Movie Natters: March 13, 2007 Archive

At the risk of starting another fight....

Posted at 3:35 PM on March 13, 2007 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)

The mixed reviews of "300" and the raging debate as to whether the movie is a demand for an invasion of Iran, a movie enslaved in a recreation of a comic book, a stylish re-telling of a classic story, or as one critic put it making "homoeroticism safe for homophobes," make me wonder if we are missing something about Zack Snyder's movie.

Could it be it is a mirror?

Not a physical mirror, but a device for reflecting how an individual movie-goer sees the world just at that moment in time?

It's true to a certain extent of all films, but the tale of Leonidas and the Spartans just seems to be striking a chord, or a hideous clanger, with
a lot of people.

Last weekend we took Malcolm the 16 year old and three of his friends up north. The others came in from around the US to see the northland in the snow. It was a great time, except we spent a obnoxious amount of time discussing with them why we weren't going to re-organize a large part of the trip so they could see "300."

Whatever it's merits as cinema, "300" wins awards for its marketing to the demographic which inspires Hollywood bloodlust: the teenage male.

The news that the movie made more at the box office last weekend than the next nine films combined came as no surprise.

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