Embedded.

How do I tell you of 300?

Despite the apparent simplicity of the movie (come on, it’s a gorefest), it is actually quite complicated. There are so many different ways this movie can be viewed, with all of them being valid. One can find in equal measure reasons to hate it or reasons to love it and anyone can argue all sides. For me, there are plenty of things I don’t like. Yet most of them were overwhelmed by the things that I came looking for.

I’ve never been a fan of comic books. Movies adapted from comic books, or graphic novels, have never really held any appeal to me. There are very few that I’ve enjoyed to any degree. I can’t really say why that is. I have friends who are into the comic book scene and they have shown me some really fine examples of visual artistry, if not reasonable storytelling. The media simply never took root in my experience.

My first exposure to 300, through trailers, brought me face-to-face with what appeared to be a visual feast. It spoke to me the way a graphic novel might speak to a comic book fan. The visuals were so compelling, so powerful, and so otherworldly, that each image appeared to be a still frame of artistry.

If nothing else, I went to this movie simply to view it as one would wander the galleries of the museum looking at the artwork.

But that is an enough to warrant recommending a movie. There’ve been plenty of beautiful movies that aren’t worth the celluloid they are filmed upon.

The other aspect of 300 that appeals to me most is the historical context of the Battle of Thermopylae. While I am not a classicist, certainly classical history of ancient Greece and Republican Rome figure strongly in my appreciation of world history and culture that we live within today. Thermopylae has always been a favorite of mine. While Herodotus and later historians of his era are certainly prone to exaggeration for the sake of storytelling, the heroism and importance of that battle are difficult to discount. I’m certain the actual events at the Battle of Thermopylae, if viewed in real time, might completely sap this stature. Consider any major historical event that has been inflated to the status of legend. Would we really want to see Washington shivering in his boat as he crossed the Delaware with runny nose and hacking cough?

Some events in history grow beyond realism.

There is no discounting the historical importance of accuracy. Facts must be known and understood. Reality must be respected. These facts are indispensable and inviolable.

However, at times it is appropriate to tell stories in a way that captures the feeling of the event augmented by the historical significance of the outcome and enhanced with the persona of the people involved in the event.

The ancient Greeks knew this. Shakespeare knew this. Modern storytellers know this.

Consider the stylized biography of any major historical figure. Events are compacted, enhanced, and synthesized in order to tell the tale of the essence of that person and what they accomplished. Is history harmed in these enhancements? There are times when the hook of entertainment becomes more important than precise accuracy. Historians are there to correct any minor misconceptions of the subject. Scholarly texts are there for those who are interested in digging deeper into the truth of a person or event. Sometimes, sparking interest in the subject is just as important as conveying the precise details.

Consider your own experience in school as a youth. Do you remember the dry, boring recitation of dates and events that seem to have little historical context or drama? The events being studied were tremendously important, yet they failed to engage the mind. No, I’m not arguing that accuracy needs to be sacrificed for an MTV attention span. I’m simply defending the concept of artistic license.

300 is not historically accurate. It is not meant to be. It is an adaptation of a visually stunning graphic novel inspired by a fantastically significant historical event of celebrated bravery. The details, both known and speculated, are available to anyone who wants to dig a little deeper. Go to the bookstore, or flip on the History Channel, sure to be awash in Spartan and Persian documentaries, very soon. You aren’t going to find in-depth explorations of motivation or background. This film is not intended to send you home with a complete understanding of every historical detail. This is not a substitute for an education. If you want that, you’ll never like this film, so don’t waste your time.

If you want to feel for a couple of hours, rather than think, this will serve.

300 is a great story, told in the spirit of Greek mythology, with larger-than-life characters, fantastic events, and the otherworldly aura appropriate for people who saw the gods as everyday participants in their world. There’s a reason for this. The story is actually a visual narration of a tale told by the fictional Diosos, a participant in the battle and a fellow Spartan. The story is presented the way a Greek would tell the story. The Spartans are full of valor, bravery, and heroic qualities, while the enemy is a force of decadence, misshapen beings, and monsters appropriate for an ancient Greek’s imagination.

The use of CGI and visual enhancement in this movie is simply better than I’ve seen in any other movie. I’m not a big fan of CGI. All too often it’s used in an exhibitionist fashion. “Look what we can do.” To me, proper CGI should enhance the story or serve the story and characters, not overwhelm the material. In 300, the CGI meshes with the topic in order to tell the story in this spirit of Greek mythology, and Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Sure, you know you’re seeing visual effects. You know, the film was shot in front of a blue screen. You know that nearly everything you see is being enhanced. However, if you immerse yourself into the spirit, and the tone of the storytelling, you begin to see 300 for what it is; a visual masterpiece.

Some critics have described this is war porn. It certainly is violent. Men are impaled, stabbed, beheaded, limbs are chopped off, and digital blood flies. However, these things happen within the context of a comic book or graphic novel — not a cartoon, but a more adult presentation. The truth is, I saw more unsettling consequence of violence in Saving Private Ryan, and I certainly saw more gratuitous blood in Kill Bill. The violence of ancient combat is unavoidable when telling this story. The raw carnage of Thermopylae is a very aspect that makes the stand of the 300 heroic. It HAS to be portrayed. In my opinion, if such a thing can be possible, the violence was tastefully portrayed while still maintaining the impact.

I truly believe this was a beautiful film. Even before I saw it, so many scenes and images viewed on the net could be frozen, framed, and hung on my wall. These were iconic images of something that already had legendary status in my mind. These were a tableaux, capturing the spirit of a very important event in the distant past. The slow-motion effects froze the scene, while maintaining a very slight sense of motion, just as you would see in a graphic novel with the motion lines surrounding a picturesque scene. These are larger-than-life images. And that’s what you’re paying to see when you go see 300.

As far as serving the cause of history, despite the numerous distortions in the film, I have to applaud it. As some readers already know, I’ve been working part time delivering pizzas lately for extra income. I’ve been rubbing shoulders with a lot of young men, college aged or younger, and I’ve had the opportunity to listen to them talk about this film. Most of them had never heard of Thermopylae, Leonidas, Xerxes, or what this battle meant to Western civilization. Most of them want to know more, and some of them have even taken it upon themselves to read about the events of those days. If nothing else comes from 300, there is this.

I am sorely tempted to go into a historical digression about the truth of the Battle of Thermopylae as known by historians. I fear I could prattle on for pages about the importance of this battle, the Greek civilization it preserved, the later efforts of Alexander the Great, and how all of this culminated in the Western civilization that dominates the world today.

I’m not going to do that to you.

Go see 300. Don’t look at it like the History Channel. Look at it as legend brought to the screen in a legendary fashion. Watch it for the visual aesthetic. Appreciate it as a film that skillfully translates the graphic novel experience to celluloid.

And then come home, boot up your computer, and read about the mother of all last stands. Find the facts of Sparta, the 300, and the Thespian allies and also died at their side.

Or, if you want a more historically grounded fictionalized account, go get Gates of Fire, by Steven Pressfield. It’s one of the best historical novels I’ve ever read.

(Blog entry by Naturally Speaking)

More detailed review coming.  Short take – I never knew such carnage could be so beautiful.

In seeing the movie, I’m not quite sure how one arrives at the conclusion that this film is all about Bush and America.  I suppose if you actually believe that Bush would kill several hundred thousand of his own citizens, impose a police state, erect concentration camps, slaughter anyone who opposes him, and improse a reign of terror that makes the Nazis look like pikers, then maybe you’ll see this film as an indictment of Amerika.

I just don’t get that.

But that’s just me.

If nothing else, the movie provides a couple hours of Hugo Weaving, even if you can only hear his voice.  For me, that’s enough.  He’s one of those guys whose voice I want to have.  Like Patrick Stewert.

This segment alone was enough to justify the film.  Weaving is a more convincing actor with his voice alone than many of today’s ‘stars’ using their entire bodies.

I’ve been plowing through Pacific War material over the past month, mostly because actions there get lost in comparison to the European Theater. My own knowledge is spottier than it should be, so soaking up some of these details has been a good exercise for me.

Iwo Jima should be known to about everyone. Next to Pearl Harbor, Iwo Jima is probably the second most popular answer if you asked a random person to name a Pacific War battleground. The fame is for good reason.

Bill D. Ross happened to be a Marine combat correspondent on Iwo Jima (Ross died of cancer on August 30, 1994). His account of the battle is one of the finest books I’ve ever read, capturing both the brutal horror of World War I style ground combat, while illustrating the unimaginable bravery and heroism of the Corps. Each page was a blow as personal stories were told, more often than not ending with the death of the subject.

The story of the Suribachi flag raising has been recently well-documented. Not to slight the importance of that event, Ross’s book doesn’t spend a lot of time on it, focusing instead on the hard, relentless grind of Marines taking the island yard by bloody yard, leaving an average of a dead Marine for each yard gained.

24,000 Marines were killed (6,100) or wounded (18,000) in one month, while nearly all of the 22,000 Japanese defenders were killed. With a 1:1 casualty ratio, Iwo was quite different from the 5:1 to 10:1 ratios, in favor of the Marines, seen in other battles. Twenty-seven Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded in the thrity days of combat, one-fourth of all Medals of Honor received by the Marine Corps for the totality of World War II.

Medal of Honor citations not only honor the individual, they serve as representative accounts of untold heroism on the behalf of every man who took part in that battle.

One at random:

GRAY, ROSS F.

CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as Acting Platoon Sergeant serving with Company A, First Battalion, Twenty-Fifth Marines, Fourth Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 21 February 1945. Shrewdly gauging the tactical situation when his platoon was held up by a sudden barrage of hostile grenades while advancing toward the high ground northeast of Airfield Number One, Sergeant Gray promptly organized the withdrawal of his men from enemy grenade range, quickly moved forward alone to reconnoiter and discovered a heavily mined area extending along the front of a strong network of emplacements joined by covered communication trenches. Although assailed by furious gunfire, he cleared a path leading through the mine field to one of the fortifications then returned to the platoon position and, informing his leader of the serious situation, volunteered to initiate an attack while being covered by three fellow Marines. Alone and unarmed but carrying a twenty-four pound satchel charge, he crept up the Japanese emplacement, boldly hurled the short-fused explosive and sealed the entrance. Instantly taken under machine-gun fire from a second entrance to the same position, he unhesitatingly braved the increasingly vicious fusillades to crawl back for another charge, returned to his objective and blasted the second opening, thereby demolishing the position. Repeatedly covering the ground between the savagely defended enemy fortifications and his platoon area, he systematically approached, attacked and withdrew under blanketing fire to destroy a total of six Japanese positions, more than twenty-five of the enemy and a quantity of vital ordnance gear and ammunition. Stouthearted and indomitable, Sergeant Gray had single-handedly overcome a strong enemy garrison and had completely disarmed a large mine field before finally rejoining his unit and, by his great personal valor, daring tactics and tenacious perseverance in the face of extreme peril, had contributed materially to the fulfillment of his company’s mission. His gallant conduct throughout enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Six days later, Gray died in another firefight on Iwo.

This highlights the ordeal of the war. Regardless of what one did to survive today, death waited patiently tomorrow.

Midway: The Incredible Victory

Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan

Time has a way of plastering over history with what comes to be known as conventional wisdom. Today, the American victory in the Pacific has an aura of inevitability to most people – how could a nation the size of California hope to beat the United States in a war?

And there is truth to that view. Even Admiral Yamamoto, leader of the Imperial Japanese Navy, understood the futility of a protracted war with the US. Asked by Prime Minister Konoe about a war with the US, Yamamoto responded: “I will run wild for six months or a year, but after that I have utterly no confidence.”

The Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor, and the intended smashing of the remaining US fleet at the Battle of the Coral Sea and later, Midway, was to be followed by overtures of peace. The Japanese calculated that Americans, after such losses, would have no stomach for a protracted fight under disadvantageous terms, and would be willing to accept major concessions in the Pacific in exchange for peace. Japan would secure a position as masters of the Pacific, and super-power status at the expense of a weakened America.

And the battle of Midway could have easily left the US powerless.

The inevitability of the American victory in the Pacific was secured by Midway, but there was certainly no inevitability to a victory at Midway.

For that, the efforts of the American seaman and aviator must be honored.

In Midway: The Incredible Victory, Walter Lord places things in perspective immediately on the opening page:

By any ordinary standards, they were hopelessly outclassed.

They had no battleships, the enemy eleven. They had eight cruisers, the enemy twenty-three. They had three carriers (one of them crippled); the enemy had eight. Their shore defenses included guns from the turn of the century.

They knew little of war. None of the Navy pilots on one of the carriers had ever been in combat. Nor had any of the army fliers. Of the Marines, 17 of 21 new pilots were just out of flight school – some with less than four hours’ flying time since then. Their enemy was brilliant, experienced and all-conquering.

They were tired, dead tired. The patrol plane crews, for instance, had been flying 15 hours a day, servicing their own planes, getting perhaps three hours’ sleep at night.

They had equipment problems. Some of their dive bombers couldn’t dive – the fabric came off the wings. Their torpedoes were slow and unreliable; the torpedo planes even worse. Yet they were up against the finest fighting plane in the world.

They took crushing losses – 15 out of 15 in one torpedo squadron…21 out of 27 in a group of fighters… many, many more.

They had no right to win. Yet they did, and in doing so they changed the course of the war. More than that, they added a new name – Midway – to the small list that inspires men by shining example. Like Marathon, the Armada, the Marne, a few others, Midway showed that every once in a while “what must be” need not be at all. Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit – a magic blend of skill, faith and valor – that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory.

The losses in men and material on both sides were astounding. Entire carrier wings were wiped out to the last pilot. Whole squadrons flew beyond their fuel range and splashed in the ocean searching for the enemy fleet, but not before dropping their bombs and extracting a price for their sacrifice. Seamen remained at their posts in the bowels of burning carriers, keeping the boilers lit and making knots for their captains, keeping the ships in the fight for as long as possible.

And there was the heroism of the men of USS Yorktown. The Japanese were certain they sunk her at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Crippled, she limped back to Pearl Harbor needing three months of repairs to restore her to service. The fleet didn’t have three months, so in three days she sailed to engage the Japanese at Midway. During the battle, Yorktown took three bombs and a Japanese plane on her flight deck, inflicting tremendous damage and leaving her dead in the water. Within a couple of hours, the crew restored flight operations and a second wave of Japanese aircraft identified her as an ‘undamaged’ carrier. They hit Yorktown again, thinking the damaged carrier from earlier had sunk. The second wave put a torpedo into her, leaving her dead in the water and listing 26 degrees. She was finally abandoned, but remained afloat overnight. The next day, salvage parties returned to see if she could be saved until a Japanese submarine put another torpedo into her. She floated for another day before finally going under.

Six months later, a new USS Yorktown entered service as an Essex-class carrier.

Walter Lord’s book is a great mixture of personal anecdotes and tactics, capturing the facts of the battle along with the impressions of the participants on the American side. Those with a deeper interest in the historical details will find plenty here, while others who enjoy a lighter read might not even notice the things they learn.

Mitsuo Fuchida led the raid on Pearl Harbor and was stationed on the Akagi for Midway. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for historians, he came down with appendicitis and watched the battle from the bridge, surviving the sinking of the Akagi and going on to write the definitive account of the battle from the Japanese perspective in Midway: The Battle that Doomed Japan.

Fuchida pulls no punches in dissecting the Japanese failures. After obliterating the American battleships at Pearl, the Japanese naval leadership ignored the American carriers because conventional wisdom dictated the superiority of battleships…completely ignoring the utter devastation wrought by their own carrier aircraft! The traditional view belittled the role of naval air power, despite the utter refutation of Pearl Harbor. As a result, the Japanese squandered valuable time in the Indian ocean against the British while America began to mobilize and recover from Pearl.

Fuchida captures the horror of the Japanese as they lose three carriers in a remarkable six minutes, with the fourth carrier gone by the end of the day. He recounts the utter shock at finding the American fleet swarming with more carriers than seemed possible (with Yorktown being counted two or even three times thanks to the miracles of damage control parties). He bears witness to squadron after squadron of American bombers being utterly annihilated without adequate fighter cover, delivering their bombs with no hope of survival.

And he writes of the respect the Japanese felt as they learned the measure of courage in an enemy they had previously seen as lacking the stomach for combat.

As a set, the two books, both readable in a couple of days, are a definitive examination of arguably the most critical engagement in the Pacific War. It isn’t often when both sides can tell the story without distortion or jingoism. I can’t recommend these books enough.
Technorati Tags: midway, japan, USA, war

Source – Box Office Mojo

They could run this out to Saw 100 before the franchise loses money.

The Beast is back.

A Matter of Life and Death (henceforth AMOLAD) is the 14th studio album from Iron Maiden, and marks the third studio album since Bruce Dickinson’s return as the lead singer.

Long time Maiden fans have to pause and marvel at the concept: thirty-one years after the formation of the band, they are still producing high quality material. Most bands, at this point, have become pale imitations of past glory, rehashing the some old act and the some old sound. Pick a typical nostalgia mega-tour for the boomers, and try to find something new in the music.

I’ve had AMOLAD for a few days now, enough to get familiar with the new sound. This is a new Maiden, with enough of the old Maiden for continuity. This is a matured, experienced band operating as a whole and pushing into new territory.

This is the Maiden you would have preferred if you were horrified by the synthesizers on Somewhere in Time in 1986.

Since Brave New World in 2000, the band has had three guitar players in addition to Harris on bass. AMOLAD is the first album, in my opinion, to carry that many instruments so cleanly and with a distinctively ‘different’ sound. The guitar work approaches an orchestral quality, with so many parts complimenting one another so well. It never sounds as if a particular guitar has nothing to add and maybe should be tacit.

Bruce is Bruce, meaning he gets better each year. The past few years have been kind to fans with a solo work releasing between Maiden projects (Tyranny of Souls). His voice just keeps getting stronger with more control. You don’t hear much of the whiny, straining Bruce from the Fear of the Dark album.

All around, the band is as good as ever – not bad for a bunch of guys hitting their fifties.

The album itself is only ten tracks, but runs seventy-one plus minutes. Track length varies from 4:17 to 9:24 (with a 9:20 tossed in there as well). This is epic Maiden, with plenty of time changes, key changes, and alternating themes, giving most songs the feel of a very long story. Think Rime of the Ancient Mariner for most of the album.

As you might surmise by the album title, most of the songs deal with the weighty issues of the day: war, religion, and the ability to kill large numbers of people.

“Brighter Than A Thousand Suns” focuses on the Manhattan Project and nuclear weapons by asking -

Bury your morals and bury your dead
Bury your head in the sand
E-mc squared you can relate
How we made God
With our hands

Whatever would Robert have said to his God
About how we made war with the sun
E=mc squared you can relate
How we made God
With out hands

“The Longest Day”, of course, tells the tale of D-Day -

Overlord, your master not your god
The enemy coast drawing gray with scud
These wretched souls puking, shaking fear
To take a bullet for those who sent them here

The world’s alight, the cliffs erupt in flame
No escape, remorseless shrapnel rains
Drowning men no chance for a warrior’s fate
A choking death enter hell’s gates

These songs, looking into the past, are intermingled with songs about the present. Maiden rightfully shows the parallels between where we’ve been and where we are heading in terms of conflict.

“The Greater Good of God” lays it out in the longest track on the album, penned solely by Harris -

Are you a man of peace
Or a man of holy war
Too many sides to you
Don’t know which anymore
So many full of life
But also filled with pain
Don’t know just how many
Will live to breathe again

…

More pain and misery in the history of mankind
Sometimes it seems more like
The blind leading the blind
It brings upon us more famine, death and war
You know religion has a lot to answer for

And in a surprising final verse, we have -

He gave his life for us
He fell upon the cross
To die for all of those
who never mourn his loss
It wasn’t meant for us
to feel the pain again
Tell me why, tell me why

In a bonus DVD, Steve Harris notes he is not pro-religious or anti-religious. His intent here is to simply ask how is God served by a faith that preaches death as a way to eternal reward.

AMOLAD is a busy album, with lots to ponder in nearly every track. I’ll be cycling this one through the iPod for the next couple of weeks, and it will take a prominent place in the Iron Maiden collection.

Here’s to many more years of the Beast.

Technorati Tags: iron maiden, album, review

It’s the same movie…

I mean, the same movie – as in the same film released under a different name and with English dubbing.

Maybe it’s time to lay off the Chinese cinema?