Bob's Garden of Earthly Delights

GAP! Summer Crane; PG

Title: Summer Crane
Rating: PG for phwoar
Medium: Graphite and OpenCanvas
Notes: Claire again. I've decided to expand her being fashionable (she is usually fashionable with more buttons buttoned) into a series of her being fashionable. THIS IS HER WEARING PROPER TROUSERS. It's a bizarre occurrence, but it does happen from time to time. (All of the titles of these things come from songs by them Avalanches.) (Oh, yeah. Outfit.)
Art: ( une je foi )

Okay, so Jaida wrote it better than I ever could, but I've been meaning to post about this, anyway, so not even her eloquence can stop me.

Rachael and I went to see 300 last weekend. I heard good things about it, but it's the sort of genre that I'm usually on the fence about. I honestly thought I was going to hate it/fall asleep/want to fall asleep/want to die/want to climb walls/climb walls/die/become a vampire and suck out my own blood.

But, oddly enough (especially to me), I ended up loving it. Loving it almost to the point of King Kong, although no movie will ever top my love for King Kong, which is saying quite a lot because war moves do generally make me want to jump in the battle just to be shot or cannon'd.

I think the problem I have with what many critics say, is that 300 is not meant to be historically accurate (and Gorgo is the most awesome female in any movie everrrrrrrr). I've said this a few times to a few people but the narrative is sort of what one might imagine, in a more modern interpretation, the ancient oral storyteller telling his listeners. Everything remains as exaggerated as what any Greek warrior would have claimed as fact two thousand years ago. It's a story of a story. (It's also a movie based on a graphic novel based on a movie, so critics ought to remember that, as well.) It's a Greek myth, damn it. It's being told from the Greek point of view--do you think they'd want Xerxes to be their equal? (BUT CLEARLY THEY WANT HIM TO BE LIKE RUPAUL OH BABY. I loved it.)

What I also don't understand is why the concept of pure entertainment seems to be invalid now. The movie is, at least in my opinion, aesthetically perfect, the music is amazing, the acting blends seemlessly into the plot (there are no obvious and distracting crappy players), the story is concise, there's lots of true Spartan action (if you know what I mean), Gerard Butler and three hundred other blokes are almost completely naked, there are naked ladies to balance it out. You can hate it if you hate movies that look like graphic novels and have a lot of violence/gore, but that doesn't mean it's a bad movie.

There is nothing wrong with a movie that intentionally alters historical events and makes it clear that they have done so. If you want to play that game, then nominations are open!