300

[bladespark]

So... I just got back from seeing 300.

Wow.

Normally I am not at all a fan of stuff with gore in. But this... it was artistic. I mean, there were three bits where I closed my eyes for a few seconds. Because a few things should not be rendered in loving slow motion. Ick. But for a movie where 90% of the screen time was Spartans killing Persians, there was surprisingly little that bothered me. I think partly because although the blood spattered around liberally, you didn't really see nasty injuries or squidgy bits. Just spatter. And the whole thing was in a sort of sepia tone so the blood was nearly black. And there were any number of places where the camera stopped for just a second, and you could see a comic book frame, right there. I think "artistic" really is the word for it. Even the admittedly gratuitous sex scene was artistic. And other than some nipples, (and you know, I have some, they're not something I'm unfamiliar with) you don't actually see anything.

So what I'm saying here is basically that this is, despite the fact that it's bloody as all getout, a very pretty film. (Though Rachel, I suggest you wait for the cleanflicks, I'm not sure you'd like it otherwise. There were those three bits. And nipples.)

Also, although it was obvious the makers weren't worried at all about historical accuracy, they did toss quite a few historic bits in. Like the way the Spartans used their spears and shields in a phalanx at several points. (Although of course real Spartans would never have broken the phalanx at all, while these broke it whenever they felt like it. But if they hadn't, it would have been a pretty boring movie.) Though I somehow doubt the Persians were actually in the habit of finding people with freakish mutations and including them in their army. But what the heck, the bad guys have to look scary, right? How else will we know they're bad guys? (There's a whole essay on that subject, but eh. I'm too bouncy to rant right now.)

The music was also awsome. Plenty of good standard fare movie music with thrilling horns and fullsome strings and such, but a fair bit of the fighting was done to a background of electric guitar. Which may sound weird, but it was totally awesome.

Awesome sort of sums it up. If you don't mind a little artistic blood spatter (er, actually if you don't mind a lot of artistic blood spatter,) I highly reccommend you go see 300.

Oh, and muscley guys in loin cloths. 'Nuff said.

Comments

[sulcharae.livejournal.com]

I like how Haque from Applegeeks put it. "That might be the manliest movie i've ever seen. It should have been called 600. I think i saw more guys' nipples in the past two hours than i want to see in the rest of my life."

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heee. Yes! And there are only four female nipples pictured. Poor guys. They get so much less eye candy.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Given the Spartan approach to life and love and sex, one could argue that the guys get precisely as much eye candy as the girls.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly true.

I do want to ask - how sure are we, historically, the the Spartans had such an approach? Because I always do eye such assertions with a bit of doubt, particularly in this case given that Spartans didn't exactly go in for keeping records.

[aoanla.livejournal.com]

Well, the records we have from non-Spartan Greeks show that they thought the Spartans swang both ways. And, well, ancient Greek society swang slightly that way itself, although not so much, perhaps, as the Spartans were supposed to have.

Plutarch and Cicero both agree that the Spartans engaged in male-male chaste pederasty^* and possibly female-female in addition, and Plutarch further states that the Spartans had no concept of adultery.
There are also records of Spartan graffiti which describe sexual conquests of men by men; by contrast, there are few, if any, records of similar graffiti describing male-female sexual acts.

So, it depends on how much you trust famous Greek and Roman historians and graffiti.

^* That is, it was considered a fine thing to have erotic feelings for younger men, but not to actually insert tab A into slot B.

[crystallinegirl.livejournal.com]

*L* During the King's sex scene with his Queen, I actually leaned over and asked my boyfriend "I thought the Spartans thought Men were for love and Women were for children?" His response: "They are." Cue me giving him a weird look and replying "They WERE." The look on his face when he'd realized what he said was hilarious.

That movie was one of the awesomest I've seen in a long time. I think my favorite scene actually was when the Queen killed the traitor and parroted his words back at him. That and Leonitus making the comment about he might as well have brought his women to the battle. Yay Strong Ass-Kicking yet Feminine Women!

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Oops! I forgot about all those Persian girls. There's actually quite a lot of female nipple in that scene. It's just not a terribly long scene. So the male nipple still gets more screen time.

Alas Cleanflicks is no more

[kira-blue-drago.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the thought, sadly cleanflicks is no more. by the looks of it cleanflicks wouldn't be able to edit a movie where 90% is battles and killing people. Oh well thats life

Re: Alas Cleanflicks is no more

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well... it's like the battle bits in Lord of the Rings, just that instead of the bad guys just falling over when the good guys hack into somebody, there's this spatter of fake looking blood. There's lots of fighting, but you could edit a few bits with the nipples and the really gory stuff, and then it would be mostly okay. Though you'd never get it to be a G-rated film. You could get it to be a pg-13 though.

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

The blood is actually ink splatters being used as particles. In a few of the scenes the inksplats are actually taken from scans of the comic.

They were trying to get away from the 'squib' look of fake blood.