Comments on: “This is Sparta — we’ll just set aboot ye.”

By: dcairns

dcairns — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:16:25 +0000

I don’t think you can take 300 seriously no matter what, but it doesn’t require you to. That’s one of its redeeming features — a shrug of the shoulders at its own absurdity. Not that it has much sense of humour, just that it recognises that it’s all pretty silly if you think about it.

By: rjr

rjr — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:13:23 +0000

I’d avoided 300. Not deliberately mind you, just never got around to watching it and unfortunately I watched Meet The Spartans first. W
After 10 minutes 300 I gave up because I just could not take it seriously. It is impossible to watch 300 after MTS. For all of MTS stupidity, it’s spot on in its send up, absolutely spot on.

By: dcairns

dcairns — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:44:32 +0000

Those fights are even more distressing when you think of the highly-skilled fight arrangers no doubt employed, and the stuntmen risking their necks — all so we can squint at a lot of motion blur. It’s a big bugbear of mine.

Although I wouldn’t mind too much if Mike Leigh started shooting all his movies that way, it would save me shuddering at the actors.

By: David K

David K — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 16:24:13 +0000

I love the title of this post. I know it’s a mere passing mention, but I’m delighted you mentioned the fight scenes in Gladiator and Batman Begins. Incomprehensible. The finale on the out of control monorail thing in Batman Begins looks like it was cut by Paul Gascoigne.
And finally, I think I’ve sorted any gift problems you might have in the near future..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mike-Leigh-Film-Collection-Meantime/dp/B0013U4RQ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1207498972&sr=1-1
Tasty..

By: » Cybersurfing 04/05/08

» Cybersurfing 04/05/08 — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:14:51 +0000

[...] THIS IS SPARTA: Shadowplay, David Cairn’s film blog, gives cogent reading of 300 that examines the film’s conservative politics and (perhaps inadvertent) homo-eroticism. [...]

By: dcairns

dcairns — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:17:22 +0000

Elver –
Well, I think I said the movie has quite a lot going for it, as a movie. So while I don’t have a Best Films List for 2006, I don’t mind the idea of it having a place on anybody else’s. It’s visually incredibly creative and uses the simplicity of its narrative to allow each moment to be played for all it’s worth.

But while I acknowledge your arguments for Persia equalling the US in this story, that doesn’t seem to me an easier fit than my version. Snyder casts Anglo-Saxons (Brits) as the Greeks, while the Persian hordes are always ethnic, when they’re not actually subhuman monsters. The VO constantly emphasises their “darkness” — I mean CONSTANTLY.

As I said, the situation of ancient Sparta isn’t a neat match for the situation of modern America, but that allows for a more heroic take on international politics. The movie mixes things up alright, but any film where all the deformed or physically imperfect characters are evil traitors is by definition xenophobic and rightwing. And all the black people are bad and all the sexually unusual people are bad and all the women get naked.

For me, the subversive reading doesn’t work because it isn’t going to subvert anybody — knuckleheads will side with the hawkish Spartans and regard the alien hordes the same way they do the Iraqis. Your reading certainly makes an interesting film of it, but I can’t sustain belief in such a reading.

By: dcairns

dcairns — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:57:11 +0000

I don’t think Knocked Up qualifies as pro-life, although it has its conservative side.

Hawks says he looked at John Ford to see what to do, and at DeMille to see what NOT to do. I only really like Sign of the Cross when it’s flirting with sleaze. The hypocrisy is amusing. And Leisen’s designs are great.
I saw The Godless Girl recently, and that seemed pretty sophisticated. Christian propoganda again, but shrewdly done and rather moving, even though I dismiss the arguments out of hand. There’s a school of thought that says only the silent DeMille is really good.

By: Elver

Elver — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:25:39 +0000

Um. I thought 300 was one of the top movies of 2006.

How can you even begin to make it out be pro-Bush? If anything, it’s easier and less contrived to interpret this as anti-Bush and pro-Iraq. After all, it’s the tiny city-state of Sparta going up against the largest army ever assembled. Persians with slaves from every part of the world (multiculturalism) and various hideous beasts (machines of war) against a tiny nation of mere men, making its last stand.

Even the perception of Xerxes as God by the Persians plays on this if you consider Bush’s claims that he speaks to Jesus and the similar claims of his generals and staff.

By: David Ehrenstein

David Ehrenstein — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:22:29 +0000

I’d say there are films where you are asked to think less so the film can do all the thinking for you. This is the primary condition of propaganda.

By: Chris B

Chris B — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:27:27 +0000

>The problem with people consciously trying to make dumb entertainments is their politics creeps in anyway

Absolutely, as I once said, there’s no such thing as “a film where I don’t have to think”, rather, there are films where you think *less* whilst on cruise control… and it’s when you’re in this state that intrusive morals seep their way into the sub-conscious… even that Apatow fella, with his “no sex before marriage” Catholic nonsense concluding THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and “pro life” stance in KNOCKED UP, is a guilty party.

Just watched SIGN OF THE CROSS. Truly awful, were it not for the Christian slaughter sequences in part 2 (De Mille seems more comfortable with spectacle), I don’t think I would’ve made it through the entire film. With regards to performance, character and overall content, he could be compared to Ed Wood Jr. although I quite enjoyed GLEN OR GLENDA.