200! - 300 (2007) & Fourteen Years

Some six years (not five, Rob! we’ve been doing this aaaaages) after our first episode — and fourteen years after the…’discussion’ that prompted us to start doing this podcast (eventually), we’re revisiting Zach Snyder’s 2007 epic 300. After we read through that fourteen-year-old transcript, we talk about how our views of the film have changed, its roots in Spartan propaganda, and the aesthetics of a piece that were very much of its time.

Next Up
Next, we begin Season 5 — watch this space!

Recent Media
A QUIET PLACE (2018): John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds
BO BURNHAM: INSIDE (2021): Bo Burnham, Josh Senior

Recommendations
WONDER WOMAN (2017): Patty Jenkins, Gal Gadot, Chris Pine
STEVE JOBS (2015): Danny Boyle, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet
AUSTRALIA (2008): Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman
KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017): Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson

Footnotes If you’re not familiar with the battle on which this is based, then probably read up on that first, as this isn’t an incredibly historically accurate film: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae. (Although, as Sam mentions, the history in the film is actually better than you might think, as explained here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07n8p9m.) For more on the sometimes unsavoury career of Frank Miller, author of the original, see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_(comics). A few links for our 2007 selves: www.britannica.com/biography/Bertolt-Brecht, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book), www.jstor.org/stable/20455133 (on 300 and the ‘war on terror’; subscription needed). Finally, here’s that list of 2007 films, to highlight the point that 300 was unique (visually speaking, that’s quite an underwhelming top 10): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_in_film.

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