Willowhugger
Civilian
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- Nov 19, 2004
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By which, subtext, I mean that the film can be interpreted as racist by people looking for it. This is different from accusing Frank Miller and his compatriot of being racists.
Frank, we know, loves to play with archetypes and ideas. Sin City is his taking the Noir world and then slamming down a bunch of amphetamines in writing it. The result being that everything is Noir to the 11.
300 is pretty similar to this. It takes the original Epic myth/history about the Battle and then amps up the hatred, dehumanization, power, and glory of all the characters involved until it resembles effectively Epic Fantasy Noir.
Let's face it, the Ancient Greeks were a huge bunch of racists and the various interpretations of the legends over the years aren't exactly the most favorable things in the world. It's like Gunga Din, ironically, since that was actually a PROGRESSIVE in its time because it was about how it was just that ONNEEEEE group of radical Indian nationalists that were complete ***holes as opposed to the entire race.
For me, I think that Frank's adaptation could easily be construed as offensive because of a lot of the choices here. That doesn't actually mean that anything should have been changed oddly enough. It actually reminds me of Starship Troopers in a way. Verhoven's adaptation throws in the occasional reminder "You know, these people are stark raving nuts right?"
For me, Frank Millar's novels are always best because the writer is fully aware that his heroes are a bunch of nutbars. Ronin's hero is
that goes on a killing spree of decidedly dubious morality.
In the case of the Spartans, they're a hyper macho bunch of people that are just as off their rocker as the Persians (but mildly more sympathetic). I mean, let's face it, when dealing with baby killers who abandon their children to fight wolves....audience sympathy may be gained but they're not playing with a full deck.
Part of the fun of 300 is the fact that we get to view pure machismo on display, warts and all. While there's plenty of people who want to go back to an age of 'when men were men' and 'women were women' we actually get a society so far removed from our values that its just pure theatre.
There's plenty to admire about the Spartans but its wrong to think that Frank isn't displaying the excessive attitudes of hate, body worship, bloodthirst, sexism, homophobia, and more for the audience.
But mostly its about the ninja death ;-)
Frank, we know, loves to play with archetypes and ideas. Sin City is his taking the Noir world and then slamming down a bunch of amphetamines in writing it. The result being that everything is Noir to the 11.
300 is pretty similar to this. It takes the original Epic myth/history about the Battle and then amps up the hatred, dehumanization, power, and glory of all the characters involved until it resembles effectively Epic Fantasy Noir.
Let's face it, the Ancient Greeks were a huge bunch of racists and the various interpretations of the legends over the years aren't exactly the most favorable things in the world. It's like Gunga Din, ironically, since that was actually a PROGRESSIVE in its time because it was about how it was just that ONNEEEEE group of radical Indian nationalists that were complete ***holes as opposed to the entire race.
For me, I think that Frank's adaptation could easily be construed as offensive because of a lot of the choices here. That doesn't actually mean that anything should have been changed oddly enough. It actually reminds me of Starship Troopers in a way. Verhoven's adaptation throws in the occasional reminder "You know, these people are stark raving nuts right?"
For me, Frank Millar's novels are always best because the writer is fully aware that his heroes are a bunch of nutbars. Ronin's hero is
a ******ed computer nerd that rebuilds his body
In the case of the Spartans, they're a hyper macho bunch of people that are just as off their rocker as the Persians (but mildly more sympathetic). I mean, let's face it, when dealing with baby killers who abandon their children to fight wolves....audience sympathy may be gained but they're not playing with a full deck.
Part of the fun of 300 is the fact that we get to view pure machismo on display, warts and all. While there's plenty of people who want to go back to an age of 'when men were men' and 'women were women' we actually get a society so far removed from our values that its just pure theatre.
There's plenty to admire about the Spartans but its wrong to think that Frank isn't displaying the excessive attitudes of hate, body worship, bloodthirst, sexism, homophobia, and more for the audience.
But mostly its about the ninja death ;-)
