unreservedly, one of the most assaultive and thunderously lumbering films ever projected on the big screen (on more than 3,100 screens last weekend, including 62 really big IMAX screens), a sword-sandal-and-splatter epic that manages the trick of being blood-soaked and utterly bloodless at the same time. All of this may be unsettling for moviegoers of a certain age -- i.e., the age of discernment -- but the import of the box-office numbers can't be ignored.

And not just those rung up by "300." After the heady days of the holiday season, when theaters actually welcomed adults with grown-up fare, we're back in the dog days of winter/spring when primitive comedies like "Wild Hogs" (last weekend's No. 2) or "Norbit" (Eddie Murphy as a monstrously obese woman) can make a killing. Still, the remarkable performance of "300" -- as distinct from the unremarkable performances in it -- represents something new.

(snip)

If it isn't -- and it isn't -- "300" is not the worst movie ever made either; the visual distinction of the source material, a graphic novel by Frank Miller, has been enhanced rather than lost in translation. As cultural phenomena go, though, this one is pretty dispiriting, because it's so clearly predictive of things to come. The movie's eerie quality of disembodiment in the midst of disembodiments -- a succession of amputations, eviscerations and beheadings that makes "Apocalypto" look like a walk in a jungle theme park -- isn't a failing of the low-rent cast. It's a function of the cost-effective process, which combines live actors, performing against blue screens in limbo -- a perfect term for the film's prevailing emptiness -- with computer-generated backgrounds instead of physical sets. The imperative here is the one that's sweeping the movie industry as a whole -- meet the dual challenge of the Web and videogames by morphing into a version of both, but raise the gaming stakes with bigger images, louder music and bolder brutality than any home-entertainment medium can provide.

(snip)

It leaves me feeling the way I often feel when I'm walking on Times Square -- oppressed to the point of physical pressure by the gigantic blank monoliths that have transformed the place in recent years, but grateful that a city of distinctive neighborhoods survives beyond them. The transformation of the movie business will proceed at its own unstoppable pace. Still, dramatic films of distinction will survive, albeit in some modified form, just as news and public affairs programs, essentially banished from commercial TV, are being reborn and finding a new audience as feature documentaries.

(snip)

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117407368811939694.html (subscription)

[kiahzero]

1. The choice of the process had little, if anything, to do with cost.

The method, notably also used in translating another of Frank Miller's work, Sin City, is an ideal method of capturing the stylistic essence of his work.

[regnaD kciN]

2. I'm surprised the WSJ didn't LOVE the movie...

...after all, it depicts the virtuous, manly Westerners (led by a steadfast, uncompromising, and all-powerful king) who shrug off the advice of traitorous weaklings who counsel diplomacy rather than war, and wind up making a successful, civilization-saving stand against swarthy hordes from the Middle East.

:eyes:

[BlooInBloo]

3. The wsj paper is quite different from the wsj editorial page. Many are only familiar with the latter

[question everything]

4. Thank you. I have been trying to enlightenend DUers

for several years now with the same comment.