300
Cert 15 117 mins
Dir: Zack Snyder
I read a review somewhere which said that 300 is a film for young people. On 70 minutes I turned to my right where a chap, who had long since left middle age, had nodded off. And this in the midst of some of the most gory battle scenes you are likely to see, during which there were enough amputations to last a lifetime.
Yes the battle scenes are noble, as is the sacrificial cause of the 300 Spartan soldiers who are dispatched at the behest of the Spartan King Leonidas to defend Greece against invading Persian hordes. But I couldn’t help but think that the story, about the legendary 480 BC battle of Thermopylae, is just a little bit cliched.
First we have the threat posed by the decadent and seemingly corrupt Xerxes (brilliantly played by Rodrigo Santoro) and his Persian army. Submit to Persia and you will be spared. Most succumb, but not Leonidas who in the spirit of David v Golliath, makes a stand. Unable to get the backing of the Spartan politicians for war, he takes only 300 men to the “hot gates” of Thermopylae, a narrow corridor between two towering rocks, through which the Persians will have to pass. In going Leonidas must leave his beautiful wife and son on what is, to all intents and purpose, a suicide mission. And once at Thermopylae, Leonidas rejects the help of Ephialtes, a Spartan outcast, who when spurned turns traitor. All rather predictable “good verses evil”. Where 300 is different, however, is in the battle itself which for all the disparity in the size of the armies is believable, even if our senior citizen felt he’d seen it all before.
If you want to see a brutal war epic this is for you. Perhaps not if you want something which will challenge the grey matter.
Brenny’s Rating: 3/5
