This is SPARTA!

I am hopped up on cookies and a good movie right now! Sadly, due to budget cuts, we lost a prominent person in my company this week and the woman who hired me seven years ago. Friday was her last day, and because so many people brought food to her going-away party, I ended up getting back the Oreos I bought and disgustingly eating one-third of the package while I was working late and waiting to meet some friends for a movie. After the movie, the cookies on my front seat were tempting, and I ate another third on my ride home. Now I'm on a sugar high, and due for a crash.

The movie we went to see was 300, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, which in turn was based on the historical clash of the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae against the superior numbers of the invading Persian army. Miller has referenced this battle in another notable work of his, Sin City: The Big Fat Kill, and as a child enjoyed the film The 300 Spartans.

Gerard Butler, best known for his roles in Dracula 2000, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and Timeline, portrays King Leonidas. Rather than kneel to the invaders, he seeks permission to lead an army against them. When he is denied, he goes out with a mere 300 warriors, and the rest was history. I was surprised to learn that the towering Xerxes was played by Rodrigo Santoro, one of the “new” characters on Lost this season(he plays a survivor of the plane crash that's been there all along, just someone in the background we never focused on). It's amazing what special effects can do these days, as he towered over Leonidas.

Taking a page from the first Sin City movie, the film used the source material from Miller as storyboards, and followed it exactly. The juxtaposition of the Spartan's red capes against desaturated backgrounds is breathtaking, and at times I thought blood, sweat, or arrows would fly off the screen. For nearly two hours, I watched a renaissance painting brought to life. If Sin City brought Miller's drawings to life, 300 brought them to life as though they had been painted by a traditional fantasy artist such as Donato Giancola. It was all vivid and beautiful. The pretty people and the deformed ones, the battered metal of the armor and shields and the flowing silk garments, all textures were rich and real. The crack of lighting and the crash of metal resonated, and the soundtrack was intense, heavy metal guitars mixing with more classical choral pieces. The choreography on the fights was amazing, and it's obvious Miller did his homework when it came to traditional military strategy, even as the film slowed down and paused on key frames like the Burley Brawl in The Matrix Reloaded. It was truly a cinematic experience, history blended in to mythology, and something that must be seen on the big screen.

I stood on my feet like a man, as the Spartans did, and watched the credits roll. B13, who's also having a photo game this week, took some shots, one with a flash which was interesting in the dark theater. I'll leave you with some Mysterious Millerized pictures of yours truly: