..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

..MCN DVD Wrap ..The DVD Page

300

A symphony of masculine expression, 300, released by Warner Home Video as a Widescreen title, is the kind of muscular home theater program that demonstrates how large and enticing your video screen is and how potent and perdurable your sound system can be. A fantasized depiction of the way, some two-dozen centuries ago, a handful of Spartan warriors apparently held off the onslaught of an enormous Persian invasion at a strategic choke point, the 116-minute production is a satisfying mix of succinct drama and glorious action. It is the action that justifies the film, but it is the drama that justifies the action, building a compelling romantic bond between the Spartan leader, played by Gerard Butler, and his wife, played by Lena Headley, and spinning from that his proficiency of leadership, her compromised intrigues to support his cause, and the emotional loyalties of the men surrounding them. Based upon Frank Miller and Lynn Varley’s graphic novel, the 2007 feature, directed by Zach Snyder, keeps its live actors in the foreground and uses animation to surround them, creating a deliberate half-real and half-unreal world. The foes the heroes face, which come down upon them in waves during the film’s climactic battles, are exaggerated in size and form, and often seem to be human only in part. The cyclone of special effects and violence that the filmmakers achieve at the height of each confrontation is an enthralling celebration of human glory, using killer toys.

The film is partially animated, but it is also stylized, with accentuated monochromatic color schemes, which is why the viewer is never aware of where the boundary between the real and the unreal lies. The replication of the images on DVD is executed with precision. The letterboxing has an aspect ratio of about 2.35:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback—the format and image compositions convey the restrictions of the claustrophobic battleground on a subliminal level. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound thrusts forward from each side, with fully developed separation effects, an eager subwoofer, and crisp definitions at every level. There are alternate French and Spanish audio tracks in 5.1 Dolby and optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.

When you see 300, you envision the film’s director as a cigar-chomping ex-Marine who runs his set like a boot camp, the bastard child of Robert Aldrich and Samuel Fuller. Instead, Snyder looks and sounds like the kid who fixes your computer. He seems more like somebody Sam Peckinpah and cronies would set against a wall with empty bottles or rotten fruit on his head and use for target practice with live ammunition, rather than being one of Peckinpah’s peers, although the film places him unequivocally in that latter group. He supplies a commentary with screenwriter Kurt Johnstad and cinematographer Larry Fong, but it is disconcerting to hear him speak with what, at best, is a featherweight gravitas, like seeing a young version of Professor Marvel step out from the pulled-back curtain. Nevertheless, the commentary is fully informative and satisfying. Almost every shot is delineated and other tricks are also explained (three cameras simultaneously shooting the action from the same angle, but at different speeds, were used to create the mesmerizing speed-up-and-slow-down battle sequence). A few anecdotes about the crew are shared, as are insights on the design decisions, inside references, and other odds and ends, but for a movie that is so visually overpowering, and yields enough thematic power to be read as an allegory about human emotion and self-identity, Snyder’s real world presence is incongruous to his artistic virtuosity.

Warner has also released a Two-Disc Special Edition, with the first platter being identical to the Widescreen release. The second platter begins with an excellent 29 minutes of featurettes that expertly places the film in its correct context, pointing out that not only is the story within the film being embellished as it is being told, so that it already represents the salesmanship of a soldier calling his brethren to arms, but that all we know of the historical battle’s realties have come from stories barely more reliable than the tale being spun. There is also a very good 15-minute piece about Miller and the fortuitous way that his art has not only advanced his own medium, but has inspired advancements in cinematic technology to serve his imagination. Included as well is a 6-minute promotional documentary, an extensive 4-minute montage of production photos, 3 minutes of deleted scenes that elaborate upon the fate of a secondary character, and 38 minutes of promotional production featurettes that originally appeared on the film’s website, filling in firsthand details of how various aspects of the production were realized. Attempting to sum up what the film is about, Snyder, in one of the featurettes, makes an interesting claim concerning the historical nature of the movie’s setting. “There was a time when, I think, sacrifice was a thing that people did for reasons greater than themselves, or that there was a thing worth dying for, or whatever you wanna say, and maybe it sounds romantic or stupid, but to a Spartan, that’s the best thing there is, you know? Getting the chance to die for what you believe, you know?” What Snyder doesn’t appear to realize is that it still is like that today, just not in the West.

 

August 2 , 2007

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- by Douglas Pratt

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