300

Brilliantly Rendered

This 2006 film draws heavily on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, as opposed to the actual historical accounts. The Persian ruler, Xerxes, is depicted as a giant, and somehow supernatural, if not explicitly God-like, which is pure Frank Miller. The incendiary bombs, overly massive war-elephants, and strange genetically mutated beasts are all unmitigated fiction. This film, though, is still superb. Only the most pedantic classical scholars would be dissuaded by the obvious inaccuracies. The action is brilliantly rendered, and the characters, though mostly one dimensional, are perfectly realized for the purposes of this tale… Leonidas and his 300 have stood for millennia as the very essence of hopeless yet courageous defence in the face of tyranny. They have served as a metaphor for the ultimate sacrifice in the name of ones nation/city; has brought that message to an entirely new generation.

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