Reconsidering 300

I was watching 300 on TV the other night. It's by no means my favorite movie. The first time I saw it was in the theater, on a date. It was my pick. I remember kind of enjoying it, but thinking it was strange. I'd never read the graphic novel before (or any graphic novel), but was familiar with the works of Frank Miller because I had seen Sin City two years before. On another date. Again, my pick.

My dubious date-movie tastes aside, watching 300 again two years later was a bit of an eye-opener. I openly admit I'm difficult to impress in the mainstream cinema. I'm the kind of gal who sits around and watches moody French dramas. And enjoys them! Action, male-oriented movies aren't exactly my glass of Merlot. And this one is right in that mold. Based on a graphic novel? Strike one. Lots of blood and gore? Strike two. Mangling of history, a passion of mine? Strike three. 300 wasn't just the number of Spartans, it was about the movie's success average with me. The next time I saw it was fleetingly in a hotel room a couple of nights before my brother's wedding. Tired, and in the presence of a comfy hotel bed? Goodbye, 300. Needless to say, I'd done a thorough job of dismissing this movie. Sparta, it wasn't.

Until a few nights ago. With nothing else on, and work looming in the morning, it ended at a good time for me to catch a few zzzs. Why not, I figured. I was pleasantly surprised, because I was enjoying the movie more than I remembered.

By all accounts, this movie shouldn't work. It requires melodramatic acting of unrealistic dialogue that went out of fashion in the movies with the birth of the Method movement in the late 50's. Brando would object. It has fairly ridiculous combinations of monsters, a second-cousin hunchback of Quasimodo, and Xerxes, who needs to grow some real eyebrows. It has lots of bearded, sweaty, shirtless men shouting at each other. I'm not actually complaining about that last one. It's a strange conglomeration of history (or something that once resembled the true story), epic storytelling, propaganda, and bloodlust. Despite the historical story, it is shot in a completely computer-generated world to remain true to the graphic-novel roots, and MTV music-video stylized fighting. But it was wildly successful, and was winning me over one spear-thrust at a time. Why does it work?

Because there is nothing out there quite like it. It works because though it's a strange patchwork of influences, it seems to all blend together seamlessly. It just does, and we know it shouldn't. But it does. And if you really want to get into it, it shows the power of the epic. Epics, long out of literary fashion, depict the story of a hero as a means of entertainment and inspiration. The epic utilizes a lot of elements that nowadays would get hysterical laughter from audiences: interference of gods, hideous monsters, and larger-than-life heroes who always seem to know what to do, while still winning over that sexy sea-nymph and saving the day. 300 works not just because it's a unique addition to cinema, but because it embraces society's need for an epic, that larger-than-reality tale that allows us to escape our own lives and see something BIG accomplished, even if it's not necessarily that realistic. 300 is the first film in a long time that fulfills that need successfully. C'mon, we've all seen Troy, and the traditional epic movie is no longer relevant in our present society (as BackseatDirector sheds a tear). 300 fills the need, but in a way that our current artistic tastes can appreciate.

So I'm popping the popcorn. THIS IS SPARTA!