300: Execution v Story. Review on 300 Movie

Character 1: 300 was ok. A story without a soul. But slick production values, great colour palette, excellent graphics. However a story wasted. I’d give the film 2.5 stars out of 5.

Character 2*: You are being harsh. 300 teaches you valour. It teaches you to stand upto adversity. It teaches you to believe. It’s not 2.5 brother. It’s path breaking stuff. It will create a new breed of storytelling, a new breed of directors. It’s 7 stars all the way.

Character 1*: The film was all show & pomp. A lot left to be desired. No depth in storyline. Especially for a historical, it’s essential ingredient.

Character 2*: You and I like different cinema dude. I am all about visual spectacular, honesty of genre and undiluted execution of storyline even if its wafer thin. I am into entertainment.

Character 1*: Yeah. I guess. A films exterior is all very good. No denying that. But what’s the outer shell without the inner core(depth of story). Nothing. Together it’s rock solid entertainment. One cannot exist without the other. Co exist they must.

Character 2*: So which film do you rate 5?

Character 1*: Million Dollar Baby, Munich, Cinderella Man, My Brother Nikhil, Amu

Character 2*: Ok. Get your drift.

The interaction pretty much summed up the myriad reactions to the film 300. To the uninitiated, the director chose to stay true to the classic original comic book the film is based on, painstakingly recreating every frame, reveling in his computer generated world creating perfect digital reality. What he achieved visually was something fabulously distinct and path breaking.

However today, a film’s executional language far dominates and outweighs good storytelling. To rope in the eyeballs, spectacular executions play an important role. They work towards overwhelming the viewer’s senses, also ensuring ease of comprehension across different countries, cultures and languages. It makes great business sense for the studios as well, helping post a healthy bottom line; however at the cost of a compelling storyline. The film landscape is littered with them. Business driving creatives?

Whether 300 followed a similar path is something we do not know, but perhaps adding the    (pre and post) political, strategic & military perspectives to the historical event, an insight into Xerxes the emperor, the individual, with his over riding ambition & his god like stature, an overall insight into the Persians(barbarians, effeminate Persian men?), the fragmentation amongst the Greeks et all would have made the content much richer & interesting and the story a compelling watch(even if a comic book was the inspiration).

But then life’s all about choices. Zack took his. I made mine. What’s yours?