Thermo dynamics

Reviewed - 300:300 is a stylised, violent and heady cinematic experience, writes Michael Dwyer

LEARNING about the battle of Thermopylae back in history class at secondary school would not have prepared anyone for the wildly imaginative visualisation of that conflict in Zack Snyder's hyper-kinetic 300, which is essentially faithful to the aesthetic of Sin City author Frank Miller's 1998 graphic novel. Receptive audiences who surrender to Snyder's heightened stylisation will be rewarded with a movie that is altogether less a history lesson than a delirious audiovisual spectacle on which the effects team get to showcase their skills on a grand scale.

A prelude establishes the Spartan upbringing for boys, who are subjected to pain in order to learn about endurance and fearlessness. In 480 BC, a product of that education, King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), rules the city-state with the support of his loving, politically shrewd queen, Gorgo (Lena Headey). A messenger brings news of a massive Persian army marching on Sparta and advice to surrender from their leader, Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), who is depicted as a towering, bling- adorned megalomaniac. Leonidas does not shoot the messenger, but despatches him and his retinue into the nearest deep well.

When the Spartan politicians - among them the manipulative opportunist Theron (Dominic West) - refuse to send the army to repel the invaders, Leonidas assembles an elite band of 300 volunteers. His strategy is to draw the invaders to the Hot Gates of Thermopylae, a narrow corridor through which they will have to pass with their bizarrely exotic entourage of fierce animals and magic practitioners.

The 300 Spartans, who are tough as nails and with chiselled torsos and minimal costumes, include the impassioned young warrior Stelios (German-born, Irish-raised actor Michael Fassbender); the courageous Dilios (David Wenham), who doubles as the tale's narrator; and the Captain (Vincent Regan), who recruits his eldest son, Astinos (Tom Wisdom) for the battle, even though he expects it will be a suicide mission.

300 recalls Clint Eastwood's recent Letters from Iwo Jima in its story of hopelessly outnumbered forces persisting against insurmountable odds, and in the men's codes of honour, duty and self-sacrifice. Whereas Eastwood's film was drained of colour to verge on monochrome, 300 is designed on a copper-burnished palette, which, as in Letters, runs crimson with blood.

The distinctive visual scheme manipulates the colour balance in every image, as striking visual effects shots are employed to heighten the terrible beauty of its visceral battle sequences. These are choreographed with all the flair and precision of a finely tuned Broadway musical. The violence is heavily stylised - and features several eye-popping decapitation scenes - as director Snyder alternately accelerates the images or opts for slow motion.

300 is shot in a series of painterly widescreen compositions embellished

with exaggerated sound effects and Tyler Bates's rich, driving musical score. There are flickers of humour, but Snyder generally plays it straight. Even though the movie feels cold and distant, Snyder finds and taps into its emotional core in the final stages.

Mythology and technology are combined potently in this heady cinematic experience. It's hard to credit that 300 is just Snyder's second feature film, after his surprisingly effective Dawn of the Dead remake, and it bodes well for his challenge in bringing Alan Moore's graphic novel, Watchmen, to the screen next year.