300 (film)

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300
*Madness? ... THIS! IS! SPARTA!
Genre: Action Fantasy Directed by: Zack Snyder Produced by: Gianni Nunnari Mark Canton Bernie Goldmann Jeffrey Silver Written by: Zack Snyder Kurt Johnstad Michael B. Gordon Based on: 300 by Frank Miller Lynn Varley Starring: Gerard Butler Lena Headey David Wenham Dominic West Cinematography: Larry Fong Editing: William Hoy Music by: Tyler Bates Production company: Legendary Pictures Virtual Studios Atmosphere Pictures Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures Release date: December 9, 2006 (Butt-Numb-A-Thon) March 9, 2007 (United States) Runtime: 117 minutes Country: United States Language: English Budget: $65 million Box office: $456 million Franchise: 300 Sequel: 300: Rise of an Empire

300 is a 2007 American period action film based on the 1998 comic series of the same name by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley.

Plot

In 480 B.C. a state of war exists between Persia, led by King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), and Greece. At the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas (Gerard Butler), king of the Greek city state of Sparta, leads his badly outnumbered warriors against the massive Persian army. Though certain death awaits the Spartans, their sacrifice inspires all of Greece to unite against their common enemy.

Why This! Is! SPARTA!!!

1. It's very faithful to the 1998 comic series of the same name, and it's the true story of Battle of Thermopylae within the Persian Wars in a fictional way.
2. Very decently powerful exciting plot.
3. Fantastic cinematography.
4. Amazing direction from Zack Snyder.
5. The characters a pretty great and they're memorable, even Leonidas as well.
6. Great acting, especially for Gerard Butler, and Lena Headey.
7. Lots of great action scenes, like the scene where 300 men battles with the other soldiers to reach Persian "God-King" Xerxes.
8. This: This is blasphemy! This is madness!
   • Madness? ... THIS! IS! SPARTA!
     • Need we say more?
9. Well done pacing.
10. The poster is pretty iconic, the poster shows a lot of soldiers' push, or kick the soldiers into the cliff below.
11. For an R-rated film, it did get plenty of gore to satisfy R-rated action film fans.
12. Awesome soundtrack that was performed by Tyler Bates.
13. Decent visual effects.

Not So Sparta Qualities

1. The film lacks the substance or depth of the original source material.
2. Although the music by Tyler Bates works in the film, it is also plagued by obvious plagiarisms of Elliot Goldenthal's music from Titus. This got so much attention that Warner Bros. had to release an official statement in response.
3. Some Iranians interpreted the portrayal of the film's main antagonist, Xerxes as homosexual. Even they denounced the film for its portrayal of Persians.
4. Just like the comic book, it has a few historical inaccuracies; for example, in the iconic "This is Sparta" scene, Leonidas kicks the messenger of Xerxes in the pit of death.
5. The monster the Immortals have is pretty silly, it took many people out of the film.

Reception

300 received praised for its visuals and style but criticized its depiction of the Persians, which some characterized as bigoted or Iranophobic. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 61% based on 236 reviews, with an average rating of 6.10/10. The site's critical consensus read, "A simple-minded but visually exciting experience, full of blood, violence, and ready-made movie quotes.". On Metacritic, the film had a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

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Trivia

• This film spawned the famous "This is SPARTA!!" and "Sparta Remix" memes.
  • In some dubs of the famous "This is SPARTA!!" scene, the line sounds different:
    • In the French dub, King Leonidas says: "We are SPARTANS!!"
    • In the Japanese dub, King Leonidas says: "You say, this is insanity? This is the style of SPARTA!!"
    • In the Russian dub, King Leonidas says: "No! This is SPARTA!!" ("Нет! Это - СПАРТА!!")
  • In fact, the line was so popular that TV Tropes' Punctuated! For! Emphasis! used to be "This! Is! SPARTA!", after a memetic instance of it from the film 300. Most references were to the meme, and there were quite a lot of them. And it also never displayed properly.
• Robot Chicken made a hilarious parody of this movie about the American Revolution called "1776".

Zack Snyder

Movies: Dawn of the Dead (2004) - 300 - Watchmen (2009) - Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole - Sucker Punch - Man of Steel - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Ultimate Edition) - Justice League* - Zack Snyder's Justice League - Army of the Dead - Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire - Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver * Snyder was the director of Justice League during principal photography, but was replaced by Joss Whedon during post-production. Snyder retained directorial credit for the finished film, though reports have indicated Whedon reshot a significant portion of the film. Snyder later edited a director's cut of the film, removing all of Whedon's footage and restoring his own footage that was deleted in the theatrical release. Snyder also shot four to five minutes of additional footage in late 2020 for his cut, released as Zack Snyder's Justice League.

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