300 and The Battle of Thermopylae

Last night I saw 300. The movie is an adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 about the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

In college, I minored in Classics and have always been interested in ancient Greece. Love the culture. Love the mythology. Love it all! So I'm a bit of a nutter about this particular story. I was excited when I heard that Frank Miller was doing a comic book adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae. I eagerly read the comics and enjoyed his visual take on the events. For a more in depth telling of the Spartan way of life which leads up to the battle, I recommend Steven Pressfield's Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae.

Anyway, back to the film. Director Zach Snyder has adapted many of the visuals of the graphic novel into the film which means lots of CGI landscapes and sets much like Robert Rodriguez did with Frank Miller's other graphic novel adaptation Sin City. As Sin City stylized the hard boiled film noir genre, 300 does the same for the historical battle epic. Intricate sword and spear fighting choreography done in real and bullet(a la the Matrix) time. Men and women in various stages of undress(a.k.a nudity). And, of course, copious amounts of blood letting and amputations. So, what did I think of the movie? Loved it!! But don't take the kiddies (even though it is also playing in IMAX theaters so you can see Persians impaled through the neck on a 3 story high screen)! I give it 4 decapitations out of 4.