‘300′ was so violent and so homo-erotic
May 21, 2007The graphic-novel-turned-movie ‘300‘ finally arrived at the cheap theaters here in Louisville so I went to see it over the weekend. Two hyphenated words I think sum up the entire movie: blood-thirsty and homo-erotic.
Apparently in ancient Greece, blood splatters in the most intriguing ways. It floats in the air in these little clouds of mist before hitting everything and everyone in the vicinity. I must say the carnage was very stylish, but also very graphic. I mean the beheadings (and yes, it was very plural) always happened center of the screen so you could see every nanosecond of it–the blade cutting thru flesh, the head slowly rolling off the body, and finally the body slowly crumpling to the ground.
Also, apparently the ancient Greeks had invented pants but hadn’t gotten around to inventing shirts. Because none of these guys in the movie wore a shirt. Luckily, ancient Greeks were also all personal trainers because these guys were ripped. It was so homo-erotic, an entire movie of semi-nude men bonding thru close hand-to-hand combat.
No question it was very stylish, and an interesting use of computer graphics. Many of the sets seemed to have been created almost entirely in blue-screen, which must have made for an interesting challenge for the actors. Having to react and fight in a set that wasn’t actually there, that wasn’t added until well after they had shot the scene.
But it also was very murky, and I guess that was intentional. But it just looked dark, which does not mesh with the Greece I visited. Which is a very sunny part of the world. So it was just disconcerting that even in the middle of the day the scenes always had this darkness to them.
Wasn’t a bad movie but I’m glad I did not pay regular price to see it. I doubt this is something I’ll want to watch again, it’s not a DVD that I will be adding to my library.