2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
This is Sparta
Tim Rogers
Issue date: 3/23/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Dear Editor,
I just read through the article about the movie 300 that is a debate between two A&E editors. I believe that Kevin has a flawed view of what this movie should be like. It is based on a adult's comic book or "graphic novel." This means that the whole story is more on the art side of things then the historically accurate. And I don't see how Kevin can therefore complain about the artistic rendering of the story as well as the small historically accurate things it does have.
Dealing with his first negative for the movie of it being stupidly vulgar and embracing that, these were Spartan warriors raised since they were children to be fighters. They are savage in combat, so they are going to be cutting things off like arms and legs and heads. And this isn't just a movie to make it seem like Spartans are killers that love seeing blood. Sparta's warriors are fierce and the Battle of Thermopylae as recorded in history has 300 spartans going against waves and waves of Persians and surviving. Killing all 10,000 members of a Persian wave and losing only 2 or 3 Spartans. This movie is not like watching a little brother play nintendo, but more like watching a glorious stand for freedom. How great these warriors are at fighting for it.
As for the movie degrading women, I'm sorry but I don't recall any women getting punched or any men taking steroids but yes I would have to agree that the men probably ate lots and lots of meat, but I can be pretty confident in saying that fact is historically accurate.
I myself saw this movie with a female friend of mine and she loved the Spartan Queen probably most of all the characters. She was a very strong person in this movie and although making her own mistakes, she fully redeemed herself.
As to the Spartan men being "balls-to-the-wall" masculine, what he has to remember is that we were seeing their warriors, raised from birth to fight. I would expect them to be jacked especially if our own Marines can do it in like a few years.
And for the yelling, there weren't really any walkie-talkies or anything to communicate. So I'm sure there was actually a fair amount of yelling during that time.
So overall I think Kevin is a little off to be saying that the history is off and it just isn't real. Because it is supposed to be an artistic rendering of a historic battle. And I think 300 has the perfect balance of both.
Sincerely,
Tim Rogers
I just read through the article about the movie 300 that is a debate between two A&E editors. I believe that Kevin has a flawed view of what this movie should be like. It is based on a adult's comic book or "graphic novel." This means that the whole story is more on the art side of things then the historically accurate. And I don't see how Kevin can therefore complain about the artistic rendering of the story as well as the small historically accurate things it does have.
Dealing with his first negative for the movie of it being stupidly vulgar and embracing that, these were Spartan warriors raised since they were children to be fighters. They are savage in combat, so they are going to be cutting things off like arms and legs and heads. And this isn't just a movie to make it seem like Spartans are killers that love seeing blood. Sparta's warriors are fierce and the Battle of Thermopylae as recorded in history has 300 spartans going against waves and waves of Persians and surviving. Killing all 10,000 members of a Persian wave and losing only 2 or 3 Spartans. This movie is not like watching a little brother play nintendo, but more like watching a glorious stand for freedom. How great these warriors are at fighting for it.
As for the movie degrading women, I'm sorry but I don't recall any women getting punched or any men taking steroids but yes I would have to agree that the men probably ate lots and lots of meat, but I can be pretty confident in saying that fact is historically accurate.
I myself saw this movie with a female friend of mine and she loved the Spartan Queen probably most of all the characters. She was a very strong person in this movie and although making her own mistakes, she fully redeemed herself.
As to the Spartan men being "balls-to-the-wall" masculine, what he has to remember is that we were seeing their warriors, raised from birth to fight. I would expect them to be jacked especially if our own Marines can do it in like a few years.
And for the yelling, there weren't really any walkie-talkies or anything to communicate. So I'm sure there was actually a fair amount of yelling during that time.
So overall I think Kevin is a little off to be saying that the history is off and it just isn't real. Because it is supposed to be an artistic rendering of a historic battle. And I think 300 has the perfect balance of both.
Sincerely,
Tim Rogers
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