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300, a movie based on the Battle of Thermopylae between the Persians and the Greeks is aptly titled. Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel , the sepia tint, the breathtaking SFX and the exuberant
locales do the trick for director Zack Synder.
Though
the real story did have many asides that lead up to this battle between
300 Spartans and 10 lakh Persians, there is more to this than meets the
eye. Agreed the Persians under its very ambitious ruler Xerces (played
convincingly by Rodrigo Santoro) are depicted as demons (they are made
to wear savage masks) while the Spartans are depicted as direct
descendants of Hercules with six-pack abs. But the fact remains that
this eulogy of the whites is rightly so. There were indeed 300 Spartans
sent out to delay the Persian army at a narrow pass, the only gateway
to Sparta.
The dialogues are few and far between but just right
to keep the drama going. The sequences aren’t too long drawn. There is
never a dull moment. Some say, the director didn’t stick to the
historical facts all through. I say that the film didn’t claim to be a
documentary straight out of National Geographic. What the film actually
does is infuse you with an interest to read up on Greek history and
particularly this battle and what happened later on. Why? Because the
film ends when the Spartans led by the great Leonidas (ably enacted by
Gerard Butler) dies a hero’s death after tearing Xerces right cheek
with his spear in front of his elite battery of soldiers aptly named
Immortals. Oops, gave the ending away! Not a concern really because the
film isn’t so much suspense as it is a series of action sequences well
filmed. If someone wants to execute an action sequence as grand as the
ones shown in 300, he needs to only see the magnificent eloquence with
which 300 was executed. The slow motions, the camera angles, the long
shots, the close-ups, the colours... you have to see it to believe it.
The
film’s editing needs to be admired. Director Synder had too many meaty
things to convey from Miller’s novel. But he desists from doing it by
sticking to the straight and narrow. And what’s that? About Spartans
first brave step before the big victory against the Persians. What
Synder does do with some essential parts is to let you see the story
through a keyhole and leave the rest for you to find out from the
history books; be it the Machiavellian politics that engulfed Sparta’s
council of ministers even while its king goes out to war taking 300 of
its best warriors or the fate of the queen after the death of Leonidas.
The
film scores with its minimal dialogues. What it does show umpteen
number of times is how much Xerces tries to entice Leonidas into
surrendering with the promise of making him the ruler of a greater
Europe. He doesn’t want Leonidas to die in battle because his sacrifice
would be glorified in history. Leonidas might have survived to tell the
tale if not for a traitor who shows Xerces the secret passage through a
mountain that brings the Persian army to the rear of Sparta and thereby
helping in the surrounding of the Spartan army. When Leonidas learns of
this, he sends back many of his men and stays back to ’fight in hell’.
It’s
a film that brought tears to my eyes. It was also a sort of time travel
and also allowed for some amount of mind reading. With its no-nonsense
rendering, I felt I was experiencing what Leonidas and Xerces were
experiencing at the time - I could almost get inside their minds and
feel it all. That’s a fantastic attempt at filmmaking.
One
quibble though. The film ends without telling us what happened after
Leonidas dies. On second thought, maybe it’s intended, because this
prompted me to look up the net. And ofcourse, what I read left me
astounded. Here’s the historical dope on The Last Stand .
Apparently,
there were several small Greek nations supporting Leonidas in this
battle numbering about 5,000-odd, out of which the Spartans were only
300. Not to mention, the 900 slaves of these 300 soldiers who also
fought with their masters but never figured in the record books.
It
is also learnt that Leonidas did what he did to give his fellow Spartan
soldiers numbering 10,000 enough time to be done with the Olympic Games and
prepare for war. (Yes, while Leonidas was waging a war, they were
taking part in the games for greater glory). It’s quite amazing that
after Leonidas’s sacrifice, the Spartan army together with the other
Greek nations, defeats Xerces’ army twice and finally compelling him to
retreat. Definitely a slice of history that needs to be documented for
posterity. Thank you, Synder. Thank you, Hollywood.
PS: Frank Miller would love it too!
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Pros: |
special effects, simple plot, execution
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Cons: |
not all that accurate historically
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