The 300 -- times two

The 300 -- times two

Fans of the Spartan epic 300 get their choice of DVD options



Edmonton Sun.com



By BRUCE KIRKLAND

Mon, July 30, 2007








The battle of the ages is about to begin anew -- 300 is due on DVD tomorrow.

The release, destined to be a best-seller, is also certain to reinvigorate debates about the film's murky politics, its staggering digital artistry, its freewheeling interpretation of history and its elegantly stylized violence.

Warner Home Video is doing it up right.
Instead of screwing fans with a stripped-down version and delaying a special edition for months -- as a competitor is doing with Zodiac -- you get options now.

There is a single disc release in separate full and widescreen editions with no significant extras.
This will serve the DVD rental market -- people who just want to revisit a masterwork of innovation.

There is also a quality two-disc Special Edition available at the same time.
It is worth the premium price.
This is not, however, a gush.
I have seen better special edition DVDs of major films.
This one ranks as good, not great.

Director Zack Snyder gets just a C+ for his commentary: He rambles, gets too mired in pointing out the obvious and fails to fully utilize screenwriter Kurt Johnstad and cinematographer Larry Fong in his group effort.

But Snyder scores a B+ for his efforts in the in-depth documentary materials on disc two.

Significantly, Snyder and 300 comic book creator Frank Miller address critical issues around this stirring epic, which tells, in a mythic style, the story of the Battle of Thermopylae.

"A storyteller knows how not to ruin a good story with the truth, necessarily," says Snider in the documentary, The 300: Fact or Fiction? "He knows how to exaggerate a moment for dramatic purposes."

Miller's take is even more blunt: "I've never been accused of realism -- and I never deserve to be!"

So the whinging about historical fact needs to end.
Miller researched the historical accounts -- themselves subject to interpretation -- filtered them through his wonderfully warped graphic novel sensibilities and then passed the story along.
The result is a magnificent, surreal, cinematic impression of one of history's most famous battles, when 300 Spartans fought to the death against tens of thousands of Persians in a three-day conflict at the Hot Gates.

As Snyder told Sun Media when the film made its theatrical debut, "The film is mythology out of history in the Greek oral tradition." Yet the intrigue is just how much fact is hardwired into 300.

The DVD brings in author-historians Bettany Hughes and Victor Davis Hanson to sort it out without hyberbole.
Some exploits of Spartan King Leonidas (played superbly by Gerard Butler) are rooted in fact; some, like his slaying of the wolf, are myth.

Likewise with the king's wife, Gorgo (played by sensual Lena Headey).
The real Gorgo, unlike most women of ancient times, was empowered.
The status of Spartan women in general is discussed by the historians.
In addition, the brutal Spartan lifestyle and warrior code is detailed, including their custom of enslaving peasants to do drudge work, allowing the warrior class to concentrate on training.

Other strong extras include the doc, The Frank Miller Tapes, a 15-minute profile of the artist-writer.
The familiar Webisodes -- six teaser docs from the 300 web site -- are collected here.
There are just three deleted scenes, with Snyder intros, including shots of Persian slave giants who transport midget archers (Snyder cut it as too ridiculous -- he was right).

A disappointment for Canadians is the lack of insight and real-time visuals on how 300 was shot entirely on a Montreal soundstage (except for the single outside sequence with the Persian messengers on horseback).
The breathtaking CGI work was done mostly in Quebec, too, but little credit is meted out on the DVD, even though Snyder is on record in praising his Montreal experience.


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