Zack Snyder
300

So, before reading this review, I want whoever is reading it to tune in to a critical level absolutely linked to the spectacularity and the emotional and scenic impact.

Why is that? Simply because it's too easy to label this film, like many of its kind, as a historical dud, the usual Hollywood blockbuster, a commercial operation, a film full of semi-hidden ideologies, etc., etc., too easy... really too easy. These are the general opinions on this film, is it really or not? Who cares, I repeat, who cares.

All those TV and newspaper critics who don't even often watch the film label it, as unbearable as all the people who listen to them. Now, I don't want to place the film in the cinema's Olympus, and I don't want to praise its merits more than the film itself manages to convey.

Leaving aside the basic aspects of a film like a solid plot and a good dose of well-crafted dialogues, what remains? Nothing you say? I say no, what remains are breathtaking scenes, simple but impactful dialogues, well-curated photography, admirable special effects, and a dark and engaging cut given to the film. In short, "300" does not propose itself as film of the year or film strictly adhering to history or any other kind of position.

An immediate and impactful film, a bit ignorant but with a comic book transposition behind it and not a well-programmed or programmable screenplay. Absolutely spectacular and well-directed action scenes, endless well-curated fights and duels with good use of slow-motion and bullet-time; these scenes are the backbone of this film and are worth the money because so far I have never seen them elsewhere or at least not at this level. Engaging and astonishing action scenes complemented by some "metal" background which might seem out of place but is part of the film, otherwise what kind of boastful and ignorant film would it be? Admirable in its own spectacularity without any other pretension.

We all know the plot or, at least, those who have read any history textbook know that the powerful Persian Empire led by the king of kings, the great Xerxes intent on conquering the known world, wants to gobble up the entire Greece to make it a province. Fragmented and squabbling Greek states are not concerned about the threat or at least not enough so as to leave the Spartan king Leonidas the arduous task to cushion the eastern descent or at least delay it. In the film, the Persians are millions but in reality a little more than 350 thousand, still enough to make into legend the brave Leonidas who with his very small forces (300 men and a tiny Greek contingent of about 4,000 units) stood up to Xerxes' endless horde causing incredible losses and memorable massacres, all at the price that immortality demands, life. They all died doing what they knew best: fighting to honor the homeland. And this, dear friends, film or not, is a true story.

A crude or rough film leaves some messages, hits, amazes. At the site of the massacre at Thermopylae, one can find a gravestone that reads: «O traveler, tell the Spartans that here
we died obedient to their command.» ... Or at least watch their film...