nuts4chic - film review
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by Vera Brozzoni Not really CHIC but worth a see! Once upon a time in the 90's, while all the normal girls experimented their first tampax tampons and made their way to the local discos, this writer used to spend her days and nights translating obscure texts from ancient Greek.
In the early Noughties, the writer has become a very chic film journalist and decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the less romantic film on screen: 300 The chronicle of the famous Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) in which a handful of Spartan soldiers, under the command of Leonidas, stood against the flood of the immense Persian army under the tyranny of Xerxes. The film is not actually based on history and the events were filtered by the graphic novel by Frank Miller that inspired director Zack Snyder (Dawn Of The Dead); historians can sleep in peace. So here are the famous quotes again! But nowadays they sound much better, especially if compared with the long-liners Zack Snyder fills his characters’ mouths with. Still 300 is overall an inspiring and entertaining work, these guys talk way too much; both the characters and the voice over keep blabbing about how hard and heroic it is to be a Spartan, yet the real Spartan spirit only comes out of the real, laconic (tellingly, this word comes from Laconia, the region of Sparta) quotes by Leonidas and his fellows, made famous by ancient historians. Whenever Snyder splashes some modern dialogue here and there, especially during the public speech-turned-fight between queen Gorgo and treacherous Theron, that’s when dialectic (hey, Spartans weren’t refined intellectuals, but they knew how to speak. They had – style) gives way to bad rhetoric, and loud heroism becomes annoying and cliched. The stress on warfare skills as an absolute value in life comes paradoxical in what is first of all a graphic art film: the extraordinary work on photography involves a big deal of digital effects and soaks the whole action in a truly legendary atmosphere of dark colours and metallic skins. The editing and the construction of the images perfectly recreate the flow of a graphic novel, whereas the most dynamic battle sequences are led with a powerful hand: the first clash of shields between the two armies at the Thermopylae sends shivers down the spine, not to mention how delicious it is to watch a bunch of hunks with statuesque six-packs throwing themselves into blood-thirsty rampage. Oh, and Gerard Butler (the Phantom of the Opera in Joel Schumacher’s homonym film) is a very good actor. The artists who contributed to the film unleashed their fantasy to create a whole panoply of monsters - both human and animal, armours, costumes and settings: the ninja-looking army of the Immortals, hunchback freak Ephialtes and Xerxes’ flamboyant god-like array are the best treats for the eye in search of amazement. Well, is there anything left for the soul? Or maybe, for the heart? No girls, no time for romance in Sparta. Nevertheless, this story teaches a valuable lesson: idealism, courage, passion come at a high price, or as Gorgo puts it, “freedom is not free at all”. And even if they might seem senseless, on the long run these values are going to bring a higher victory. |
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That’s how this writer, a total nerd back then, first came across the famous exchange between Hydarnes and Leonidas “Our arrows will blot out the sun!” “Good! Then we’ll fight in the shade!” and immediately dismissed as one of those fake-heroism pills teenagers apparently need to be force-fed at school. 
