Comments on: 300

By: jürgen fauth’s muckworld » Cobra Verde

jürgen fauth’s muckworld » Cobra Verde — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:09:22 +0000

[...] It’s not difficult to argue that all Herzog/Kinski films are attempts at making and remaking the same movie — Aguirre, Fitzcarraldo, Nosferatu and Woyzek less so — but that’s the beginning of the discussion rather than its conclusion. After all, most romantic comedies are remakes of the same movie, too. This final collaboration is no less vital than the other films. Kinski plays a Brazilian bandit who comes to the African West Coast as slave trader. Again, here’s the white man in a dangerously alien environment, again, here are Kinski’s borderless mania and passion. We’ve been familiar with Herzog’s grand shots at least since the Machu Picchu opening of Aguirre, and if anything, the extended takes of hundreds of extras in tribal gear are even more breathtaking, as much ethnography as they are drama. It’s also the first time we’ve seen Kinski lead an army of black amazons into battle, a sight that’s not easily forgotten. Take that, 300. [...]

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:22:25 +0000

Yeah, I was into Dark Knight Returns when it came out, but stopped following Miller not long after that. I liked Hardboiled, although more for the art than the story. Sin City never did anything for me, and Batman vs. Al-Qaeda sounds dreadful.

By: Ruhayat

Ruhayat — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:18:43 +0000

When “Dark Knight Returns” first appeared, I became a hard-core Miller fan. But then I began detecting a disturbing thread in his works, culminating in what will surely be an epoch in bad-taste fiction-making: Batman versus Al-Qaeda. That said, I didn’t have a strong objection to “300″ when I read it as a comicbook years ago, but this movie… it’s just utterly repulsive.

And yes, Zack Snyder feigning surprise and claiming it’s all just entertainment and laughing at the people booing at the Berlin Film Festival, that’s just juvenile.

By: jürgen fauth’s muckworld » Midweek Roundup

jürgen fauth’s muckworld » Midweek Roundup — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 21:43:54 +0000

[...] 300 debate rages on: roundups at GreenCineDaily and IFC Blog. It’s all fine and dandy, but [...]

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:45:15 +0000

The ongoing story, and more at IFC Blog. I particularly like this quote, from Carina Chocano: Someday, maybe, the "entertainment defense" will no longer hold water. But for now, we're slogging through the era of the completely implausible denial. Like many films that seem to riff on everything without stooping to make a point (which would be just so hopelessly earnest and dorky), "300" proudly claims to be about nothing. Or rather, like another type of purchased pleasure, it claims to be about anything you want it to be. As long as a movie is dumb and violent enough, it can quote whatever cultural allusion is handy, then deny that it did with impunity.

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:31:19 +0000

This interview with Frank Miller is pretty interesting. [via]

By: Jürgen

Jürgen — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:54:39 +0000

Some discussion of the politics of 300:

"Is George Bush Leonidas or Xerxes?" isn't the right question to begin with. The question is, how come we're celebrating the values of an ancient warrior state as if they were our own? You'd think the 2,000 years that have passed since the Battle of Thermopylae (not to mention the Enlightenment) would have created some distance.

By: 300 Review « Entertainment

300 Review « Entertainment — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 20:53:21 +0000

[...] read more | digg story [...]