To Be Announced...

I took in a movie this weekend. The critics have all pretty much blasted "300" so I figured I better see what all the fuss was about. Considering it took in $70-million dollars in its first weekend, I wasn't alone.

I think I know why. It was awesome.

I'm a Frank Miller fan to begin with. Ever since I purchased his Batman: The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, I was hooked. It was stunning to look at and a great read for anyone interested in the true psychosis of Batman. I was a young reader of Batman and somewhat angry at the the movies until the Batman Begins movie came out. Although it wasn't directly a Frank Miller movie, it contained some nods to his take on Batman.

I saw Sin City when it came out on DVD and loved the look of it. I never read any of the comics, but vowed to pay attention to the next movie featuring Frank Miller's influence.

That's still not a good enough reason why I liked "300."

I think after seeing it, I know why the reviews haven't been all that great. It's my view that its because the movie is almost has a direct correlation to the war in Iraq...and it's an inspiring one. It's a movie that motivates people to want to stand and fight for something...freedom, primarily.

Here's the simple background on the movie: Leonidis is the King of Sparta and he is faced with an advancing horde of Persians (Iranian Muslims?) and a political body that doesn't want to send an army to fend them off. So he decides to "go it alone" with 299 other Spartan warriors to the battle of Thermopylae. They fight to the death facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite.

After seeing it, I couldn't get the methaphor of Iraq out of my head. It was instantly on my mind the whole time I was watching it and I raced home to tell my wife how direct the comparison was. You'll see it too.

Just like The Passion of the Christ, critics are panning it...and people are seeing it in droves.

Today in Variety for instance,

Film reviewers, moviegoers disagree

In reviewing "300" last week, for example, A.O. (Tony) Scott of the New York Times, said the movie was "as violent as 'Apocalypto' and twice as stupid."

The reviews of "300" remind us that the literature of disdain is much more fun to turn out. Scott, the Times critic, for example, predicted that the movie would become "an object of camp derision," and would appeal mainly to "devotees of the pectoral, deltoid and other fine muscle groups."

Kenneth Turan"s review in the Los Angeles Times, basically a prolonged wince, also noted that "300" was "Apocalypto" violent," adding, "There is a limit to how often you can see soldiers speared and hacked to death and still stay involved."

How can the critics be so far off from the views of actual moviegoers? Maybe because they're editorial stances on the war in Iraq are just as far off.

Salon.com even posed this question directly...

The world may wonder which character in this computer-generated extravaganza is President Bush's stand-in -- but that's the wrong question to ask.

A recent, characteristically beard-stroking New York Times article pondered the way reporters at an international press junket for the computer-generated extravaganza "300" -- an adaptation of comics guru Frank Miller's 1998 graphic novel about the 480 B.C. battle of Thermopylae -- zealously attempted to read the movie as a metaphor for George W. Bush's war on Iraq. Is the movie's Persian potentate Xerxes, a megalomaniac who considers himself both a god and a king, supposed to embody W.'s hubris? Or is Leonidas, the Spartan ruler who led 300 valiant Greek soldiers against a zillion-man Persian army, the real presidential stand-in?

Maybe people have figured it out...and the critics don't like the answer.

I urge you to see "300" and let me know what you think. It's not nearly as violent as they try and scare you - most of the "blood" is in photographic sepia tones and totally necessary for the historical connection to be accurate. People faught with spears in close hand-to-hand combat in those days...not from planes at 30-thousand feet and pushing buttons.

Maybe they're afraid that an inspiring tale of pre-emptive attack on an advancing horde of muslim extremists by an army not supported by politicians and dedicated to preserving freedom will be too good for people to see...

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