Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Mugged by reality

Via the Libertas site, I bring you this review of the movie 300:

Help me out here, because I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around a few things: When, early in the film, a sneering Persian emissary insults King Leonidas’s hot wife, threatens the kingdom, and rages about “blasphemy,” the king kicks him down a bottomless well. And yet nobody in Sparta asks, “Why do they hate us?” and seeks to find common ground with the Persians on their doorstep. Why not?

The Spartans mock the god-king Xerxes (whose traveling throne resembles a particularly louche Brazilian gay-pride carnival float), mow down his armored “immortal” holy warriors clad is nothing but red cloaks, loincloths, and sandals, and generally give their last full measure to defend Greek civilization against superstition and tyranny. Where are the liberal Spartan voices raised in protest against this blatant homophobia, xenophobia, and racism?

The only way this bunch of refugees from a Village People show can whup our heroes is by dangling some dubious hookers in front of a horny hunchback who makes Quasimodo look like Tom Cruise, and by bribing a corrupt legislator to tie up reinforcements with various legalistic maneuvers. When the queen finally kills the councilor, the others call him a “traitor.” Isn’t that both blaming the victim and questioning his patriotism?

You’d think 300 was a metaphor for something…
I'm just looking forward to the next blockbusting British movie - I hear it's going to be about a floppy-haired toff who discovers that his long-lost twin is a gay ex-coalminer, unemployed since Thatchitler closed the mines, shot in black and white with flashbacks to the tribulations of their backstreet abortionist mother who was being hunted down by a sadistic policeman whose father was a Black and Tan.

1 comment:

CarnackiUK said...

I read about this British film - not movie! - in Sight and Sound. It's directed by the man the Guardian called "Britain's greatest living film director", Ken Slouch, who single-handedly developed the uniquely British concept of 'Big Screen Radio'. Sadly audiences outside France are no longer as appreciative of his films as they once were and he's recently been trying to rekindle interest by giving anti-war, anti-British speeches around the country on behalf of the Respect Party. A sad end for a once great no-talent!