Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace (2007)

It took a lot of convincing for me to see this movie. I deciphered from the name ‘Amazing Grace’ which is a well known Christian hymn what this movie was about. I have to admit the connotations of ‘abolition of slavery’ ensued me picturing the demonisation of white men, mostly in positions of power in the realm of Parliament or the slave ship, and the unspeakable inhumanity suffered by the Africans. There is no doubt that the Africans as a group were subject to such hellishness but I know that they were not the only group that were oppressed as slavery was not a Black exclusive problem and also I am finding the whole ‘Whites must pay for evils inflicted upon blacks by white ancestors’ cries to be quite tiresome. But what I saw was something quite different.

Set in the 18th century Britain, Michael Apted’s movie is about the campaign against the slave trade and the famous abolitionist, William Wilberforce (played very well by Ioan Gruffudd) who after wrestling with his illness and his future and seeing with his eyes the abhorrent activities underway in the West Indies, is determined to grab the British Parliament by the horns and put an end to the slave trade altogether. Amazing Grace is what can be called “a quintessential historical biopic.” We have also fantastic performances by Richard Bailey, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Romola Garai, Rufus Sewell, Nick Thomas Webster and Youssou N'Dour.

SPOILER BEGIN

During the film we see Wilberforce’s poignant story being told to his future wife and the future Prime Minister and best friend, William Pitt (played to excellence with great power by Benedict Cumberbatch), keeping him on track by persuading him and others to take on the extremely dangerous and taboo issue of the British Slave Trade. Wilberforce faces relentless pressure by many factors including his illness, his unpopularity in the House of Commons, his love of naturalism and his frustration at his inability to change anything. In the government. Throughout the movie, Wilberforce’s enormous, inspirational inner strength propels him to towards his goal with a passion that words cannot describe.

This movie did not need to constantly bombard us with consistent, horrific imagery of the African’s suffering on the slave ships etc. – the words which came from the mouths of grievously remorseful former captains of the British expeditions and trades etc. amplified it in a far more powerful way and really showed the humanity of the people regardless of their status and the colour of their skin. I was worried they would simply show all the white people as complacent, even greedy slave drivers – which of course they were more often than not though I am sure a substantial proportion of Brits were secretly against the slave trade – but they instead showed that the slavery was more about the struggle for survival. A cruel method of survival with the age old violation of equality and the ambition of the British Empire I thought was not above using whatever it had at its disposal to conquer the world. Yes they faced threats from the French – the survival excuse here – and that shows the cruelty of it blatantly. Not that they showed it as the movie was dominated by politicians, but the majority of British Citizens I have heard were also against the slave trade – and that is a far greater number than the people in power. This movie showed the heat of the battle at the top.

Gruffudd’s Wilberforce in spite of his pressures which were monumental, was evidently a very strong man who was genuinely abhorrent of the atrocities being fired at the Africans and his performance along with the great cast of positively portrayed male characters made me literally glow during the movie and by the end of it I was blown away. The theme of friendship and comradeship and its significance in teamwork and motivation really moved me as well. The relationship of honesty and faith between Pitt and Wilberforce was one of the best performances I have seen in a long time. The wife was likeable (and very good looking) and supportive of him all the way after their many intellectually stimulating conversations. Wilberforce, despite being a man of high power (whom are stereotyped as talking only to other men of power as equals) being an animal lover (with his house full of rabbits etc. was a campaigner of the abolition of cruelty to animals) and a champion of freedom of justice and would talk to anyone regardless of rank – his cook for instance – as an equal. In fact save a few (and even they turn good in the end as men do more often than not after intellectual defeat) all the men in the movie are portrayed as very human and strong people. There is virtually no violence at all save the odd scenes of foggy African slaves in turmoil. There was one strong individual called Equiano who showed us the chains etc. and was present in the Wilberforce’s meetings.

This movie made me feel proud to be a man and one of a just mindset who will sacrifice all that he holds dear for the right reasons. And that is not about war or saving women and children from sinking ships but about saving his fellow human beings and improving humanity to the best it can be. I couldn’t help compare this movie to today’s situation regarding the fourth class (after animals) status of men in the West. The slave trade was something that people had become desensitised to. As if it was normal. Something that was taboo to speak against or bring up. It just was. The majority of citizens secretly loathed it and knew something no matter what that might be was not right and eventually someone with balls of steel challenged it. He was shut up, then ridiculed then taken seriously and finally accepted. Will the current silence of men ever follow such a journey? Will the most taboo – the most repulsive of all subjects namely male vulnerability and the silence of men – finally be analysed with a telescope capable of penetrating through the clouds of feminism and political correctness? There are a growing number of men and women who are variably aware of something invisible and toxic. Misandry - the hate that dare not speak its name. Who will speak out against it? It could be you. Someone who is an inspiration to all men. Someone like William Wilberforce as depicted in Amazing Grace.

SPOILER END

In conclusion this was a refreshing and extremely gripping and excellent movie about the spirit of man and justice. When the bill was finally passed a member of Parliament said something along the lines of “When we think of strong men we think of the likes of Napoleon. Seldom do we hear of strong men who are peaceful. William Wilberforce is such a man.” This couldn’t be more true. It is something the radical Black leaders and of course feminists have forgotten because we never hear about it. If you are a white male do not feel guilty for what your ancestors may or may not have done. You had nothing to do with it.

For thematic material involving slavery, and some mild language.

Runtime: 118Min (UK) 111Min (US)

IMDB

3.5/4

Sunshine

Sunshine (2007)

After seeing a trailer for this movie involving awesome solar rays and fire and giant spacecrafts and little previous experience of space movies since the likes of Armageddon and Apollo 13, I found Sunshine to be quite intriguing. Enough to draw my attention away from Mr. Bean’s Holiday for sure.

This movie, directed by Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Trainspotter, Shallow Grave) is set in 2057 and our sun, Sol, is dying out. Apparently it has not yet swelled up into a red giant and begun consuming all the inner planets which is what happens when all the hydrogen is turned into helium as far as I know. Either way it doesn't make sense. A change as radical as that would take millions of years. Anyway, it has just ceased to function. It has been 7 years since Icarus, the spacecraft sent with a team of scientists to deliver a nuclear bomb to re-ignite the earth has been lost and so Icarus 2 has been sent to replace it. It is 18 months into the mission and the crew of eight, 36 million miles from their target must finish the job.

This movie was not an easy watch. It was exhilarating and gripping but also overwhelming and painful throughout. The cgi is spot on (frankly I am not spitting like a cobra at cgi when it does what it intended to do - thats just me) nd the spacecraft very impressive and the techno rock music worked well. The cast is a part Asian and part Western crew which suggested to me the future idea of power sharing between countries. We have the captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) who is pretty underdeveloped as a character, the navigator Trey (Benedict Wong), the physicist and central character Capa (Cillian Murphy), the biologist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh), the American engineer Mace (Chris Evan), the American communications officer Harvey (Troy Garity), the medical officer Searle (Cliff Curtis) and the pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne).

SPOILER BEGIN

As well as bright and stunning interstellar action sequences there are issues of psychological and social drama which for the first 2/3 of the movie has quite an interesting and tense atmosphere. We see the relationships between the characters – the rivalry between the charismatic Capa and the aggressive Mace and the hinted sexual tension between Capa and the female pilot Cassie. I definitely think that the captain should have had some more development and the doctor too whom we see watching the sun at the start with fascination. The inevitable sequence of writing off each character could have been done better – the demises themselves were inventive enough but you wouldn’t expect the captain to be killed off so quickly just when we were getting to know him. On the plus side I really felt the devastation Trey felt at forgetting to adjust the shields properly and consequently causing a huge dilemma – rendezvous with the Icarus 1 from which a faint signal had been sent or continue with the mission with a very low chance of success. Realising you have failed mankind and having every person on the ship know it must be truly terrifying and Wong’s character portrayed this frighteningly well and though his fate was hardly surprising, it nonetheless shocked me to the core.

Then I found things getting very confusing. My guess is that it alternates between virtual reality involving a crew member from the last Icarus - who appears to have mutated as a result of his isolation and gone mad – and the final attempt to see the mission through and power up the sun again to save humanity. I really felt that in the last part the movie started to go down hill and it didn’t feel right - the whole supernatural god idea. While I am sure it was an interesting and 'bright' (sorry couldn't resist) set of ideas I really felt that a simpler and more understandable ending would have been fitting.

Sunshine reminded me of Apollo 13 in more ways than one. Being a space movie, Apollo 13 was a movie made for men as a chick flick is made for women. It was about a true story of a group of intelligent and highly dedicated men who despite having to fight for their survival, manage to solve near impossible problems and do so with the very essence of male friendship and teamwork. Sunshine evolved from Apollo 13 in that the cgi was exponentially sexed up and the special effects etc. The mission had great potential for intelligent problem solving and what’s more than that, great potential for a prime example of the excellence of men when it comes to being the keepers of judgement of humanity for the good or bad – in this case good or salvation.

But it was not to be.

Sunshine takes a step back when it comes to the portrayal of men – in terms of sympathy for example. While their thunder is not necessarily stolen by the two female characters, the men in this film as not given a very positive image. In Apollo 13 the men managed to work as a team and get past all the anger that was caused by the challenges, tense situations and especially sacrifice.

In this movie the men are fighting over who will survive and seem to hate each other, making resentful comments and getting into fights over the most trivial matters and eventually the most important matters. The extremely potent teamwork and friendship as seen in Apollo 13 would be far more likely that what we see in this movie.

Early on in the film we see the central man, Capa break into a childish fight with Mace over a trivial thing and Cassie, the one of the two woman who I did not like, uttered the typical: “We have an outbreak of manliness,” or something along these lines – showing women as the mature, grown up professionals who are sick of these 'boys with toys.' It was a completely unnecessary thing to say and was really petty and intruding. If the world was threatened by the sun I am nearly 100 percent sure there would be no women on such a voyage – they’d be considered far too valuable and be protected at all costs on the planet. This is what makes this movie in spite of all its realism backed up by cgi, obvious fantasy.

Cassie herself was unnecessary. She mocked all the things men stand for and risk their lives for with all of their creative ‘testosterone.’ She contributes little compared to the other characters, conveniently being the pilot so as she is in expendable compared to the male characters and her pessimism and whining at times made her more of a liability than an asset. She was the typical politically correct ‘decoration’ and violation of men’s territories. The way she said goodbye, we love you to the medical doctor who volunteers to leave himself behind was so devoid of emotion and fake. The whole romance idea between her and Capa is a very bad one for a space mission where lives are risked and chivalry can make spontaneous irrational decisions capable of overwriting the importance of saving mankind. I am not saying women should not be allowed into space movies no questions asked – just not to make her role so annoying. Michelle Yeoh’s character was tolerable enough – she is professional enough and even likeable. I also knew that since Capa was the most charismatic and that he was quite intimate with Cassie that he would be the last to survive. I could never tell what order the others would die (other than the first would be male) but I knew he would be the one to reflect on his life in the last 20min of the movie. They were all tall, young and Hollywood movie star look-alikes when the crew aboard a real spacecraft on a real mission like this one would be older and far more experienced, but again we can tell the good guys from the bad. The ones that were assholes all died with little punch behind it other than interesting methods of death e.g. Ghostship airlock breaking. The man who is not or is least an asshole i.e. is liked by the female characters is always the most likely to survive.

SPOILER END

Overall this movie was ok but not great. It had potential to be excellent and I am not just talking about the failure of the last part to satisfy. I am talking about something very important to me and how even a small dosage of feminist influence/political correctness can ruin my movie. Its like the poison of a black mamba. Had it been shorter with a better finale and the pointless fighting between the male characters and the 'comment' by the woman removed, I would have given this a much higher score, held back only by its diffculty to watch. A good movie though that is worth watching if you are into the sci-fi space genre.

For violent content and language.

Runtime: 107min

IMDB

2/4

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz (2007)








Me and my friend went to see this movie as a break from work. The trailers made it look enjoyable enough and the day in the life of a policeman idea was quite intriguing to me. It was also quite interesting to know it was made by the makers of Shaun of the Dead which was actullay a very good zombie watch.


Edgar Wright’s fast paced action slash comedy actually has a clever plot to it and is reasonably gripping unlike the usual simple minded adrenaline pumping action genre. Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg), a humourless and almost overly competent police sergeant who sets the archetype of a physical enforcer of the law is banished away to a quiet Gloucestershire village by his superiors who make their jealousy of his superiority and their resentment palpably clear in doing so. The first half is gentle and painfully slow as he meets the residents of Sanford (all British actors) and a dim-witted though lovable police partner Danny (Nick Frost) and his father the police chief (Jim Broadbent). The pace really picks up half way through as the two officers are surrounded by a series of fatal so-called ‘accidents’ – very shocking deaths too! Extremely loud, lightning fast car chases, gun fights and exaggerated camera work ensue.

The script of this movie is well done and you will likely get many laughs from the humour and wit (Timothy Dalton – James Bond 4 – was particularly funny) and it was gripping enough for me not to get bored. It has some genuinely memorable and surprising twists e.g. involving a swan. Simon Pegg does a great acting job, as do most of the residents in the village and the comedy factor was what made this movie shine and it can certainly not be called a spoof. However I found it hard to appreciate the combination of action plus quasi-serious scenes and situations and the comedy. This is probably due to this movie being made by creators of zombie movies which normally have a similar kind of feel to it and I personally found the exaggerated action moments where our heroes survive ridiculous experiences e.g. explosions, over the top. The action went a little too fast paced as Hot Fuzz progressed and wasn't half loud in the pictures.

I was thankful for the fact that the male-bashing was actually low on the scale. The scene where Pegg’s character is arguably cheated on and dumped by his girlfriend because she didn’t see enough of him (of course she would never have selected him if he wasn’t so successful) annoyed me a little but I forgot about it quickly as Pegg was not a wuss who let such things get to him. There was violence against men and women for the most part – many exciting methods of elimination. A little boy (not a woman) gives Timothy Dalton a pop in the balls which normally qualifies a movie for a heavy burning bra rating by default but Pegg double flying side kicks an old lady in the face which is unusual so it is not too much of an issue. Because Hot Fuzz is supposed to spoof Point Break and Bad Boys – which are made reference to in the movie - this would likely be a film feminists and other man-haters would describe as overflowing in machismo and testosterone but this time the giving and taking of violence as far as gender is concerned is impressively equal in this movie.

There is also a policewoman who unlike most females in positions of power (yes even comedy/action) who are bitchy and over self-righteous, she is just like her male peers and treated the same way and very likeable – smiley and eccentric. A few comments about ‘police officer and policewoman’ and ‘sexism’ but she laughs it off – silly but nothing to get in a twist about.

Pegg himself plays a good 'police' man who is determined to do his utmost best to make the world a safer place for everyone at the risk of his life and though his actions make this clear he makes a very touching speech to Danny his police partner who is also very likeable and funny.

Overall this is not a groundbreaking movie and is a tad too long and slow moving at the start but a very enjoyable feature that while not being perfection, is not a spoof or anything to be taken seriously and it is strictly for putting smiles on faces. I didn't find the movie excellent because I generally am not a fan films that promote guns and related violence but hey - Canada manages to do fine as far as gun crime is concerned. How much this movie will appeal to you will probably vary - probably not in the ‘love it or hate it’ way.




For violent content including some graphic images, and language.

Runtime: 121min
IMDB

3/4

300

300 (2007)

I decided to see this movie after hearing positive vibes i.e. it was superior to Troy and the great reviews. I knew it would be the typical ancient goodies versus badies only we are replacing the Trojans with the Spartans and the Greeks with the Persians. I also anticipated visual genius and impressive cgi. Apart from that I didn’t know what to expect.

Essentially this movie directed by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, takes place some 2400 years ago and the ancient kingdom of Sparta in all its stage 1 survival status glory, faces conquer by Persia. King Leonidas (Gerard Butler whom I barely recognised from Dracula 2000) has refused to submit to Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) who commands an army of millions. Leonidas defies an old priest and the oracle and goes to war with 300 of his elite warriors – Sparta is well known for extremely intense training of males from an early age due to its philosophy. After Leonidas has left, his wife the Queen (Lena Headey who was in the live action version of The Jumgle Book all those years ago) has to take great measures to send every last man to join him to prevent the inevitable domination of Sparta (only the women will be spared) by Persia.

The visual styles used throughout 300 merit admiration. The scenery is stunning and the cgi impressive and sophisticated. The battle scenes are a stampede of crunching guitar blasts, Lord of the Rings elephants, Scream masked armies and violent decapitations. In the pictures it was truly adrenaline pumping and pretty overwhelming most of the time. It is simple blood crazed action galore. Butler’s Leonidas is the typical loyal to his country, ultra aggressive, would sacrifice his whole army for his woman type leader whom we are rooting for – six packs and oak tree thighs included. Xerxes is a behemoth, androgynous god king who just wants it all. When we aren’t seeing legions upon legions of masked, cloaked (even grotesque) men being skewered by 300 skimpily dressed models in red capes, the rest of the movie I found pretty boring. The ending left a lot to be desired as well.

SPOILER BEGIN

After walking out of the cinema the majority of boys were ranting on about how funny it was to see a man get his head sliced off when he wasn’t looking and how cool the monster man was. I also overheard some women talking about what a strong character the queen was.

I felt enraged by what I saw in this film. From the very start we see what it meant to be a man in ancient times. We see Leonidas as young as a toddler being taught to fight with a sword and take throw downs. When boys reach the age of 7 they are taken from their families and trained intensively to be super soldiers, enduring extreme violence, brutality and torture in order to desensitise them to feeling, to bend them to their ruler’s will and to entangle them into a lifelong bondage as a human weapon of defence and provision for women with no choices. To cap it off young Leonidas has to face nature in its fury. To be abandoned by his country – to face the final hurdles towards becoming a ‘real’ man. In this case a giant, demonic wolf. Only once a man has survived the nightmare and the boy (i.e. feelings) is fully driven out of him and he has sworn himself to the protection by the sword of his country (Sparta) is he allowed back into his country and permitted access to women.

The violence against boys - especially that young – really made me look at the world today and how little we care for the lives of men. After seeing all the bloodshed and war, a feminist no doubt- would call this some testosterone fuelled feud of little boys or the like. At least we are shown with hideous brutality that men are not born monsters but are rather controlled by their moulded moral code which in this case is to operate entirely on what their DNA tells them to – resulting in the classic Stage 1 survival status of society where men are the providers and protectors while women are the home keepers and child raisers. Feminists would call this ‘oppression of women’ with regards no doubt to education and male power in society. Of course it is palpably obvious that while both men and women were restricted in their roles due to the need for survival, that it was men who were by far the more oppressed sex. Three times at least. Being born a man in those times, 50-100 years ago and even now in many places is to be born into bondage of a far more daunting prospect of raising children and being kept in the house and what have you – DEATH!. What could be more oppressing than being brought up to be cannon fodder? Skilled cannon fodders perhaps? Ancient Greece did indeed appear to be one of the only countries that admired male beauty but while female beauty is admired as it is – not what they do – men’s bodies were painted in how they functioned – much like an attractive rapier or rifle. To be a man in those days was a slave. So were women but not as much. Men were oppressed more than women were – by other men i.e. by the very small percentage of men at the top rank who control society. All other men are drones.

Even this blatant fact about men’s heritage as a pose to the dominated subject of ‘women as property’ and ‘oppression of women’ did not matter at all to the thousands of people watching it. All that mattered was the entertainment derived from seeing hundreds of men brutally killed and dismembered. We are now so immune to male suffering and death that the poor man ‘who had never felt the warmth of a woman’ who has his head sliced clean of his head, caused an outburst of laughter and applause in the cinema. People bask in the glory of that 300 strong phalanx drilling those dehumanised, shadowy Persians. Compare this to today when the government calls sending hundreds of troops off to Iraq i.e. murder, glory – fighting for their country (which like Sparta is referred to as ‘her’ or ‘she’). Feminists and their Trojan horses ramble on about women being denied the vote when the fact of the matter was that men were only granted access to the vote when and only when they had sworn themselves to the military service of England. So women never really earned the vote. The vote itself was essentially the condemning of men to death realistically.

And the role of women in this film is what really hammered this movie for me and makes for a lot of interesting points. It was very interesting to note that Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the Suffragettes who committed offence and martyr for the right to sentence men to death by the sword and rifle, actually turned cheerleader when World War 2 was announced, egging men on to fight for their country. Indeed an approximately equal number of women voted for the war in that era (not that there was much discussion) and the same in the recent war. Queen Gorgo is being celebrated on every review board and discussion topic as being a ‘strong woman.’ A victory for female viewers who are so fed up with the passive and weak female characters in other ancient epics e.g. Troy and Gladiator (which was by far superior to both films) But just what is a strong woman? Read Warren Farrell’s The Myth of Male Power, Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say or Why Men Are The Way They Are and you will really understand the difference between male power which is the area where women feel powerless and female power which is the area where men feel helpless. In other words the area of power which feminists associate with real power is the realm of men and because the queen dares to barge into the world of men there is this sort of awkward, ‘something doesn’t feel right’ vibe given off by her actions. Women mistakenly confuse this with power or ‘women’s lib.’

I admit I am rambling on here so I will say that I found Lena Headley’s character to be absolutely abhorrent. It was purely because she was beautiful and was ‘woman’ that she so easily had Leonidas right under her thumb. Leonidas is a strong man. He and his 300 Spartans are the very essence – the very meaning of indomitable spirit and determination! He was also extremely powerful and aggressive. Only his iron moral code and CPU in his balls that the poor women are alive in the first place. Is keeping such powerful men under control via approval, love and sexual intimacy (which are in fact the primary motivators of men) not what power is? When people say Gorgo matches her husband for strength – THIS is what they mean, if only subconsciously. She can bark at and insult the Persian Messengers as much as she wants but she is holding no sway over them as far as male power is concerned i.e. the ‘girl power’ fantasies’ – she is simply manipulating her husband and the Spartan men by playing to their inherent chivalry by causing conflict between the Spartans and Persians. You can call Gorgo a role model of ‘girl power’ but feminist’s political correctness falls under the weight of its inconsistencies. War is a two sex situation.

“Only Spartan Women give birth to real men,” Queen Gorgo taunts (she does this a lot) the Persian messengers before having the desired effect of enraging Leonidas by insulting his queen and subsequently being pushed into a hole. She isn't a strong woman. She played a vital part in starting a war!

Gorgo like so many ancient women back then had her husband by the balls. She had total control over him. She was like all women, a victim. Oh how terrible it is dear women for your son to be taken from you so young! It is such a painful time for the women. Yes and the boys themselves are spared no such tender feelings or empathy. They are physically and socially conditioned from birth to serve woman to the death and embrace the rage of a god when ever she is threatened or upset. That is what real power is.

In one scene before the great battles we are given an unnecessary dosage of male demonisation – in the form of a lecherous old priest who resembles Palpatine with “the desires of men.” His licking and sexual abuse of the oracle – a painfully corny scene with a white clothed teenage girl jerking around the air as if being raped is amplified by his betrayal of Sparta as he has been in league with Xerxes before Leonidas consulted him. I don’t know if these scenes were historically accurate but I am told that the next Gorgo scandal was not included in the novel.

It really made me sick to see clearly when Gorgo makes her appearance again after the first battle scenes, the obvious difference between good men and bad men. The only good men as far as she and the rest of Sparta is concerned are the ones who fit Leonidas and his warrior’s description which I have detailed above – also known as ‘real men.’ The bad man is the man who refuses to go to war. I don’t know why the council was opposed to the Battle of Thermopylae etcetera but the ‘strong woman’ was apparently the only one who wished to risk the insanity of sacrificing every last man to fend off Persia. To do this it apparently took more than being born with a vagina to accomplish this – to convince the old farts in the council to give the green light for doomsday for the last man. After all what is a life of shifting water pales and wiping babies bottoms got to match the old farts who have by some strike of luck survived battles and had the luxury of thinking for themselves as a result (I am thinking about Plato and Aristotle – with all these ‘strong women’ about how come there were never any female Socrates around?)?

This is where the 2 men come in. Both high up in the council – one good and one bad. The good man is the man who keeps his distance from her and treats her as his superior because of her status and apparently has less power than the other man. The other man, Theron (Dominic West who does a great job of demonising the male gender) is apparently against the war. Yes he’s a sexual predator, a money grabber and a traitor but he is against battle nonetheless. He is a prime example of what a bad man is. Through privilege or status it is likely he escaped the inhumanity of being born male and the indoctrination process and it would be a total disaster to the film and its Political Correctness for him to be a good man and at the same time against the war. Compare this 60 years ago when men who did not fight for their country were ostracised and labelled cowards and given pink flowers or even imprisoned. Because of his demands for sex as compensation for his support in the council we see the only woman in the film (besides female villagers and Xerxes’ harlots) suffering. Apparently her suffering was worse than all the men in the film suffering – the young boys being whipped and the men being turned into human (if even that) kebabs combined.

In the court she essentially says to the room of men: “Ok please for the sake of glory and greatness, will you mortal men go and sacrifice yourself in the battlefield for us poor innocent women so that we do not have to face the prospect of unwanted sex and slavery.” Apparently the morality of women is superior to men. And the act of forcing a woman to have unwanted sex is a far more serious crime than taking the life of a man. Saying in not so many words to a room of Stage 1 women: Ok please for the sake of your beauty and sex appeal will all your woman please have sex with all of us men” would leave the men shivering outside the house until they apologised. The vanity of women at its most blatant. Despicable. The way she stabs Theron to death when he betrays her, while taunting him (the “GO GIRL” moment being linked to the similar taunting Gorgo suffered at the hands of Theron before their sex) and the way all the men call him a traitor seeing the gold in his robes was the point where women squeal with delight at the justice done against this monstrous man. The vicious slap in the face would just have been starters. Even a lot of men would say: “the bastard so deserved that.” Thanks to Darren for that observation who said: “as though the act of a woman agreeing to unwanted sex was worse than the taking of a man’s life.”

It seemed unrealistic to me. Wouldn’t she be manipulating him with sex in order to gain his support? That was the real power women had in those days (and still have – the problem being they are refusing to give it up). It would have at least reduced the demonisation of men enough for this film to be considered a realistic account of men’s heritage and the survival struggle of the ancient times.

SPOILER END

In conclusion this is a simple minded and visually impressive ‘in your face’ movie. Nothing wrong with that though it does get boring at times (not as boring as Troy mind you) and especially after seeing it once. A good watch if you want Sin City like action and tending from good to college level acting. For me the violence against men and boys along with the unappealing nature of the queen made me question myself whether I would have seen it for the first time knowing these facts.

Answer: Doubtful

For graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity.



Runtime: 117min

IMDB

MMG

2.5/4