Wednesday 10 October 2007

300


Ten days ago something amazing happened. I strode into my local town to the sound of a trumpet chorus, as crowds of people flocked for the return of nothing more than a DVD. However, this was no ordinary DVD. The birds were singing, I was high-fiving everyone I passed whilst whistling the tune of the opening credits of 300, the movie. It was back.

I'd waited for what seemed like three years, but was in fact three months, for the return of a film I'd enjoyed so much at the cinema. I likened the pain of my wait to the suffering of the Spartans, who in the film died so heroically to preserve the freedom of their homeland. My girlfriend pointed out I was being ridiculous when I dressed up in pants and a cloak one day, in homage to the Spartan warriors, my 'brethren'.

It had been a long time since I'd seen a film so brilliantly executed. The imagery alone was enough to make a great film, perfectly imitating the graphic novel by Frank Miller that it was based on. Added to a good cast delivering witty one-liners, and bloody, unforgiving violence, it was the perfect package. Somebody had taken a series of elements that make a good film, put them all together, and made a great one. That man was director Zack Snyder.

His only previous notoriety came from Dawn Of The Dead in 2004; so re-making a Frank Miller novel was quite a big deal for the directing novice. Snyder came out with a fantastic product, creating a film that is equally spectacular as it is humourous. What seems like a simple formula to making a good film has proved difficult for many directors in recent times, but Snyder combined all of the factors excellently, as if he had been doing it all his life.

I've already watched the movie twice since buying it, and seen the entire 'making of' bonus disk features. I've yet to dress up again, as my beer belly doesn't look great compared to the glistening washboard stomach sported by Gerard Butler in the film. Whether the deaths of the 300 heroic Spartans were really worth it or not we'll never know. One thing is for sure; their efforts entertained me for a full 117 minutes.

1 comment:

Rob said...

I'm still yet to see this film again but my housemate has recently bought it on DVD so I'll probably nick it in the next few days.

I watched it at the cinema and I loved it, but my mates at the time were less impressed with the constant slow-mo's, can't say it bothered me, plus it led to a fantastic spin-off South Park episode!