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The Main Characters
--King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) is the king of Sparta. He is confronted by an advancing Persian army led by Xerxes, who wishes to extend his slave empire into the Hellenic states.
The Setting
Ancient Sparta, more specifically the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.
The Film (1:56:24)
King Leonidas rules Sparta, a prominent city/state in Greece that breeds the finest warriors in the world. They are threatened by a Persian army, led by Xirxes, who have been conquering many nations with their massive slave armies and wild beasts. The Persians want Leonidas’ submission to the Persians and want Sparta under their control. The oracles and philosophers say Leonidas should not go to war but Leonidas goes anyway. He’s not going to fight; he’s just going for a walk with the 300, an elite Spartan army. The 300 know they must make a stand against these Persians and make a stand they do, as they fight valiantly against an army of thousands and a Persian ruler intent on conquering the world.
Movie Review
This is an odd movie for me. I watched it and could instantly see similarities between it and Sin City. The staging of some of the shots and scenes were pure Miller. I never read the graphic novel but could just tell what shots Snyder swiped from the book. Once I got past those homage’s to the book I was left with a pure testosterone-filled epic battle. There isn’t much set up here. After the brief first act which set everything up, you’re left with massive battles, bloodshed and pure brutality that will fill the needs of anyone in the mood for just some adrenaline driven carnage. It’s not a classic by any means but the film knows what it is and doesn’t stray from that vision. It’s a battle movie that delivers the action. It may not always be 100% historically correct it doesn’t matter. The acting was fine. I think the most notable person was Gerard Butler, who got in amazing shape for the film. He is convincing as king of Sparta and everyone else’s role was rather minor. It’s an adaptation of a comic book, a fine one at that, that will satisfy any person’s need for pure ass-kicking action.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Commentary
The only extra on disc one is a commentary featuring Zack Snyder, Writer Kurt Johnstad and Director of Photography Larry Fong. Zack says that his son appears as young Leonidas and says he taught him the Bruce Lee thing he did when fighting the old man. Zack said they wanted to choreograph the love scene like a wrestling match and says it was awkward to direct (could you move your stuff a little bit?) and would like to talk to other director’s to see how it is done. The commentary was mostly boring, as Zack and others go through long periods of silence and really only talk about framing of shots and not even about how the movie was made, or any interesting stories from any of the cast and crew. The thing I liked the best that he said was in school he always told his math teachers he wouldn’t need math since he was becoming a director, then found out he did need it and didn’t know it, so he had to ask others about it. I guess I liked that since I’m a high school Math teacher and hear questions like, why do I need this, all the time. Anyway, boring commentary.
---Disc Two---
1) The 300 – Fact or Fiction? (24:33)
This should be an interesting one. Historian Dr. Victor Davis Hanson says this film is in line with many other versions of 300. Zack mentions the story of the battle was written down many years after the war. Zack says this is history filtered through Frank. Frank talks about visiting the ancient battle sites in Greece. Historian Bettany Hughes chimes in along with Hanson on the history of Sparta, how they were raised, how they became warriors, and even about the battle. Zack Snyder and Frank Miller talk about the battle and historic Sparta from what they know as well. Frank says he made up the story of the wolf and it has no historical context at all, as well as pushing messengers into a well (which happened 10 years earlier). This did end up being an interesting one as Hanson and Hughes provide important historical context on the ancient Spartans, the Persians, the historic battle, and the elements of the film that, although aren’t historically correct, show a great evocation of the event. Hughes was awesome to listen to, and even talks about elements in Frank’s comic book and the movie, which shows she actually took the time to read and watch it. This could be something you see on the History Channel and was very easy to watch and stayed interesting the whole time.
2) Who were the Spartans?: The Warriors of 300 (4:25)
Zack says that he took a real event and made it mythical. Frank says it is a very simple look at a very complicated event. Gerard Butler talks about not many Spartans making it to adulthood (in his Scottish accent). A historian says that a Spartan’s profession is that of a warrior, and nothing else. Frank notes they were absolutely dedicated to war. Every Spartan had 15 slaves but among themselves they were all equal. The historian says its basically Communist, all living for themselves. This is a brief look at Spartan history but is very informative.
3) Frank Miller Tapes (14:33)
Neal Adams, Paul Levitz, Zack Snyder, Bob Schreck all have glowing things to say about Frank and his writing. Frank says that the story of 300 should be told to the generations. Frank talks about his career in comics, from the early days where he worked with Neal Adams. Neal provided him discipline and mentoring, and getting him his first job. Frank also says Will Eisner was a very important mentor as well. Frank talks about comics as its own medium, separate from reading books or watching movies. Frank was influenced by finding out about Leonidas and his heroic ventures. He says that this idea popped up in his versions of Marv and Batman, two characters mentioned by Zack as characters appearing similar to each other. Frank finally got his nerve up to do 300 as a comic book. Frank says he has taken heat for taking liberties in some areas but he says he hasn’t written a historical piece but an evocation. Frank mentions he has always wanted to do crime comics and noir’s influence on even 300. Everyone listed above list comics as a huge influence on media now. Zack talks about taking the images from the graphic novel and making it into film. The funny bit at the end is Frank Miller asking Zack how he’s gonna do Watchmen, to which Zack replies, “very carefully.” Really good featurette here.
4) Making of 300 (5:50)
Zack simply states this is a story of bravery in the face of almost impossible odds. They spend most of the making of showing scenes from the film, which detracts from the actual featurette. Frank says there is no way to show this battle without it being completely brutal and vicious. They clear up any historical mistakes and errors by saying Zack filmed Frank’s version of 300. They mention the actors went through 8 weeks of group training in preparation for the film. This making of doesn’t touch on too many other making of’s do, like the special effects used, the costumes, the make-up etcetera, it was just Zack, Frank, and a few others making general comments about the movie.
5) Making 300 in Images (3:39)
This seizure-inducing feature is a rapid motion series of shots showing various filming stages of the film and scenes being shot. It was sort of like the Sin City in green screen featurette that condensed 2 hours into 5 minutes. This was more distracting and I couldn’t keep my eyes on it for too long without getting a headache. This was a waste of DVD space.
6) Deleted Scenes with Introduction by Director Zack Snyder (3:22)
There are three scenes in total. The first is the hunchback trying to jump off the cliff to kill himself. They took it out since they couldn’t have him jump off the cliff then not show what happened to him. The second is right after battle two (defeating the Immortals) and more of the hunchback and falling off the cliff. Zack said it slowed things down too much. The hunchback is pissed he didn’t live and damns his parents, the Spartans and his god. The final deleted scene is of the Persian giants with midgets on their backs. Zack said it was cut because it was just too much and would push the movie into the stratosphere in terms of believability.
7) Webisodes (38:21)
I assume these were the web videos they had on the 300 website during the making of this film.
---A) Production Design (3:51)
This is really an intro to the 300 film, its design and so on.
---B) Wardrobe (3:39)
The costume designer says they wanted to keep this true to the comic book and he talks about making the costumes and how it appeared on film.
---C) Stunt Work (4:09)
The stunt coordinator talks about the martial arts they used for training and the blade training. They trained as a team to fight as a team.
---D) Lena Headey (1:45)
Lena talks about the story of 300 and her role in the film. She’s from the north of England according to Gerard. She liked the physical activity she had to do.
---E) Adapting the Graphic Novel (3:46)
Zack talks about the process of adapting the novel into the film. Frank talks about the comic book as well.
---F) Gerard Butler (4:06)
Gerard Butler talks about the story for a while and his role as the king. They show him working out and said he worked very hard to get in shape for the film and with the training. He notes that he though Leonidas was bit mad and put that in his performance.
---G) Rodrigo Santoro (2:28)
Rodrigo said he researched Persian history in preparation for the role. He enjoyed the role and commented that he never saw that much gold on a person in his life.
---H) Training the Actors (2:32)
Mark Twight talks about training with the actors and really pushing them very hard.
---I) Culture of The Sparta City/State (2:13)
The actors talk about the warrior culture of Sparta and how they were completely dedicated to warfare.
---J) A Glimpse from the Set: Making 300 The Movie (3:25)
This is a short making of for 300. We’ve seen a couple of these already and most of the stuff said there is repeated here.
---K) Scene Studies from 300 (3:16)
These are visual effects studies of the film 300, and the shot they talk about here is the first meeting of Xerxes and Leonidas. This was tough to film since Gerard Butler and Rodrigo Santoro are the exact same height. They also talk about the scene of the dead wall of bodies falling on the Immortals.
---L) Fantastic Characters of 300 (3:07)
They discuss some of the more unusual characters in the film, from the hunchback to other oddities seen in the film.
B) Audio/Video
The audio is presented in Dolby Surround 5.1 and the film is widescreen. Both serve their purpose well. The video is crisp, clear and was a beautiful transfer, and the audio is used perfectly and especially good during the numerous battle scenes.
C) Packaging / Liner Notes
The DVD comes with a slip-case, basically the cover but a bit nicer. No liner notes are included.
D) Easter Eggs
---Disc One---
1) Making Of (6:40)
To access it, go to Special Features, highlight “On” and click up to highlight some blood on Special Features. This is a short little segment featuring Frank Miller on how this film was made. Frank said his original reaction was no since he didn’t want his works adapted to movies. Zack talks about the movie getting made and remembers presenting it to the studio, first using Frank’s art, then maquettes and finally a short film. They actually show that footage here which was pretty cool. Zack seems really ramped about the movie, which didn’t come off in the commentary at all.
Overall Review
Disc One starts with an incredible 8 minutes and 26 seconds of previews (Trick R’ Treat, The Brave One, 300 the video game, the 300 Soundtrack, Superman: Doomsday, Gametap) while Disc Two starts with 4:14 of previews as well (for Hi-Def DVD’s, a Blade Runner special edition DVD, and surprisingly a hockey DVD commercial). Other than that 13 minute waste-o-time, the DVD was actually pretty good. I enjoyed the film itself, the historical look at 300, the Frank Miller tapes and most of the webisodes were pretty damn good. Other featurettes were hard to watch, or in the commentary’s case, to listen to. The good definitely outweighs the bad and this will earn a recommendation from me. The movie is the most important part of the DVD and this is just a visceral experience. The extras could’ve easily been put on one disc so the second disc (about 2 hours of extras) could’ve replaced the crappy commentary but I was happy overall with the product. The negatives knock it down a couple points, but this still gets a strong 8.
Overall Rating
8.0
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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