oh crikey...

[winterbadger]

I've been seeing trailers for 300 on TV for a while now, and I have to say it looks as if it is going to reach new levels of Hollywood Abuse of History. The Spartans, fighting for democracy? THE SPARTANS? Apparently giants, rhinocerosessss, and probably giant bat-winged scaly flying monsters feature. Maybe there will be a special cameo for King George, leading the Freedom-Loving Westerners against the Evil Iranians Persians...

Really, do they have to keep making cr@p like this when there is real history to film that's so much better?

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

Purist. How day you ask that they keep to actual, you know, FACTS!

I want to see it, but only because the guy who made Sin City is in on it.

[winterbadger]

As I said to Liz, back when we had our huge fights about "Elizabeth", if they would admit it was a fantasy movie, then I would be fine with it. It would still be silly, because the real history is usually even better than the dreck they put in the movie, but at least it would be honest dreck.

I can only imagine that if they made a sequel about Salamis (you know, the actual *victory* of the Greek over the Persians), I can only imagine the Greeks would win because of their flaming missiles (Peter? ;-) or because they had trained sea serpents ont heir side or something.

What makes me even more annoyed is that when Hollywood decided to make a film about the siege of Troy, which sotry really *does* feature gods and demigods and impossible things, they were so stupid they cut all of that out (which is half of what makes it interesting) and tried to make it all about humans...

[azbound.livejournal.com]

"Troy" was about Brad Pitt and Eric Bana and I have not forgotten that...I just appreciate the man flesh for what it is. ;-)

[jan-rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

Frank Miller... as executive producer rather than co-director.


my evil brain took that as a warning. It warmed my cockles that Alan Moore left DC in utter contempt at the handling of the V for Vendetta travestyfilm.


Still I will go see 300 and probably enjoy it. 'tis a risk I am willing to take.

[winterbadger]

Hrm. Didn't really find that review funny, but chacun a son gout.

[winterbadger]

As someone else mentioned, it might help to think of it as a comic book adaptation (which is what it is) rather than something meant to be historically accurate; to the best of my knowledge, nobody's claiming that it's meant to be anything more than "loosely" based on actual events.

Well, I read some discussion of it on the Web today, and many of its fans (at least the ones who can write coherent sentences) are certainly trying to justify it as historical.

Re: the review, I think that if you have a tolerance for Ain't It Cool News in general it's a lot funnier.

Probably so. If that is a representative sample, my tolerance for it is nil.

[murdergeisha.livejournal.com]

I think you might enjoy 300 a lot more if you think of it as a comic book movie rather than an historical movie.


THat said, I'm pretty annoyed at the historical inaccuraces as well. Spartans fighting in clothing? When they look like Gerard Butler? Criminal, I tell you.

[winterbadger]

This is my point: could they please stop calling these things historical and using the faintest smear of historical place and peoples' names? Can't it just be The 300 Barzabulians Take On The Army of Great Darkness And Evilness Who Are Coincidentally The Ancestors of This Week's Bogeymen? OK, that's a bit long, but you get the idea.

The actual story of the 300 Spartans (or Elizabeth I or Francis Marion or William Wallace) would be miles better IMO because the stories would be better than what Hollywood comes up with and REAL too. But at least we wouldn't have to put up with people who think that this stuff is actual history and quote to to those who know better.

And if you think "No one could be that stupid!" keep in mind that "Braveheart" sparked an actual real-world resurgence of nationalism in Scotland because a large proportion of the people who went to see it REALLY THINK IT'S ALL TRUE. Admittedly, most of those have spent far too much of their lives inside a can of lager and are convinced that soemwherer there's a big forest where a talking teddy bear and a talking toy pig share an house made out of a tree, but...

[murdergeisha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I have similar spots on my personal hell list for Braveheart (well, not Braveheart really, but definitely King Arthur) and its ilk. However, I've not seen any marketing for this movie that seem to be giving even a little bit of a hint that it's meant to be serious history. Rather, I've seen Frank Miller's name prominently displayed, lots of monsters and video game villains, people making impossible leaps, and heavy metal music. All not your thing, that's fine, but it's about a million miles from your standard procedural 'The Real Story' style historical butcherings.

In fact, if it catches on, maybe it will herald a resurgence of overblown pseudohistory, like Charlton Heston Biblical epics, and leave room in the market for more real history.

[jan-rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

The wave of anti-English sentiment in Scotland after Braveheart was absolutely sickening and mostly by fucking morons who couldn't quite bring themselves to accept that not only did all this 'history' happen several hundred years ago, it was also complete guff.


But hey, the average Scot needs no excuses to be a parochial fucktard. Calvanism, as Iain Rankin so beautifully put it, is still rife even though most Scots don't even know what it is.

[justjayj.livejournal.com]

From what I hear it's not just the Spartans as Champions of Democracy, it's the Spartans as Aggressively Heterosexual Champions of Democracy. *eyeroll*

[winterbadger]

Because let's not even get into what the ancient Greeks got up to, and how it would be regarded today in the Great Christian Nation of the USA...

[jan-rosencrantz.livejournal.com]

So we should not mention that the Greeks liked to bum each other something cronic?

In fairness the poster does warn of 'sexuality'


;-)

and US folks do the same, just politically. Re: the last election.

[snolan.livejournal.com]

Dude! The 300 is not about history, it's about action comics.

It will be excellent fun. It will not be historically accurate in any way (except possibly to the comics).

I pan to see it.

[winterbadger]

One more time, and then maybe I will just drop it...

If it's not about history, why is it written and advertised as if it were?

[winterbadger]

And, while I'm being whiny, pedantic, and narrow-minded (my characterisation, not anyone else's), what ever happened to the movie version of 'Gates of Fire', which was supposed to be a fairly good piece of historical fiction. George Clooney and Universal Studios bought the rights, were going to give it to Michael Mann to direct, and have apparently never done anything with it.