Lrts<Entertainment
Clackamas Print
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
7
300’ paves way for next-gen film
Internet Photo
Internet Photo
T: A panel from Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300, in which King Leonidas watches a Persian fleet get destroyed, that was perfectly recreated in the film adaptation.
HT: King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) stands in front of his battle-worn army in a torrential downpour, watching the Persian fleet face Poseidon’s wrath in the film version of 300.
avid Stark
t Clackamas Print
Fhree hundred Spartans died for
f. honor, glory and an amazingly
istic movie.
¡Vith the threat of the advanc-
Persian Empire, King Leonidas
rard Butler, Phantom of the
Beowulf and Grendel) goes
le oracle in order to gain permis-
i to fight them. When refused,
teaks the law and takes 300 of
men to stand against the mil
soldiers of King Xerxes in the
ous Battle of Thermopylae.
Ihe movie is excellently nar-
i by Dilios (David Wenham,
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,
Van Helsing) and features a sub
plot new to the film about Queen
Gorgo (Lena Headey, The Brothers
Grimm) trying to convince the
Spartan leadership, and councilor
Theron (Dominic West, Mona Lisa
Smile, 28 Days) in particular, to
send reinforcements to her hus
band.
300 is based off of the graphic
novel of the same name written and
illustrated by legendary comic book
author Frank Miller. And as adapta
tions go, it is the best out there.
Butler’s performance as King
Leonidas is perhaps the greatest of
his career. When he bellowed the
orders to the Spartan army, there
was a palpable feeling of command
in his voice.
As should be expected in any
movie about a great battle, there was
a great deal of time concentrated on
the fighting, and it was spectacular.
One scene particularly deserving of
merit is when King Leonidas first
enters the fray, and the audience is
treated to one of the most amazing
linear fight scenes, where the king
dispatches one enemy after another
before taking a step and defeating
his next foe.
The visuals were truly magnifi
cent, from the sky throughout the
film to the charging rhinoceros that
was felled by a Spartan spear. It
needs to be kept in mind that the
film was shot almost entirely ton
blue screen and that virtually all of
the landscape is digital.
When compared to other “his
torical epics” that have come out
in recent years, 300 soundly bests
them all. With talented acting and
dialogue straight out of Frank
Miller’s work, 300 dominates Troy,
Alexander and even King Arthur.
If you like great movies
and don’t mind some stylized
bloodshed, then 300 is the
movie for you.
Go go Gonzo comics!
VISUAL
LITERATURE
by Adam J. Manley
He’s sexier than Buddha and
... at least that’s
mv he describes himself.
His name is Spider Jerusalem,
Star of the comic series
^¡metropolitan, Jerusalem is
renegade journalist living in a
slant future filled with designer
INA and drug-addicted house-
id appliances.
Afterablissful five-year retire-
fflt in the mountains, a regret-
d two-book contract forces him
•return to a place known only as
be City. Jerusalem immediately
is out to yank the carpet from
nder The City’s comfortable
asiimerist culture, armed only
nth a chip on his shoulder and
lillegaL diarrhea-inducing gun.
When writer Warren Ellis
sin the series in 1997, it was
t black sheep of the monthly
«me world. With not a single
endex shrine to an impossible
lysique, Transmetropolitan
ived into our world’s absurdi-
s deeper and more blatantly
an any ongoing comic of the
Be dared to.
Dubbed a “fuckhead” by strip-
rs and filthy assistants alike,
t character of Spider Jerusalem
portrayed as a master of gonzo
ttnalism- a gritty style of jour-
ism, popularized by Hunter S.
Thompson, which plays off the
notion that the truth needn’t be
objective.
In the comic, Jerusalem writes
a popular column entitled I Hate
It Here, named for the feet that
he was forced to return to The
City after five beautiful years
in the mountains. He uses the
column to point a finger at the
ignorance of his adoring masses
-the middle one.
“Spider Jerusalem needs to be
in The City to write,” his editor
remarks in one issue, “but he also
needs to be hated.”
It’s a frame of mind the world
doesn’t see enough of today: the
person so intent on telling the
truth that they get gratification,
possibly even of a sexual nature,
from pissing people off. After all,
strange as it may seem, the truth
always pisses people off.
That’s why Ellis created the
drug-addled son of a bitch to star
in this comic: to point out every
thing in our “buy-now” culture
and politics that makes him sick.
I find it inspiring. As a jour
nalist, as a filmmaker, and espe
cially as a person, I find myself
wanting to be more like “the
fuckhead.”
Through Jerusalem, Ellis has
achieved the very thing his char
acter did. He has pointed out our
ignorance, our hypocrisy and our
sheep-like habits - and we love
him for it We love his series. We
love his crude, insulting, degen
erate character.
We love the character because,
in spite of his bracing personality,
he stands for the truth, no matter
the cost. He may hate The City,
but he’ll be damned before he’ll
let anybody screw with it
Transmetropolitan, sadly,
reached its conclusion in 2002
- but not before leaving a very
important message:
Trust the fuckhead.
Internet Photo
Oracle of the Ephors (Kelly Craig) takes in some hallucinogenic mist in order to prophesize
the results of King Leonidas’ marching against the million soldiers of the Persian army.
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