The battle of Thermopylae. 300 Personal Bodyguards of King Leonidas I face the powerful half a million strong persian army. "Come get them (arms)" Leonidas tells the messenger that Xerxes dispatches in the hope of an arms surrender and a pre-battle truce, as the two armies meet along a mountain pass where "numbers count for nothing". Historical accounts tell us that Leonidas took his personal body guards to the battlefield because Spartan customs did not approve of a mainstream army being engaged in war during the auspicious festive season. As per historical accounts 2 people survived that war. Hollywood, with its well known potential of casting to celluloid the most heroic of stories, had not stumbled across this story yet and one wonders why. When it finally discovered it, courtesy a Novel written by Frank Miller, it told this story....and how...
First things first welcome to a genre where post production work takes over more time and effort than it takes for the film to be canned. Every effect is larger than life, and where it departs from a Matrix or a Jurassic park is that visual technology is embedded into each and every nuance and expression in the film. In order to tell this story larger than life, Zack Snyder has taken the movie frame by frame, touched up every facet of the character, the background the score and the camera angles with post production genuis. So if you see the pectorals of King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) twitching even as he screams "This is Spartaaaaa", you will not be surprised that it takes little more than his exertions to twitch them in that particular way. So for us it looks like a whole new canvass because there is no "this is celluloid" and "this is animation" speculation. It is all one seamless whole.
That said, the film presents dollops of gore and graphic violence to the unsuspecting audience. The "special effect" feel though takes some sheen off the gruesome battle scenes. Creditably, just when you feel that the bloodletting is getting to you, the screenplay seamlessly integrates the confrontation of the political establishment and the Queen (Lena Heady). I thought one particular aspect of the screenplay was dubious and meant more to tintillate than anything else. That was the Queen submitting to the scheming minister (Dominic West) as his price for supporting her proposal of sending back-up troops for the King (was she just Blonde, one would think...ha ha ha). The depiction of Xerxes and his kinks were too close to the comic book barbarian villainy that we have grown up on. But one can forgive Zack Snyder for that. Why?
This is a pathbreaking movie. A must see for adults. Great Performances. Greater post production work. Huge canvass and a very very well told story. If Ved Vyas were alive today, he would have asked for an appointment with Zack Snyder to discuss the "script" for "Mahabharata". It is about time...
Recommended sources of knowledge about Sparta and King Leonidas
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