Tuesday, March 13, 2007

300 – Ultra Violence?

People say that 300 is very violent, full of gore, the fighting is the best part, etc… but I didn’t think of it like that. I’d classify Kill Bill as ultra violent, because people are dying left and right, getting stabbed, impaled, de-limbed or beheaded, and there’s all this semi-realistic blood on the floor, and ultra-unrealistic blood squirting out of the body.

But 300… not so. At least, not in my opinion. Sure, there was blood, blood splatter, limbs flying… but…

The movie is very digital, had a lot of slow motion, had good choreography, and is so good because of its special effects. So whenever a sword goes through a Persian in slow motion, and there’s digitized blood spatter… it just feels like a special effect to me.

Take for example, the part near the beginning of the fight, when Leonidas charges away from the narrow passageway, and just encounters a line of Persians, one after another. This is where they first show the digital effects in choreographed fight scenes, so they wanted to show off some nice moves and effects.

So one guy approaches, Leonidas stabs him. Another guy comes, Leonidas ducks and throws the guy over his shoulder with his shield. Another guy comes, Leonidas barrel rolls his attack and then backhands him. It’s all done in a pretty, slow motion sequence. So basically, each of these guys serves a purpose to a digital effect and piece of choreography.

So sometimes it depends on what you think of the Persians in the movie. For example, in say, The Departed, each character is a person with a life, and when such a person dies, it’s pretty significant. In James Bond, when Bond shoots some guard, it… doesn’t feel like a real death, but instead just an obstacle that James Bond had to deal with. The guard had no name, no history… he just appeared out of the blue and disappeared into the blue a few seconds later.

If you are able to think in this way, then the Persians are even less significant than the James Bond bad guys. They appear in the hundreds of thousands, they each have no name, they all look the same, and also, most of them have no face. They’re wearing enough clothing around their face so it’s hard to say they’re even people. So in this case, most Persians are also just obstacles, cannon fodder if you will. And when you get rid of cannon fodder in a stylish fashion, it doesn’t seem so violent.

Okay sure, there were some parts that were more violent than others. I guess the part when that Spartan and the other Spartan’s son were fighting… maybe it was violent, I don’t remember, but it was nicely choreographed too.

But anyway, thanks for reading my ramble. Overall, I didn’t think the movie was very violent, or, I don’t think it should be one of its selling points.

2 Comments:

Blogger transcendent said...

It's true we're not talking about violence in the vein of A Clockwork Orange here, where it actually makes you sick to the stomach to watch. Does it make 300 any less violent from an objective point of view? No! Violence is violence. The fact that the violence in 300 is so enjoyable is actually kind of frightening.

You're correct that gratuitous violence shouldn't be the selling point. It shouldn't be the selling point of anything. But I'd think you have a really hard time selling this movie to someone who hates film violence.

6:30 PM  
Blogger Silph said...

Actually, Wen, I wonder if Bao's observation might make the movie stomachable for me?

I actually had huge trouble watching James Bond, until I realized that I had to "shift" my mode of viewing a movie away from my usual mode that I watch (say) dramas with, and closer to the mode in which I can K.O. a character of a fighting game and not flinch. That is, if I see the bad guys in James Bond as strictly elements of fiction to which I relate absolutely nothing towards (vs characters in dramas which -- although they strictly speaking are fictitious --, they /feel/ real to me, and their lives *do* matter) ... once I saw the bad guys James Bond in this altered view, then I actually started to (marginally) enjoy the movie. Before I came to this understanding, I totally was unable to feel comfortable watching JB... .

Hm.
I think I should watch this movie when it comes out on DVD, eh?
heh, or spend one of the four free adult passes I got from cereal boxes, but I'm not sure if I really want to do that, just in case I can't take the first 10 minutes :-)


"You're correct that gratuitous violence shouldn't be the selling point."

Wasn't that *a* selling point of Kill Bill -- gratuitous STYLIZED violence (for those who could appreciated it)... along with a brazen "I'll make whatever hell kind of movie I'll want to; damn anyone who disagrees with me!" attitude? [For the record, I totally respect Terrantino's [sp?] brazen move and intentions with his vision for Kill Bill... it's just that obviously I, myself, as an individual, *SO* am not the type of person who could appreciate the actual manifestation of his vision :-) ]

11:45 AM  

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