6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.9 |
Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of them his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army now thought to have numbered 250,000. The actual heroism of those who stood (and ultimately died) with Leonidas helped shape the course of Western Civilization, allowing the Greek city states time to organize an army which repelled the Persians. Set in 480 BC.
Starring: Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson (I), Diane Baker, David Farrar, Donald HoustonWar | 100% |
History | 99% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
German: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English SDH, French, German, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
300 was one of those films that seemed to push a certain class of fan to extremes of hyperventilation. Ostensibly based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, Zack Snyder’s 2007 film reinvented the historical epic via greenscreen technology, giving birth to a highly stylized approach that seemed to some to overshadow actual character and plot. With the imminent release of 300’s sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, 20th Century Fox returns us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear—in more ways than one—by bringing out a previous generation’s iteration of the tale of 300 Spartan soldiers attempting to hold off an incursion by a huge Persian army. The 300 Spartans was a 1962 historical epic that may have a somewhat more prosaic approach toward its subject, but which nonetheless was seen by a young Miller and planted a seed which ultimately blossomed into the iconic graphic novel decades later. Seen now from the vantage point of glossier and more dramatic fare, The 300 Spartans often seems almost laughably stiff and pedestrian, and it lacks the kind of sheer star power that typically tended to fuel films of this ilk. But there’s still a decent sweep and, ultimately, some emotional heft to its story of a brave lot of soldiers who sacrificed themselves in the name of freedom. In fact, the film has a certain early sixties subtext of valiant warriors preserving truth, justice and the American—er, the Greek—Way, something that tends to relegate the film to its production era perhaps more resolutely than other historical epics.
The 300 Spartans is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Unfortunately time has not been very kind to the elements used for this transfer, to the point that at times anyway I actually wondered if the typical interpositive had actually been used. While damage is actually negligible, colors have faded in expected ways, with flesh tones looking rather brown, blues and (especially) purples decidedly anemic and reds tipping toward the orange side of things. The film also is almost shockingly soft and gritty looking at times, especially in wide shots, where people often become little more than blobs of (faded) color. This is especially ironic in that the film appears to have been digitally sharpened, resulting in minor but still noticeable ringing. Still, things are certainly watchable here, and Geoffrey Unsworth's cinematography is one of the film's chief assets.
The 300 Spartans' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track sounds fine as far as it goes, though many will probably be wishing a more forceful track had been repurposed for Blu-ray. Dialogue is very cleanly presented (though there is a huge variety of accents running rampant throughout the film). Manos Hadjidakis, who had just won an Oscar for Never on Sunday, contributes an occasionally colorful but often anachronistic score that sounds too weirdly contemporary, almost like a modern day bouzouki band at times, to really totally mesh with the film's setting.
The 300 Spartans' quite simply hasn't aged all that well. This is a film with a lot of dialogue—some of it quite risible—with an accompanying dearth of action. That means that by the time the film does finally deliver some nicely staged battle sequences, many will have already been wishing that the Persians would just hurry up and put everyone out of their misery already. Fans of Miller's work and the now burgeoning 300 franchise may well want to go back and see what sparked it all all those decades ago, but this is probably a case where memory may be rosier than actuality.
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