From Frank Miller’s homonymous graphic novel, a dark fantasy take on the historical Thermopiles battle. Manly courage, bloody fights, monsters and special effects from the director of Dawn of the Dead (the remake, not the original!)


Inside the movie...

Just a warning: don’t approach this movie expecting a faithful historical rendition of the famous battle of the Thermopiles. Frank Miller’s graphic novel was already full of narrative inventions, and the script by Zack Snyder -which adapts Miller’s comic book- strays even more from historical accuracy. The grim and surreal setting of 300 resembles more the Hyborian age of Robert Howard’s Conan than ancient Greece.

The masterful use of CGI gives the picture a strong aesthetic impact, echoing the visual style distinctive of the original comic book. But when it comes to contents, Snyder parts way with Miller: both of them idealize the clash between the violent but free Greek culture and the corrupt, theocratic absolutism of Xerxes’ Persia, but Snyder prefers to insist more on the fantastic components rather than on the epic ones, creating battle sequences that remind much of those seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Xerxes’ Immortal Guard is a legion of bloodthirsty and putrescent zombies and the Persian army drags along massive orcs, ready to smash Greek soldiers; the trees are decorated with crucified corpses, the villages burn in flames, there are human freaks with pincers planted where once there were hands, skies totally blackened by a rain of arrows, exotic animals used as hellish mounts… and then there’s king Xerxes, who stands androgynous and mephistophelean upon the human pyramid that worships him, ready to grant absolute power to those who accept to serve him and give him their soul.

Xerxes’ harem is an abyss of depravation and lust: hermaphrodites, sick sexual acts, deformed and lusty bodies that bring back to mind the private circus seen in the Caligola directed by Brass and Guccione, but also the horrible orgy of Brian Yuzna’s Society.

In a sense, 300 reminds also of the Italian peplums of the ’60s directed by Bava and Freda, where Hercules or Maciste were pitted against human and supernatural menaces; but Snyder’s movie has certainly more Hollywood “oomph”. The broad, sweaty chests of the manly Spartans have the same subdued sexual connotation that was possessed by the likes of Steve Reeves or Gordon Mitchell – and in fact there has been who has labelled 300 as the most powerful hymn to homosexuality since the Village People. But the rough characterization of Gorgo, Leonida’s wife, betrays the limits of a commercial operation that doesn’t want to upset the puritan American audience.