So nice to find someone who hates 300 as much as you do. I had to watch that fucking thing in a history class and it remains probably the most unpleasant movie I’ve ever sat through

poorquentyn:

“What if Frank Miller directed Lord of the Rings” is a question we very much did not need the answer to, and “rally the shining ab-laden masculinity of Europe for Freedom and Stuff against the dark scary gay-coded Persian” is a singularly toxic dose of derp in both historical and modern contexts. 300, of course, is practically subtextual compared to Miller’s followup Holy Terror, an outright screed against Muslims, but the worldview was still there in 300, and Zack Snyder presented it unfiltered. The only way to redeem his 300 is for its camp value, and it is admittedly a goldmine in that regard, but for me, the desaturated-slo-mo style interferes with even ironic enjoyment; I’m done laughing at a given scene about 20% of the way through it. 

Incidentally, if anyone wants a good corrective to 300, they should read @kierongillen‘s Three. It’s a mini-series about three helots trying to escape Sparta while being pursued by Spartiate slave-catchers. 

And unlike 300, this one is well-researched and historically accurate, with backpages where Gillon chats with historians and classicists he talked to while researching the book.