Review of 300

      The movie 300 was released in 2006 starring actor Gerald Butler who played the main character Leonidas. It was directed by Zack Snyder. 300 is a historical war movie set in ancient Greek times focusing on the story about the 300 Spartans who fought against thousands of Persian armies. The Persians at that time controlled majority of the surrounding land.
They wanted Sparta next so Leonidas with 299 other soldiers by his side went on a adventure in order to protect their land and maintain their freedom. The movie is well known for its bloody deaths, slow motion fighting scenes, and rather very attractive Spartan soldiers. Who can forget that phrase was repeated multiple times throughout that year? "THIS IS SPARTA!"

      According to Tony Macklin the movie is everything less than what a real heroic movie should be. Macklin pointed out positive qualities about the movie such as its "vivid, imaginative, and monumental battles" and Gerald Butler's breathtaking performance as the great King Leonidas. Even with the good qualities, in his opinion, the bad qualities outweigh the good. Macklin believes the visual effects were too repetitive, and that the script was not written in a manner that matched the imagery. Zach Gordon who contributed to the script used a specific language that matched the setting. Having the actors and actresses speak in that particular manner and say those particular things added to the idea of a Greek time period.
     Another supposed flaw Macklin points out is the movie's horrid choice of casting Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo the wife of King Leonidas. He views her performance in the movie as "headless and wretched." Her acting matched the type of character she was supposed to be. Headey's character was supposed to be a headstrong and subtle yet smart mouthed queen. She accomplished just that. Her acting was not wretched but instead a mere image of the type of woman Queen Gorgo was portrayed as.
     Macklin, overall, viewed the movie as "another canard that turns "freedom" into all-purpose cliche." The term freedom was not turned into a cliche but was portrayed in a different perspective. Besides 300 is not the first movie to use the obvious freedom and war-like theme. Instead of using a typical American, patriotic war movie, Snyder decided to use a historic Greek theme to advertise the concepts of freedom and justice. With the help of Zach Gordon and Frank Miller, Zack Snyder was able to create a realistic and very powerful movie using a bloody adventure to represent the themes of freedom, justice, and brotherhood