thread: 2007-03-19 : Tonight we dine
On 2007-03-20, Brand Robins wrote:
I also suppose my whole post above could be summarized like this: "I don't care what unique snowflakes think about the movie, I want to know what the aggregate average across the market is going to think."
Part of this is that I know how I feel about 300. And about the Greco-Persian wars (something I've studied at length). And about America's imperialism and Iran's current government of the insane. I don't expect 300 to change my mind about any of that, or even have a lot of influence on it. I've done my thinking. Vincent's done his thinking. But what about those who haven't?
As for how I personally reacted: with a constant sense of frustration. The anger came later, long after contact with the material. Mostly I went in wanting to like this. I fucking love the Greco-Persian wars. I love the noble last stand as a motif, to the point where thinking about even a generic noble last stand can bring me to the point of tears. (Thing Borges would have something to say about that?) But all through 300 I felt frustrated, not just because of the bad history or racism or sexism, but because the way those things were thrust into the story killed my noble last stand. And it did so in a way that didn't turn it into a gritty movie of the brutal pragmatism and sacrifice of war. Instead I ended up with something that just left me wincing, wanting to be able to get into the story at any angle, but constantly kicked back outside by the fact that I couldn't want anyone to win, and wasn't given enough of an outside view to decide that I wanted everyone to lose. Instead I felt that I was left with a movie that wanted me to root, root, root for the home team, but didn't give me anything like a home team to root for.
