I was singularly unimpressed with The Watchmen.
REALLY unimpressed. Disappointed even. After all, these guys did V for Vendetta, an awesome flick.
For one thing, I'm a BIG alternate history fanatic. I've been a fan of the genre since I read Harry Turtledove's Videssos novels (a fantasy / alternate Byzantine Empire, circa 1071 ce, when a cohort of one of Caesar's Gallic legions winds up in this semi-parallel universe on the eve of a parallel of the great Byzantine military disaster of the late 11th century: Manzikert) and of course, Guns of the South (the Army of Northern Virginia get Automat Kalashnikov rifles -- yes, AK-47s -- in early 1863 from a time traveler who is trying to stop the destruction of apartheid in an alternate 21st century South Africa by ensuring that the Union is permanently broken . . . the Army of Northern Virginia is not defeated at Gettysburg, the Union army is compelled to surrender and the CSA survives . . . then the fun begins). All good stuff for a history geek like me.
You see, there is a right way and a wrong way to do alternate history. The basic rule is that you get one change, as the pivot point. For instance, in Eric Flint's 1812: River of War the change was subtle: a young ensign named Samuel Houston, fighting under General Zachery Taylor against British-armed Native Americans, was not wounded as seriously in that battle as he was in our own timeline. What does this lead to? An Irquois Confederacy that gets the time to organize and prepare for the western expansion of the US, not to mention time to bring at least some US leaders around to the point of view that exterminating the Native American population is an expedient with a terrible long-term price (the one that this nation has been paying for over a century . . .). Too bad this series was not picked up by the publisher
In The Watchmen, that point is unclear to me. Really. While the first five minutes did a great job of filling in the gaps (like who really shot JFK . . .), there was no single point of divergance. Maybe this is because I am thinking of this as alt.history, not as pure sf where the rules are a bit looser. Cramming in a lot of "origin story" stuff -- much of the origin story stuff was more interesting than most of the action. Anyway, alt.history aside -- just taken as a action flick -- The Watchmen was at best OK. A bloody violent one that. Typical movie-fu hand to hand fights. Special effects were quite nice. The acting was OK, nothing to write home about. Again, meh.
There were some funny bits at the end. Music was pretty good.
On balance, though, this movie was . . . just . . . meh.
----------------
Now playing: OutKast - Hey Ya!
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
Well, me.
After work tonight, that is.
Today's been a good day for serum glucose levels. I'm kind of hungry at the moment, but I'll fix that in about an hour or so.
At least the all-you-can-drink-as-long-as you're-not-a-dipshit Starbucks is good.
After work tonight, that is.
Today's been a good day for serum glucose levels. I'm kind of hungry at the moment, but I'll fix that in about an hour or so.
At least the all-you-can-drink-as-long-as you're-not-a-dipshit Starbucks is good.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Oscar: The after-after-after party
I did not watch the Academy Awards. As a movie-goer, it's nice to see which flicks won and for what.
1. Sean Penn: Madonna's ex-squeeze is an awesome actor.
2. Heath Ledger: Another awesome performance, well-rewarded.
3. Slumdog Millionaire: I saw this movie three weeks ago, and it blew me away. I'm actually going to write a longer commentary in this space on it as an allegory for the impact and costs of globalization . . . just no energy to do so right now.
----------------
Listening to: Seanan McGuire - You Get The Tickets
via FoxyTunes
1. Sean Penn: Madonna's ex-squeeze is an awesome actor.
2. Heath Ledger: Another awesome performance, well-rewarded.
3. Slumdog Millionaire: I saw this movie three weeks ago, and it blew me away. I'm actually going to write a longer commentary in this space on it as an allegory for the impact and costs of globalization . . . just no energy to do so right now.
----------------
Listening to: Seanan McGuire - You Get The Tickets
via FoxyTunes
Monday, January 26, 2009
Movie Night Rant
Ex#2 tossed some movie discount tickets at me for Yule, so I decided to catch some recent movies.
Defiance: This film, starring Daniel Craig, was nothing short of awesome. Set in the midst of the 20th century's largest ethnic cleansing effort -- the Holocaust -- in history's largest military campaign -- WW2 eastern front -- this film Gets It Right. It's based on the true story of three Belorussian Jewish brothers who escaped the visit of the Nazi Einzatsgruppen (roving paramilitary extermination squads) to their village and sought to wreck their vengeance on the killers of their kin. Along the way, they take on a somewhat larger mission: to save as many Jews as possible, becoming partisans resisting the occupation. Along the way they endure betrayal, Stuka dive bombers, der Whermacht, massive amounts of vodka, the Red Army, each other and a winter that made Valley Forge 1775 look like Club Med Spring Break 2008.
I'm really happy to see another true-story WW2 film about the sacrifices non-Anglo-Americans made to defeat Nazi Germany. Enemy at the Gates, from a few years ago, was most welcome. The Eastern Front was much more than one big blizzard in the winter, one large mudbath in the spring and one big bloodbath in between. I'm also happy the producers got the military end right; few things about a historical war movie annoy me more than not getting the details of uniform, kit, and especially tactics right. The final breakout battle scene was a work of art. The partisans were caught in a clearing coming out of a river ford by a couple of squads of infantry and a tank. Fortunately the river bank formed a reverse slope for cover. Shades of Waterloo . . .The partisans lacked a panzerfaust (the WW2 ancestor of the RPG-7) to stop the tank, having only grenades. As there were woods on the flank, the German commander, with a move right out of the tactical manual, sent a MG42 to the flank to lay enfilade fire onto the partisans that would be unaffected by the reverse slope. The partisans captured the gun and turnd it onto the Germans to strip away the infantry advancing with the tank, then grenade-rushed the tank (German tank commanders ususally fought with the hatch open to use the commander's pintle -mount machine gun). Scratch one Panzer.
Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood's put out a lot of really good movies. Like fine wine, he's getting better and better with age. Flags of Our Fathers was the last one of his I saw, about the story behind the famous picture of the Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Subiachi on Iwo Jima in 1944. His latest film, Gran Torino, is not so much about waging war as it is about finding peace. Eastwood plays an aged Korean War veteran, widowed but making his way in the world -- a world changed a great deal from the one of his youth. He finds that peace in an unlikely place: in the young Hmong neighbor boy who he catches trying to steal his prized Gran Torino at gunpoint as a gang initiation. Along the way he gives point (rifle, M1 Garand, to be exact) to the phrase "You Kids Get Off My Lawn!" and learns to tolerate and appreciate the Hmong. When the gang wrecks vengeance on the neighbor, Eastwood's character comes up with a tragic but fitting solution.
Awsome movie.
Defiance: This film, starring Daniel Craig, was nothing short of awesome. Set in the midst of the 20th century's largest ethnic cleansing effort -- the Holocaust -- in history's largest military campaign -- WW2 eastern front -- this film Gets It Right. It's based on the true story of three Belorussian Jewish brothers who escaped the visit of the Nazi Einzatsgruppen (roving paramilitary extermination squads) to their village and sought to wreck their vengeance on the killers of their kin. Along the way, they take on a somewhat larger mission: to save as many Jews as possible, becoming partisans resisting the occupation. Along the way they endure betrayal, Stuka dive bombers, der Whermacht, massive amounts of vodka, the Red Army, each other and a winter that made Valley Forge 1775 look like Club Med Spring Break 2008.
I'm really happy to see another true-story WW2 film about the sacrifices non-Anglo-Americans made to defeat Nazi Germany. Enemy at the Gates, from a few years ago, was most welcome. The Eastern Front was much more than one big blizzard in the winter, one large mudbath in the spring and one big bloodbath in between. I'm also happy the producers got the military end right; few things about a historical war movie annoy me more than not getting the details of uniform, kit, and especially tactics right. The final breakout battle scene was a work of art. The partisans were caught in a clearing coming out of a river ford by a couple of squads of infantry and a tank. Fortunately the river bank formed a reverse slope for cover. Shades of Waterloo . . .The partisans lacked a panzerfaust (the WW2 ancestor of the RPG-7) to stop the tank, having only grenades. As there were woods on the flank, the German commander, with a move right out of the tactical manual, sent a MG42 to the flank to lay enfilade fire onto the partisans that would be unaffected by the reverse slope. The partisans captured the gun and turnd it onto the Germans to strip away the infantry advancing with the tank, then grenade-rushed the tank (German tank commanders ususally fought with the hatch open to use the commander's pintle -mount machine gun). Scratch one Panzer.
Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood's put out a lot of really good movies. Like fine wine, he's getting better and better with age. Flags of Our Fathers was the last one of his I saw, about the story behind the famous picture of the Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Subiachi on Iwo Jima in 1944. His latest film, Gran Torino, is not so much about waging war as it is about finding peace. Eastwood plays an aged Korean War veteran, widowed but making his way in the world -- a world changed a great deal from the one of his youth. He finds that peace in an unlikely place: in the young Hmong neighbor boy who he catches trying to steal his prized Gran Torino at gunpoint as a gang initiation. Along the way he gives point (rifle, M1 Garand, to be exact) to the phrase "You Kids Get Off My Lawn!" and learns to tolerate and appreciate the Hmong. When the gang wrecks vengeance on the neighbor, Eastwood's character comes up with a tragic but fitting solution.
Awsome movie.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Berzerkeley was fun...
I went to visit my daughter and son in law in Berkeley today. Had a blast despite a sore throat that almost kept me home.
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .
They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.
I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.
I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Highlights included a fine lunch at a very nice Chinese place (huzzah for Moo Shoo beef), a visit to Sam's school (Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary), some geeking about on Sam's PC, MacBook and network and good coffee as Sophia showed me how to home roast with an air popper. I even saw a home movie showing Sam giving his first sermon. W00t! Then there was that tactical nuclear oatmeal cookie Sophia made . . .
They got a new car, a Volvo, to replace Soph's Kia. The Kia was named "Inga" and she wanted a name for the new car. Given that Volvo is Swedish, I suggested a male name: Gustav Aldolph. Yes, I was thinking of everyone's favorite 17th-century Swedish King, that most Lutheran champion, general, the Lion of the North. I also suggested his formidable daughter Christina as well.
I counted Presidential campaign signs and stickers while in Berkeley, starting with an Obama postcard Sophia had. The final count was 10 for BO, 3 for HRC, and ZERO for ANY Republican.
I'm starting my Earth Day / Beltane iTunes playlist; the song in the FoxyTunes sig is headlining that playlist. Not only is the song a good green / eco tune, it's easy on the ears as I grind in WoW.
----------------
Listening to: R.E.M. - Cuyahoga (Live)
via FoxyTunes
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Speaking of food . . . eeeeewwwwwww!
Take one part food kitsch from the 1950s, add one part bad graphic arts and one part snark and you have The Journal of Regrettable Food.
Like this roast that " . . . looks . . . like Jabba the Hutt's prostate . . ."
The less said about that, the better.
Looks like lol-food . . .
Like this roast that " . . . looks . . . like Jabba the Hutt's prostate . . ."
The less said about that, the better.
Looks like lol-food . . .
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
SotR 2007-11-20
My cough is easing a bit but it is still not quite right. My doc says it cannot be allergens from the wolves here or I'd have reacted right away. She had the nurse take a culture of my throat. My right leg has three or four very small, shallow wounds left. The drainage is minimal.
On the lighter side, at least I've found a bus within walking distance of the house that runs on Sundays. Not only that, it also connects to the bus I need for work on Saturday! This is a big help, but the last bus from work still runs too early for me to use to get home. I am beginning to feel a bit housebound on Sundays when I don't game. Not to mention that I'd really like to see Beowulf.
/checks eTran schedule . . .
Nope, no way to get to either PCJ, but it looks like I may be able to make it it to Panera Bread on Howe on Sundays. Bus 56 to Meadowview Light Rail to Marconi Arcade and Bus 87 up Howe Ave. Just like my basic wound care run every Monday.
Slight change of direction here: you remember my rant about transit the other day? I received more unwanted insight into human sexuality today from one side of a too-loud cell phone call. What is it with you people? What transpires in bed between you and your partner(s) should be between you, them and the Gods. Why in the name of Freya do you have to talk about it so loudly that no passenger lacking headphones could avoid hearing about your happy times in the sack?
Don't get me wrong: I have NOTHING against sex. Consensual sex is nothing less than sacred. Nor is the annoyance from what I overheard the result of frustration in a guy who is currently not in a relationship. I'm annoyed at the sheer inappropriateness of having this conversation in a public place.
This week's going to be a fun one . . . hell-i-day off Thursday for Turkey Day, and Wednesday I get off at 4 or so, Finally, a day where I can catch the bus home without the quarter-mile "I hope I get there in time" walk! The geekend will be bizarre with Friday and Saturday being either very busy or kind of slow.
On the lighter side, at least I've found a bus within walking distance of the house that runs on Sundays. Not only that, it also connects to the bus I need for work on Saturday! This is a big help, but the last bus from work still runs too early for me to use to get home. I am beginning to feel a bit housebound on Sundays when I don't game. Not to mention that I'd really like to see Beowulf.
/checks eTran schedule . . .
Nope, no way to get to either PCJ, but it looks like I may be able to make it it to Panera Bread on Howe on Sundays. Bus 56 to Meadowview Light Rail to Marconi Arcade and Bus 87 up Howe Ave. Just like my basic wound care run every Monday.
Slight change of direction here: you remember my rant about transit the other day? I received more unwanted insight into human sexuality today from one side of a too-loud cell phone call. What is it with you people? What transpires in bed between you and your partner(s) should be between you, them and the Gods. Why in the name of Freya do you have to talk about it so loudly that no passenger lacking headphones could avoid hearing about your happy times in the sack?
Don't get me wrong: I have NOTHING against sex. Consensual sex is nothing less than sacred. Nor is the annoyance from what I overheard the result of frustration in a guy who is currently not in a relationship. I'm annoyed at the sheer inappropriateness of having this conversation in a public place.
This week's going to be a fun one . . . hell-i-day off Thursday for Turkey Day, and Wednesday I get off at 4 or so, Finally, a day where I can catch the bus home without the quarter-mile "I hope I get there in time" walk! The geekend will be bizarre with Friday and Saturday being either very busy or kind of slow.
Friday, November 16, 2007
The very best thing about Leo . . .
Two words: TIME MACHINE.
Time Machine is the very best single reason for a Mac user to buy and install Leopard . . . and of you are a Windows user, the very best reason to go get a new Mac. Time Machine is a backup and restore utility. In a word, you can, at need, "go back in time" and restore your entire system or even a single file from any 1-hr increment in the last day, any day in the last month and any month thereafter. So, if in the middle of writing your master's thesis your MacBook Pro's internal HD packs it in, if you have TM and an external hard disk, you can restore the last backup (not to mention OS X, all your preferewnces, email, etc) of your thesis once the hard disk is replaced, and on you go.
You can restore a single file, your whole iTunes Library or thw whole fscking startup partition. No more need to use Target Disk Mode and another Mac. No more "log in as root, drag and drop your Home folder (c:\Documents and settings\yourname for you windows users) and HOPE you got it right." For some users, enabling the OS X "root" account is like handing a drunk with Tourette's Syndrome a greased grenade . . . only "sudo rm -R /* is capable of more damage in less time (think dropping to DOS, cd c:, then del *.*). No more Retrospect, .Mac backup 3.x (not a bad program, but it's about as intuitive as brain surgery when compared to TM) or needing to rely on a non-Apple solution.
Best of all, TM does this silently and automaticly..
Windows, by comparison, has "system restore" which is great for restoring Windows system files . . . but it does nto do jack about your master's thesis or your email, pics, music, videos or porn.
I had been looking forward to buying a new external hard drive to try this feature out once my finances allowed for it. Fortunately for me, I won a nice 250 gigabyte USB 2.0 drive today for quarterly sales performance. This is plenty of space to allow me to back up the 100 GB drive in my MacBook (currently about 40 gigs free). I'm going to put at least three partitions on the disk: one OS X for TM (I'm going to names it "HD Welles"), one also OS X (one just big enough to serve as a 10.5 startup disk, probably named "DaVinci" -- as in Leo-nardo) to install Leopard so I can boot off this drive at need and one formatted for FAT32 (Disk Utility does not speak Windows NTFS) so my good friends Michelle and David can back up their docs/music/pics/etc/omg/wtf/bbq.
Since the disk will be partitioned three ways, I think I'll call it "Gaul." Of course, people will look at me funny (not that they don't do that already . . .).
----------------
Listening to: Styx - Suite Madame Blue
via FoxyTunes
Time Machine is the very best single reason for a Mac user to buy and install Leopard . . . and of you are a Windows user, the very best reason to go get a new Mac. Time Machine is a backup and restore utility. In a word, you can, at need, "go back in time" and restore your entire system or even a single file from any 1-hr increment in the last day, any day in the last month and any month thereafter. So, if in the middle of writing your master's thesis your MacBook Pro's internal HD packs it in, if you have TM and an external hard disk, you can restore the last backup (not to mention OS X, all your preferewnces, email, etc) of your thesis once the hard disk is replaced, and on you go.
You can restore a single file, your whole iTunes Library or thw whole fscking startup partition. No more need to use Target Disk Mode and another Mac. No more "log in as root, drag and drop your Home folder (c:\Documents and settings\yourname for you windows users) and HOPE you got it right." For some users, enabling the OS X "root" account is like handing a drunk with Tourette's Syndrome a greased grenade . . . only "sudo rm -R /* is capable of more damage in less time (think dropping to DOS, cd c:, then del *.*). No more Retrospect, .Mac backup 3.x (not a bad program, but it's about as intuitive as brain surgery when compared to TM) or needing to rely on a non-Apple solution.
Best of all, TM does this silently and automaticly..
Windows, by comparison, has "system restore" which is great for restoring Windows system files . . . but it does nto do jack about your master's thesis or your email, pics, music, videos or porn.
I had been looking forward to buying a new external hard drive to try this feature out once my finances allowed for it. Fortunately for me, I won a nice 250 gigabyte USB 2.0 drive today for quarterly sales performance. This is plenty of space to allow me to back up the 100 GB drive in my MacBook (currently about 40 gigs free). I'm going to put at least three partitions on the disk: one OS X for TM (I'm going to names it "HD Welles"), one also OS X (one just big enough to serve as a 10.5 startup disk, probably named "DaVinci" -- as in Leo-nardo) to install Leopard so I can boot off this drive at need and one formatted for FAT32 (Disk Utility does not speak Windows NTFS) so my good friends Michelle and David can back up their docs/music/pics/etc/omg/wtf/bbq.
Since the disk will be partitioned three ways, I think I'll call it "Gaul." Of course, people will look at me funny (not that they don't do that already . . .).
----------------
Listening to: Styx - Suite Madame Blue
via FoxyTunes
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Arrrrggggghhh!
Memorial Day is fast approaching in the good ol' USA. In celebration of that holiday, my employer is holding a "Memorial Day Film Festival."
Now, being a vet, I'm all for celebrating Memorial Day. Americans often need to be reminded that blood and valor are the currency that purchases liberty, and to honor those who've paid for it on our behalf and in our name.
So far, so good. However, the "movies" that the events committee has selected make me want to gag: "Hogan's Heroes" . . . "Sgt. Bilko" . . . and "Gomer Pyle, USMC"
This is not a "TV makes RichO twitch" thing. It's the fact that Memorial Day is not about teh laugh track.
There are far, far better choices available . . . like the following:
Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Flags of Our Fathers, The Killer Angels, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers Once.
Now, being a vet, I'm all for celebrating Memorial Day. Americans often need to be reminded that blood and valor are the currency that purchases liberty, and to honor those who've paid for it on our behalf and in our name.
So far, so good. However, the "movies" that the events committee has selected make me want to gag: "Hogan's Heroes" . . . "Sgt. Bilko" . . . and "Gomer Pyle, USMC"
This is not a "TV makes RichO twitch" thing. It's the fact that Memorial Day is not about teh laugh track.
There are far, far better choices available . . . like the following:
Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Flags of Our Fathers, The Killer Angels, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers Once.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Robot's Rules of Order
Amiov's 3 Laws of Robotics may become law in South Korea:
For the Asimov-impaired, the Three Laws appear here.
The most interesating excerpts here:
How about robotic celebs? They cannot be any more obnoxious that BenKat, Tommifer, K-Fed and the evil that is Brittney. Oops, Hollywood's already done that one
For the Asimov-impaired, the Three Laws appear here.
The most interesating excerpts here:
... The South Koreans are not the only people working on such a code, but others are independent efforts by scientists themselves uneasy at the implications of their work....
This I like; scientists concerned over the social and political dimentions of science. We need more of that....The initial findings of one such group, the European Robotics Research Network (Euron) were unveiled last summer, and went as far as raising the question of the ethics of robot sexuality, and whether sex-toy robots should be developed....
And there you have it, straight from the Too-Much-Information Superhighway. Glad to see someone's thinking about the ethics of robot sex toys. This meme adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "hardware upgrade," doesn't it?How about robotic celebs? They cannot be any more obnoxious that BenKat, Tommifer, K-Fed and the evil that is Brittney. Oops, Hollywood's already done that one
I could go on, but why?
Saturday, March 10, 2007
"Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by..."
Went to see 300 tonight with a friend. 300 tells the tale of the sacrifice of the 300 Spartans under King Leonidas who held the pass at Thermopylae against a horde of invading Persians, buying time with blood and valor for the rest of Greece to pull together enough troops to whomp the Persians once and for all. This story has fascinated me since boyhood, when I stumbled across a book on the two great Greek-Persian wars.
300 is visually awesome, a pretty movie. Utterly beautiful film. Lots of GCI, of course, but still a gorgeous vision. It's rather bloody; think Saving Private Ryan with swords and spears. Not to mention the world's biggest female nipples. It's worth seeing, in spite of my comments below.
As history, however, the movie left me cold. They got the basic story right -- kind of hard to screw up Heroditus. BUT, the military geek in me cringed at some of the visuals. Between the gold-chain bondage gear of the Persian nobility, the freakazoid monster "heroes" of the Persians, the silver fright masks of the elite Persian "Immortals(!)" reminded me of Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars or the Sirdukar from the movie Dune," the leather(!!) swimming trunks and complete lack of torso armor(!!!) on the buff steroidal Spartans.
The racial and political overtones in this movie were awesome. Not as awesome as, say V, which is one of the very best political movies made in a very long time. Buffed up white boys, facing down the endless parade of dark-skinned Freaks From The East. A resolute, tough-as-nails commander facing down a gold-chain wearing pierced freakazoid who brings along an elite Lesbian Orgy Corps for his campaigning pleasure and does not even fight alongside his men?
This movie is political propaganda in the great tradition of The Battleship Potempkin and Aleksandr Nevsky. "We are few but mighty! Resist the Asiatic FreakHordes before they get your women and children!" What really cheezed my bacon was the portrayal of Sparta as the bastion of freedom and democracy of ancient Greece. Sparta had a frigging king, for the love of Zeus, with a slave-holding military aristocracy. The Athenians, from whom most of the good of ancient Greece originated, were denegated as "boy-lovers" -- talk about your playing to old stereotypes -- kind of like the way the French were called "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Finally . . . after King Leo and his short battalion embark on their one-way cruise across the River Styx, the whole of Greece faces down the Persians. In other words, a war waged by a coalition. And don't get me started about the oracle scene. The ephors looked leperous, like a coven of Sith lords studying the Dark Side of the Force. It seems like everything that did not jibe with the message of the need for military superiority over the asiatic hordes was portrayed as freakish.
I could go on, but why? It was pretty and my friend and I had a good time. If you want your Spartans with a quivering side order of historical accuracy, then check out this wonderful book
Go see it.
300 is visually awesome, a pretty movie. Utterly beautiful film. Lots of GCI, of course, but still a gorgeous vision. It's rather bloody; think Saving Private Ryan with swords and spears. Not to mention the world's biggest female nipples. It's worth seeing, in spite of my comments below.
As history, however, the movie left me cold. They got the basic story right -- kind of hard to screw up Heroditus. BUT, the military geek in me cringed at some of the visuals. Between the gold-chain bondage gear of the Persian nobility, the freakazoid monster "heroes" of the Persians, the silver fright masks of the elite Persian "Immortals(!)" reminded me of Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars or the Sirdukar from the movie Dune," the leather(!!) swimming trunks and complete lack of torso armor(!!!) on the buff steroidal Spartans.
The racial and political overtones in this movie were awesome. Not as awesome as, say V, which is one of the very best political movies made in a very long time. Buffed up white boys, facing down the endless parade of dark-skinned Freaks From The East. A resolute, tough-as-nails commander facing down a gold-chain wearing pierced freakazoid who brings along an elite Lesbian Orgy Corps for his campaigning pleasure and does not even fight alongside his men?
This movie is political propaganda in the great tradition of The Battleship Potempkin and Aleksandr Nevsky. "We are few but mighty! Resist the Asiatic FreakHordes before they get your women and children!" What really cheezed my bacon was the portrayal of Sparta as the bastion of freedom and democracy of ancient Greece. Sparta had a frigging king, for the love of Zeus, with a slave-holding military aristocracy. The Athenians, from whom most of the good of ancient Greece originated, were denegated as "boy-lovers" -- talk about your playing to old stereotypes -- kind of like the way the French were called "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Finally . . . after King Leo and his short battalion embark on their one-way cruise across the River Styx, the whole of Greece faces down the Persians. In other words, a war waged by a coalition. And don't get me started about the oracle scene. The ephors looked leperous, like a coven of Sith lords studying the Dark Side of the Force. It seems like everything that did not jibe with the message of the need for military superiority over the asiatic hordes was portrayed as freakish.
I could go on, but why? It was pretty and my friend and I had a good time. If you want your Spartans with a quivering side order of historical accuracy, then check out this wonderful book
Go see it.
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