From the Archive: 300 (2007)

THIS IS SPARTA!

Or is it? 

Is this ancient Sparta we see depicted on our TV and movie screens in Zack Snyder's 300...or is this actually...us -- circa 2001-2008, the turbulent, violent span of the Global War on Terror?

And if this movie is actually a story about us, who -- precisely -- are we in the play? 

The Spartans? The Persians? The Athenians?

These questions, I believe, are the primary ones raised by this gripping, violent, visually-arresting and brilliant cinematic adaptation of the Frank Miller limited series originally created in 1998.

Directed by Zack Snyder, 300 is undeniably cutting edge: a technological special effects wonder consisting of more than 1500 special effects shots. Yet it's also something else entirely; a determined, gritty and heartfelt meditation on the value of freedom, and one means -- war -- by which to preserve it.

300 dramatically countenances several important, life-or-death issues that we, as citizens of this era, recognize and have pondered deeply. Issues such as supporting the troops; the invasion and occupation of a sovereign land; the corruption of politicians, the propaganda value of organized religion, and more.

What is endlessly provocative about this war picture, however, is the multi-faceted level of discourse it offers. 

Like the greatest examples of art, 300 -- on the surface easily dismissed as yet another computer-enhanced action movie -- can be interpreted and analyzed in a number of ways. Nay, it has been interpreted in a number of ways.

So permit me to spell out some of the varying and even opposing fashions in which 300 has been read and interpreted by film critics, viewers and historians. ..

We are all Spartans

300 is indeed jingoistic, xenophobic and nationalistic. Some scholars thus view the Spartans as a surrogate for contemporary America, and therefore they "read" the film as an explicit validation and defense of all the actions taken by America after 9/11.

Let's consider this point of view first.

After the horror of 9/11 we in America all thirsted for justice. So much so that we attacked Iraq...a country that wasn't responsible for 9/11. We were spurred to this aggressive military action by calls for "patriotism" from the mainstream media and from members of the Bush Administration itself.

That's nationalism.

And jingoism? Well, we fought not only a war in Afghanistan, but also one in Iraq with overwhelming military might. Our leader landed on a military aircraft carrier in a military plane, wearing a quasi-military uniform (a flight suit) and spoke to the nation in deliberately martial tropes. Mission accomplished.

Xenophobic? 

Well, do you remember General William Boykin, undersecretary of Defense under Bush, who compared his Christian God to the "evil" Muslim God?

He said in 2003 "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian" ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan." He also said "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.

Now compare these three qualities -- nationalism, jingoism and xenophobia -- to those held in the film by the Spartans. 

How do the Spartans of 300 gaze at those who share their world? 

Well, the Spartans are extreme xenophobes. The Ephors are "in-bred swine." The Athenians are "boy-lovers." Those who are physically deformed (like the traitorous hunch back, Ephialtes ) are as ugly and untrustworthy inside as their physical form is repugnant outside. The Persians are seen as "barbarians" who are worshipful of a false God (Xerxes).

Spartans regard themselves as a breed apart, chosen by the gods and therefore exceptional.  And we hear and read often about American Exceptionalism, don't we?

"Only Spartan women give birth to real men," declares Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey). 

Similarly, Nationalism is raised above all other values: "service to Sparta." 

Dying for Sparta is the highest ideal.

As for jingoism, the Spartans resolve differences not through diplomacy, but through violent confrontation. They have been "baptized in the fire of combat," are "constantly tested" and taught "never to retreat." The latter phrase might be re-parsed in contemporary American terms as the platitude: "stay the course."   Some politicians have also taken up the "no retreat" meme, urging voters to "reload, not retreat."

Violence in Sparta is rampant. Leonidas murders a diplomatic emissary from Persia in cold blood when he doesn't like his message. Queen Gorgo dispatches a political enemy, Theron (Dominic West) with a sword when he impugns her integrity.

Xenophobia is on display in the film's depictions of the Persians, specifically.  

Writing for the Toronto Star, historian Ephraim Lytle barked: "300's Persians are a-historical monsters and freaks. Xerxes is eight feet tall, clad chiefly in body piercings and garishly made up, but not disfigured. No need -- it is strongly implied Xerxes is homosexual which, in the moral universe of 300, qualifies him for special freak-hood. This is ironic given that pederasty was an obligatory part of a Spartan's education. This was a frequent target of Athenian comedy, wherein the verb "to Spartanize" meant "to bugger." In 300, Greek pederasty is, naturally, Athenian."

Ouch.

Critic Roger Moore wrote in the Orlando Sentinel that 300 is a "work with an obviously fascist aesthetic, it falls under the broad umbrella Susan Sontag used to encompass "fascist art," in that it reaches for a superficial human ideal (uncomplicated, orders-following, buffed, beautiful, nearly-nude fighting men) and celebrates death (theirs)."

Reviewer Dana Stevens, writing in Slate, noted that if "300, the new battle epic based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, had been made in Germany in the mid-1930s, it would be studied today alongside The Eternal Jew as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war."

At the time of its release, some reviewers indeed suggested the film existed for one reason: to lead us to our next war...with Iran.  

We are all Persians

When I gaze at 300 -- at the text of the film itself -- I detect deeper shades of gray than some of the remarks above indicate.  Which leads me to my next possible interpretation.

300 grapples with so many issues of today, but it isn't precisely a one-to-one metaphor. For instance, we invaded Iraq, right? Not vice-versa. Doesn't that make America in some small way...the Persians, not the Spartans in this particular circumstance?

And secondly the Nazis also were aggressors in historical Germany; aggressors against their own Jewish citizenry and against all of Europe and eventually the United States. Again, that's not the case with the movie's Spartans. So the parallels suggested by various critics don't fit all that neatly. 

In the film, the Spartans were minding their own business when Xerxes launched his fleet, weren't they? We may or may not dislike their martial, hostile, jingoistic, nationalistic, xenophobic nature, but to coin a phrase: they didn't start the fire. 

As the film itself notes, "Xerxes brought it forth."

The depiction of the Persians, not the Spartans, actually raises serious questions about America. The Persians, according to the film, possess the greatest military might in the world. The whole world rumbles when the Persian army rolls.

In real life, America possesses the most powerful army in the world and deploys it with modern, technological equivalent of shaking ground: shock and awe.

The Persians, according to 300, are "decadent" because they have accepted into their culture such factors as varied ethnicity (Asians, Arabs, Blacks, and Whites all serve the God-King Xerxes), homosexuality (the film features a lesbian kiss...), body art/defacing, and even the physically-weak (the disfigured handicapped).

So tell me honestly, which side, in real life, has embraced such diversity of belief, values and origin, Al Qaeda or America?

Xerxes, the Persian leader, considers himself a God. And wasn't it President Bush who said “I believe that God wants me to be president?” 

Also, it is difficult to reconcile the image of Leonidas (Gerard Butler) -the hands-on King of Sparta, with that of our former President. When going to war, Leonidas lays down his own life courageously, to personally lead the troops in battle. 

What was Bush's personal sacrifice in the War on Terror?

He gave up golf. That's his own admission, not a snide commentary. I'm reporting what he said to draw out the contrast. .

So perhaps America has actually been depicted as the bad guys in 300, not as the dedicated, stoic (but fascist...) warrior race.  

We Are all Athenians.
This is the interpretation I prefer.

At its apex, the great city-state of Athens was the world's hub for art, philosophy and education. 

It is renowned to this very day as the cradle of western civilization, and it gave rise to wise men  like Sophocles, Pericles and most importantly, for our purposes here, Socrates. 

So perhaps we should consider 300 in terms of the Socratic method: a deliberate form of instruction (also known as pedagogy) that asks questions not so as to draw specific answers or parallels, but simply to encourage insights about a number of fundamental issues.
I believe that this is precisely what 300 accomplishes. There is much talk of duty in 300, and so we, as viewers, are implicitly asked to weigh our duty -- as American citizens -- in a time of war. 

What is the duty of a priest? A politician? A free man? A soldier? A King? 

In the same situation, would we act as Leonidas or Theron? Of course, we each arrive with our own personal answers to those particular questions, but 300 provides examples both positive and negative. We see loyalty, sacrifice, avarice, grief, stubbornness and other characteristics dramatized in the crucible of Sparta. The full-breadth of the human experience is delineated, with various characters symbolizing various paths.

As the film ends, the film's final statement is that the Greeks - Spartans and Athenians together - set out to save a world from the oppression of "mysticism and tyranny." What's at stake here is a "new age of freedom." 

That's precisely the historic promise of Athens. And the historic promise, not coincidentally, of the United States. Sometimes, we simply carry freedom on our tongues and forget what it actually means. What it means, simply, is that Spartans can be different than Athenians...and still fight side-by-side, as brothers. Lest we forget, freedom to choose is the freedom for everybody to choose their own destiny and beliefs. Whether Spartan, Athenian, Persian, American or Iraqi. You can defend freedom, if it exists. But you can't impose freedom, at the end of a gun barrel or the edge of a blade. Control, yes. Freedom, no.

Perhaps that is the ultimate and most valuable lesson of 300.

We Are All Formalists

We would not be discussing any interpretation of 300 at all, had the film not been created in such powerful, artistic fashion.

Perhaps folks differ on whether "the new age of freedom is here," but in 300, the New Age of the Computer in Film has certainly arrived. This is a film that creates and sustains an entire world from the ground up. Everything is artificial and highly-stylized (from the land, to the sky, to the beasts set loose by Xerxes.)

The film isn't "real" so much as it is "super real," and since the 300 is a legend of sorts, that approach is entirely appropriate. Remember, this film isn't merely the story of Xerxes, it is the story of Xerxes as told by the verbose and charismatic storyteller, Dilios (David Wenham).

Because we are "hearing" and "seeing" the story as told by orator Dilios, everything we see and hear must be interpreted through that very lens, the lens of Dilios hoping to rally the troops (Athenians and Spartans) on the eve of the final battle against the Persians. 

His words must prove timeless, brilliant, inspiring and ...glorious. Therefore, the heroes of his tale must not be merely men...but paragons. The villains must be not mere men, either but...monsters. 

That's why a rhino or an elephant appears in his story as giant and terrifying creatures. 

That's why Xerxes isn't just tall...he's a colossus. 

That's why the Earth shakes when an army walks. 

And that may be why critical discussions of xenophobia may be somewhat misplaced. This movie is how Dilios re-casts reality, not reality itself.

The entire film seems rendered on a single leitmotif: a "heightened sense of the moment." 

That's the exact place where Dilios dwells, incidentally, as he recounts the tale of Leonidas: his adrenalin pumping, as battle nears. And that is exactly what our protagonist, Leonidas feels again and again, at crucial points during his life. When he battles a wolf in winter (as a young man), he recalls feeling a "heightened sense of things."

At the moment before his death, facing a different wolf -- Xerxes -- Leonidas makes the same mental notation (in voice over) In this instance, the film cuts to a brief montage so the audience feels what he describes. We see birds flying overhead. Wind blows at his feet. He experiences a brief vision of his beloved wife. Gorgo. Leonidas is aware of little but important things like heat, weight, breeze....the impulses and feelings of the moment.

A "heightened sense of the moment" is also a perfect way to describe the stirring battle sequences in 300. 

Snyder constructs his shots (action and otherwise) from specific frames of Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's comic, but importantly, he has added dynamic motion. Snyder does so by mixing slow-motion, fast motion, and focal zoom and retraction into an orgy of sustained but beautiful violence. 

Leonidas's first, spirited advance is captured in an amazing combination of these techniques. He leads the charge - and we zoom in. He swings his sword - and we zoom out. He hacks down an opponent, and we go into slow motion as blood spurts and the limbs of the enemy are severed.

We see muscles flexing, tensing; so much so that we can almost feel the athleticism of this battle. We experience it as "heightened," right alongside Leonidas. I know some people complain about this kind of effect and think of it as Matrix-inspired silliness. Perhaps The Matrix is where some of the effects techniques originated, but Snyder has utilized them here for a method all his own, and one in which the form of the action explicitly supports the film's content and narrative.

300's color palette also qualifies as "heightened." Skies aren't merely gray...they're steely. Skin isn't merely flesh-tone...it's golden. A mysterious oracle doesn't merely dance in smoke...she swims in it. 

Again, the movie is a real historic event (the battle of Thermopylae) recounted through the super-real, heroic lens of our excitable narrator, Dilios.  We can choose to interpret it as we wish -- as pro-American, anti-American, or simply as meditation on man and war.  But ultimately, this movie is one thing at a concrete level:  one man's attempt to inspire others to fight, by heightening every moment of drama.

And director Zack Snyder's dazzling form here -- just like Leonidas's fighting form - is "perfect."