So...I finally got around to seeing this the other day. My review (spoilered for those who are latecomers to a lot of movies like me).
I watched 300 on DVD last night. I'd protested all day as I don't like gory stuff like blood n guts spilling everywhere. But, it didn't really bother me. In fact, I guffawed at a few bits, I like the monster dude with the scythe hands who conducted beheadings. And the battle bits weren't that bad at all (although the blood spillage was a bit Watership Down IMHO). OH couldn't get over the thought that Xerxes was a secret transvestite -- the reason being he had perfectly manicured, painted on eyebrows and shimmery eyeshadow. Once he said that, I found it hard to look at anything but his make up when he was on screen Overall though, I thought it was a good film.
Damn you for making me think PotN had made his triumphant return. That said, I ain't seen the film. IMO Frank Miller hasn't done anything decent since about 1986. But "South Park" did a pretty funny parody of it. The Persians were trying to take over the lesbian bar Mrs.(!) Garrison hangs out at, to turn it into a Persian bar. In that episode the Xerxes character was a woman in drag.
It's kind of an odd story... it portrays Spartans as freedom loving men and Persians as tyrannical depraved homosexuals. In reality, ancient Persia was probably the more cosmopolitan society and the Greeks were into fuckin' other dudes. It also seemed too much like a Gladiator/Lord of the Rings ripoff. I know it was based off a graphic novel but so many scenes seemed to come straight out of those two movies. Especially the hunchbacked Gollum-character who was following them around.
Yep, and it was especially these macho Spartan men who were into fuckin' other dudes, yet the movie portrayed the Athenians as "boy lovers", as queer king Leonidis called them.
"So, here's a fascinating tidbit. That movie 300? Turns out how they got that title was they measured how gay it was on a scale of one to ten."
