300 ushered the action movie into a new era. Regardless of your (it should be mostly negative) opinion of director Zack Snyder, his 300 succeeds on the visual flair that injected life into a minimally plotted action movie. Very few movies leave you feeling like you watched something different; 300 is one of the movies of the new millennium that can boast that feat.
300’s story is about the Spartan defense against the Persian invasion in 480 BC. Sparta’s leader, King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) takes 300 men to Thermopolaye to defend their people against self-proclaiming man God Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his giant army. At home, Leonidas’s wife Gorgo (Lena Headey) tries to persuade the Greek senate led by Theron (Dominic West) to send aide to the brave 300. Political machinations, six-pac abs, and bloodshed ensue.
Correctly, 300 is best remembered as a visual masterpiece. The colors appear like a grayed/muted painting with streaks of red for blood. When a character dies, the blood evaporates into the background, which absorbs the color and paints it a little redder/brighter. To my knowledge, this is one of the first action films to feature sped up/slowed down shooting: fight scenes will quickly unfold, until Snyder wants you to watch a specific detail of the fight, which goes on for longer than you expect. These details blend together seamlessly into a ballet of violence thus far unsurpassed. In fact, 300’s success has lead to several stylistic imitators, a testament to the ingenuity of Snyder’s eye.
That being said, the visuals gloss over the story, which Snyder smartly minimalizes. Snyder’s storytelling leaves lots on the table to show off what he can do as an editor. At least, Xerxes and Leonidas are pretty interesting characters. Their battle of machismo is old-fashioned and believable and drives the story forward. The political dealings of Gorgo and Theron are very one note and really add very little to the story, other than plot service. In addition, there is a casual misogyny swept under the rug in the male/female relationships, even the decent Leonidas/Gorgo one, that is explained away by the time period. In hindsight, this problem persists in all Snyder films, but in 300, it disservices the really fun fight scenes, except to act as a breather.
Gerard Butler. Michael Fassbender. Lena Headey. Dominic West. These people helped get put on the map because of 300. Butler got helped the most, mostly joining crappy romantic comedies. His Leonidas is a man’s man: able to convince beefy proud people to follow him with rousing speeches and unwavering confidence. 300 succeeds a lot on Butler and Rodrigo Santoro’s hubris, with Santoro playing up the godliness of Xerxes to 11. Lena Headey’s role is ok; she proves herself as Leonidas’s mate early on, and can orate a bit herself. West and Fassbender have very little to do, and are written extremely one note, and David Wenham does some good stuff with about 10 minutes of screen time.
300 injected life into the action movie. I saw this movie with some college friends, and there were multiple rounds of applause as the violence escalated. 300 also makes war seem like a beautiful ballet, with more graceful movement than the sex scenes also in the film.