I saw 300 today. Action, muscles, death. And not as much gore as one might think. Sure, the flying limbs and the thousands upon thousands of punctures through the movie were stark, but not as stark as, say, Kill Bill. It’s a war flick, and for a war flick, there was nothing gratuitous at all about the way it was presented.

Having said that, more than a few people have taken issue with the review from Slate, and with good reason. I’ve stopped political blogging for the most part because when that is all that surrounds us, that is all that colors the way we see things. Everything gets politicized and that just gets way boring, way too quickly. The review from the New York Times follows the same tack: “(It may be worth pointing out that unlike their mostly black and brown foes, the Spartans and their fellow Greeks are white.)” And while Matt takes on Slate’s review in his post, I will have to parrot David J’s short but direct opinion: “Sometimes a Movie About Guys Wearing Skirts is Just a Movie About Guys Wearing Skirts. Or Something to That Effect.” I think he means leather briefs and red capes, but we get the point.

It’s a highly political time and I just want to see the movie. The words sting because they work both ways. If you’re a more subtle lefty than that Dana guy from Slate you can just sit back and believe that the words are mean tongue-in-cheek. The very people you dislike tend to say the same things that Leonidas and his small army say. And if you’re the other type then you wouldn’t see any of that.

Considering the mental landscape today, if tomorrow I decided to remake a movie such as Zulu, would I, be equally guilty of baiting race? I mean, heck, savage black people from Africa were the villains here.

If there is even one criticism of the film on its merits that is worth reading, it would be this one from the NY Sun. But ultimately I don’t think it was supposed to be some “historical flick” anyway. It’s just a movie, and a good one at that.