The film I chose to do my first entry about was 300. The review was written by Glenn Whipp, a film critic for the LA Daily News. I chose this review so I could defend the film from this critic. Glenn in his opinion says that 300 is nothing more than a film for homosexual men. As he put it,
Yes, "300" is the most homoerotic action movie ever made
In my opinion that is a just a bunch of none sense. How can he say that 300 is a homoerotic film? Why because the movie doesn't cover up the Spartans "junk" well enough for this guys standards? Glenn needs to get over his homophobia and fast. The movie 300 is about a group of men fighting not about romancing over girls. Glenn also seems to think that the movie is to fake to be good. Or as the critic himself said,
feels suffocating in its artificiality
Now this quote is talking about both Sin City and 300. Wow, the film is supposed to look fake and mimic the graphic novel on which it is based. Another part of the movie I disagree with Glenn about is the amount of action in the movie. In his review he states that,
The commercials would have you believe that "300" sets some kind of new benchmark for modern adventure movies. True enough, provided you've never played a video game or if you prefer your action to be bloodless (i.e. fake) and boring.
This critic has to be the only critic in the world that thinks that 300 does not have enough gore and blood. Again I will have to disagree I thought that the movie had plenty of blood and action. Watching those guys fighting off the Persian army led by Xerxes was amazing. When they fought the immortals I personally wanted to learn how to fight like that. Maybe the only thing that Glenn and I agree on is the story line of the movie.
The movie is a faithful-to-a-fault adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel about the Battle of Thermopylae
Having read the graphic novel the movie follows very closely to the story. I am glad that the screen writer of the movie stuck close to the actual novel. Finally I have to disagree once more with poor and confused Glenn. He beleaves that all the Spartans are taking steriods. or as he said,
use their 'roid rage to hold off Xerxes' horde of a quarter-million Persians.
Glenn is right warriors should not fight back when someone is trying to take their land. Honestly if people didn't get angery and fight off oppressors their would be no America and he would not have been able to write his reveiw.
Now I know it seems like I am attacking the critic. When in fact I am trying to defend a film that is being unfairly judged. But of course everyone is intitled to their own opinion just like everyone can defend their feelings too. So maybe next journal I will chose a critic I agree with.
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5 comments:
i like your comments about 300 but I think that mabye you went over the top a little about there being no America if people didn't fight whenever they wanted to. But 300 was probally my favorite film of this year.
Matt, Loved the response to the review. I totally agree I love the movie and think there is nothing wrong with guys not "covering up their junk" if it is going to make the movie more realistic. Loved the writting and keep it up I really enjoyed it all.
I haven't watched 300 yet, it seemed too unrealistic, but I can see how the reviewer thought it was kind of homosexual. I mean they did give the guys cgi special effect muscles. But I agree with you that he was over the top.
Matt: I'm with Jack on the last paragraph being a little bit hyperbolic, and I think you should've included a little bit more evidence from the reviewer about why he thought the film was homoerotic before going off on him. Other than that, though, nice job -- I loved the part where you noted he's probably the only person who thought there wasn't enough violence in the movie. Also, I admire the fact you wanted to challenge a critic -- just remember when you do that, you have to be even more persuasive in your arguments than if you were in agreement.
Dude, Frank Miller for life
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