Thursday, October 4, 2007

This.. is.. SPARTA

I’ve been watching zillions of movies off late. Ive always liked movies, but never been a HUGE movie-holic. Hindi movies id go for only if they turned out to be massive hits or if they were Nagesh Kukonoor movies (who I spent a long time adoring btw). Anyhoo, Ive watched The Bourne Ultimatum, 300, and Gone with the wind this weekend. Oh my god. How satisfied am I. Id say 300 was the best movie not only out of these three, but also one of the best Ive seen in a very long time. I only kick myself for not having watched 300 in the theatre when it released.

WHAT A MOVIE. THOROUGHLY EXCITING ENTHRALLING SUPERCOOL AWESOME MINDBLOWING MIND NUMBINGLY THRILLING it is!! I spent the last three days recounting dialogues to whoever would listen (and whoever wouldn’t as well). I quote a few of my favorites -

Xerxes - “Imagine what horrible fate awaits my enemies when I would gladly kill any of my own men for victory”
King Leonidas to Xerxes - “And I would die for mine”

Queen Gorgo to King Leonidas - “Come back with your shield or on it.”

King Leonidas to Astinos (Astinos is dying, right beside the king and says “My king its an honour to die by your side”)

King Leonidas says “And its an honour to have lived by yours”

King Leonidas - “Immortals….we’ll put their name to test”

[Dilios is putting a patch over his eye]

King Leonidas: “Dilios, I trust that "scratch" hasn't made you useless”

Dilios: “Hardly, my lord, it's just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare”

[Xerxes standing atop a hill watching his "Immortal"army being slaughtered by the Spartans"
Dilios: “Immortals, they failed the king's test, and a man who fancies himself a god feels a very human chill crawl up his spine.”

Just realized id probably be trying to narrate the entire movie here if i dont stop. The movie is filled with awespiring dialogue after dialogue. Throughout the movie i had goosepimples and a fast pacing heart only because the movie just stuns you with its magnificence not only in terms of the script but also by the brilliant cinematography. This movie has apparently been shot in 60 days, but underwent one year of editing to get the visual effects right. And right it is. Its a visual delight.


I must admit that I’m strangely distracted now and feeling that rush of euphoria after I had watched the movie. All I know is that this is a movie worth all the blood and gore and is also a MUST own.

Right now I say to myself “Calm down girl”.



23 comments:

vs said...

Have you checked out that Facebook group yet ? It is brilliant !

Serendipity said...

@ Jack - no will do soon. Ive read up tonnes and tonnes of trivia on this movie though.

Next on the cards - Gladiator. Jeez i feel like such an idiot for having missed such awesome movies!

The Nomad said...

Join the club!! :D

vs said...

YOU HAVEN'T SEEN GLADIATOR ???

(shakes head)

Ooooh booooy ....

Nitin Bhandari said...

well 300 is awesome for sure ...
i dont understand ur bias against hindi movies ??

Abhishek said...

U havent seen Gladiator????? Its the best movie ever!!!! Ull certainly blog when u watch that one...the dialogues are just too good. I loved bourne ultimatum tooo... Actually all the three bourne movies! :)

I love Lucy said...

So 300 is that good huh...will try and give it a dekko this weekend then!
Watched Transformers a few days ago and lovvveeedddd it!!

Serendipity said...

@ Jack and Abhishek - I know!!! will watch it ASAP. :):)

@JAN Indian - Some of them are nice, but MOST (NOT ALL)of them lack the intrigue and script that makes a good movie. the regular movies are generally about love and songs interupting for no reason. I dont deny that there's a host of talented directors though - and their movies i dont miss. Its commercial HIndi mindless movies i dont enjoy.

@ I love Lucy - Its BETTER!!! go watch!!! Im gonna start a "watch 300 if youve not watched it campaign " !!

Anonymous said...

Abt Librarything and site meter; both of they give code to install on your blog.

1.go to layout
2.select page element.
3.in that select html/java script option.
4. paste the code you got from site.
5. Save the changes.
6. Adjust the page element location

thats it you are done !

Serendipity said...

@ SS - so i need to go to their website and register or something ?
i clicked on the link and downloaded it frm your website and ran it even but nothign happened.
:(

Ashwin said...

I remember thinking "this is how gods fight" while watching 300.

If you liked 300, you just might like Sin City.

Anonymous said...

@S: yeah you need to register with the site. there would be option there on that site to get the widget for the blog. it will give you the code.

Nitin Bhandari said...

its not surely abt the language then ? becoz there is just an equal proportion of angreji movies which are just as bad or worse then a mindless movie made in bollywood ..
every creative channel has bad and good products ...
i think some of the mindless commercial movies that hollywood makes are equally bad too ... but then anything that has an American label gets the positive prejudice ,, just as anything remotely bollywood gets a negative ...

The Nomad said...

Now, please read the 300 comic so that we can discuss that as well!

ToOothlEss WOndeR! said...

ok, another one i watched on the second day - in a movie hall.
Ok, this is a bad thing to say here, but I did not like it very much.
Perhaps it is because of all the Spartan history I had read before the movie (I think they did not do any serious research), or maybe it was the drama in the dialogues, and the gore on the screen.
Overdose, if you ask me.
(I'm running for my life already :) )

Ashwin said...

Tootie... the director claims it's 90% accurate... here's a link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_%28movie%29#Historical_accuracy

ToOothlEss WOndeR! said...

@ashwin: I'm not sure what he means 90% accurate, because the idea of a static phalanx formation in itself does not stand.
I am not ruling out the possibility, but one thing about thermopylae is that the soldiers were deployed on both sides of the wall, and in a relay across several villages. The thespians and other greek allies (who may have constituted the cycling back-up) have not been given due importance.
If you were to look at it closely, you will find so many pieces that do not fit.

I am not against dramatizing movies, but then one shouldnt be promoting it as history.

Serendipity said...

@ Ashwin and TW - calm down!!! :)

A bunch of us LOVE the movie, and some of us dont. TW - your entitled to not like it! Ive not liked a lot of movies that have been "Blcokbusters" and gotten lots of flak for my opinion...

As far as historically accurate or not, I enjoyed it cos its made well and has brilliant dialogues (some are even from other battles, uttered by other kings but used here) and wouldve loved it as much had it been completely fiction!

ToOothlEss WOndeR! said...

@serendipity: aiyyoo dear, that was not an argument - It was a discussion.
you wont understand, it is a guy thing. :)
(Woohoo!.. I've been itching to say something like that to my "girl"friends here. )

@Ashwin: Dont worry, we'll start a thread elsewhere. ;)

Anonymous said...

Still hang over of 300 ? aub kuch naya-shaya ho jaaye ...:))

vs said...

Hahaha ! I love how this topic has raised so much discussion ! And yes, there were historical inaccuracies. But frankly, I didn't care while I watched the movie. And I'd watched a whole hour-long documentary on the Battle of Thermopylae, Wikipedia'd the heck out of it, and had a discussion about it for the real thing 2 hours with my roommates. BUT, I'm still getting the DVD. 'Coz 300 kicks ass. Period.

And nope, this isn't madness :)

THIS ... IS .... SPAARTAAAAAAAA !!!!

. said...

300? Really? Are you sure?

. said...

well.. so many people and not one found 300 cheesy? I personally have issues with how so many people showered and did not have drain clogging issues with that much hair going around. So there.