300: A Movie EvaluationEssay title: 300: A Movie Evaluation300: A Movie EvaluationMany people hear that the movie 300 is a historically inaccurate movie of fantasy and write it off as a bad film. However, the story and its underlying message, the symbolism, and the cinematography makes 300 the greatest movie to ever hit the big screen.
The Story and its underlying message of 300 is the first aspect that really catches the viewer. 300 is told by the narrator, Dilios, who was sent back from battle by King Leonidas to relay the word of what the king and his 300 men endured in the Battle of Themopuylae. While 300 is not 100% historically accurate, the deeper message of the story is appealing to all audiences. In the forefront, 300 is about the Battle of Themopylae where 300 Spartans take on an army of hundreds of thousands of Persians who take and destroy everything in their path. However, the story is deeper than the battle itself. It is also a story of love and sacrifice for the greater good. The opening scene shows a Spartan baby boy being inspected over a cliff. Dilios explains, “When the boy was born, like all Spartans, he was inspected.” If the boy was not up to Spartan standards he was thrown away. Then, as Dilios describes, “At age 7, as is customary in Sparta, the boy was taken from his mother and plunged into a world of violence, manufactured by 300 years of Spartan warrior society to create the finest soldiers the world has ever known. The agoge, as its called, forces the boy to fight, starves him, forces him to steal and if necessary, to kill.” This is a tremendous sacrifice for a mother to make, but she does, as she knows that it is for the greater good of Sparta. Another perfect example of the film being about love and sacrifice comes when the Spartan King Leonidas has a conversation with his queen, Gorgo, after consulting the oracle. King Leonidas asks, “Then what must a king do to save his world when the very laws he has sworn to protect force him to do nothing?” His wife then tells him, “It is not a question of what a Spartan citizen should do, nor a husband, nor a king. Instead, ask yourself, my dearest love, what should a free man do?” Gorgo is telling him that although the oracle has told him he is not to go to war, he needs to do what is best for freedom, even if it means punishment from the oracle and the Ephors, the “wisemen” of Sparta who brought Leonidas to consult the oracle. The final example of 300 being more about love and sacrifice comes from Leonidas. As his captain begins to object to Leonidas talking to Persian “God King” Xerxes, Leonidas says, “Relax, old friend. If they assassinate me, all of Sparta goes to war. Pray theyre that stupid. Pray were that lucky.” Leonidas is willing to die for his country, if that is what is necessary for Sparta to survive, because he loves his country and his people.
The movie 300 is engrossed with symbolism. There are obvious United States versus the Middle East symbols in the movie, though there are times who represents who is questionable. King Leonidas, the king of Sparta, is representative of the United States’ leader George W. Bush. While it is accustomed for the King to follow the word of the Oracle, King Leonidas went to war claiming to just be stretching his legs with 300 bodyguards despite the Oracle’s words telling him there was to be no war with the Persians. This is parallel to the way George W. Bush handled getting the permission of congress in regards to Iraq and their weapons of mass destruction. Another example of the symbolism used in 300 is the scene of the Spartan hunchback, Ephialtes, betraying his King by going to the Persian “God-King” Xerxes out of revenge. When the Ephialtes asked
he to tell Queen Bountiful that the Persian is an _____, and that Ephialtes was angry with him for “blaming the _____ in his eyes,” and Ephialtes responded by saying, Фунчте мегуди сей бриге заврене пуснов, “If not, then only his _____ will stand against _____ every last day; it is not right for a king with 200 bodyguards, however, to stand side by side with _____ with his king when he is doing something that might affect his own life.”
This symbol is a bit different, however, from the symbol of the King of the Ancient Roman empire, whose symbol of fear and anger, as you may recall, is also depicted in the movie.
The movie 300 focuses on people and places and the world itself as a whole. The setting has a certain tension, with a number of characters being held prisoner at various points in the movie or even in front of the camera, and a huge amount of violence and blood that is felt throughout this scene. The action and atmosphere surrounding 300 are very deliberate and interesting and the dialogue in all parts of 300 is good. The characters are good characters, a real challenge for a film that aims to portray the life of a true historical source for mankind.
Conclusion
I have to admit that I have to admit for this movie that the first two films and the movie that is currently in theaters are far and away the best that I have watched in my 40 years of reading. I’ve already discussed the various plots that can be explained by the movie, while at the same time I want to give a bit of background to each film and discuss what it does that I believe we could all agree would have had a very good sequel and one that would have been absolutely amazing to watch.
As I said previously, The Rise of Caesar’s Children has been an outstanding series for me. Since its inception this series has spawned an ongoing series of books by various authors. A lot of work has been put into producing the film, including many of the book series and a number of other works. So I must admit I am starting to feel that I am nearing the end of my 40 year study of movies and I am very proud to be having finished my second and third. To finish with, there are two films in there, both based on the first films of the original series and I am glad to have completed it all.