300 (DVD)

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In the end, I'd rate the movie's graphics an 8/10, its plot a 5/10, and its characters a 4/10, rounding out to about a 6/10 overall score for the movie as a whole.

"Our arrows," says a Persian, "will blot out the sun."
"Then," responds a Spartan, "we will fight in the shade."

Video:
Speaking of tough to score, it's a little hard to evaluate the picture quality of a movie that its creators purposely distorted for effect. The filmmakers admit they drained the color, dulled the palette, and increased the highlights for maximum contrast. The result on DVD looks very much as I remember it from a movie theater, and WB's 2.40:1 ratio, high-bit-rate, anamorphic transfer does justice to much of the show.

The colors are mainly sepia, gold, and silver-blue in alternating scenes, with splashes of red for dramatic impact. I found most of the hues effective in conveying the feeling of a graphic novel, although some viewers may question the movie's occasional soft focus and grain. The filmmakers intended both of these characteristics, though, so it's hard to complain about them. Nevertheless, the grain provides the film with its grittily realistic atmosphere, so it's nothing we'd want to eliminate.

Audio:
The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 audio, the 5.1 clearly in the demonstration class. It thunders from the very outset of the film and never lets up until the end. There is an enormous dynamic range and bass involved, good localization of information in the surrounds, as well as ambient sounds in the rear channels and room-filling acoustics all the way around. Since this is an action film to the nth degree, the six-channel audio mix has a chance to flex its muscles in practically every shot.

Extras:
Discs one and two of this three-disc "Limited Collector's Edition" contain the same things found in WB's two-disc Special Editions. On disc one you'll find the widescreen presentation of the film; thirty scene selections; English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles; English captions for the hearing impaired; and trailers at start-up only for various other Warner products. In addition, disc one contains an audio commentary by director Zack Snyder, writer Kurt Johnstad, and director of photography Larry Fong. After having seen the film several times, I listened to over half of it with the commentary turned on. These fellows concentrate almost entirely on behind-the-scenes filmmaking techniques, most of which are fascinating. But there is not a lot here about the real history of Thermopylae or about the actors or about any of the backstage hijinks you sometimes hear about in commentaries. Which may come as a relief.

Disc two contains a short documentary, a slew of featurettes, and some deleted scenes. Things start with the documentary "300 Spartans: Fact or Fiction?" It's about twenty-four minutes long, with historians, filmmakers, and author Frank Miller discussing this new interpretation of the real-life battle. After that is a brief, four-minute featurette, "Who Were the Spartans?: The Warriors of 300," with the same people who were in the documentary, so it's more or less a continuation. After that is another featurette on the topic, "The Making of 300," five minutes, and by now the subject is getting tiresome. Next there is yet another featurette, "Making 300 in Images," about three sped-up minutes on the staging, blue screens, etc. Then, there is a change of pace with the "Frank Miller Tapes: Unfiltered Conversations with Frank and Friends," about fourteen minutes with the writer of the graphic novel.

But that's not all on disc two. We've got three additional scenes, introduced by director Snyder, and after that about thirty-eight minutes of Webisodes. There are twelve of these little segments, most of them three or four minutes each, with self-explanatory titles: "Production Design," "Wardrobe," Stunt Work," "Lena Headey," "Adapting the Graphic Novel," "Gerard Butler," "Rodrigo Santoro," "Training the Actors," "Culture of the Sparta City/State," "A Glimpse from the Set," "Scene Studies," and "Fantastic Characters of 300." Wrapping things up are some further trailers at start-up.

Now comes the new stuff. On disc three we find yet another making-of documentary, "To the Hot Gates: A Legend Retold," a thirty-minute analysis of the process the filmmakers followed to take the ancient legend through the graphic novel to the final film. It seems a lot like what the documentaries on the other disc do, but I guess the movie's fans can't have enough of these behind-the-scenes affairs. In addition, the third disc contains a bonus digital copy of the film that you can access from either a PC or a Mac.

The box itself, which measures about 6 x 10 ½ by 1 ½ inches, is quite handsome in a soft, burnished-gold finish. It contains a fifty-two-page, hardcover art book that measures almost the same dimensions as the box, meaning it's long and narrow, with plastic Digipak-type fasteners inside the front and back covers for the three discs. Within the book, you get an attractive collection of paintings, drawings, photographs, and text from and about the movie. Also in the box you get six photo cards of the film's theatrical posters and a really cool Lucite display with a motion film image inside. You turn the plastic display this way and that, and the picture moves inside. Fascinating.

Parting Thoughts:
One could argue that the movie version of "300" is relentless in its attempt to recreate the graphic novel's vision of the Thermopylae carnage. In this regard, the movie succeeds convincingly, and for many viewers, it will be more than enough. As for me, however, if the movie would have had a little more heart and soul, it might have had a better chance of maintaining my interest throughout. Instead, I found the film visually striking but repetitious and only intermittently rewarding. Certainly, the "Limited Collector's Edition" should further spice things up for the dedicated "300" fan, although the high-def editions remain the ultimate versions visually and sonically. I wonder if we'll ever get a "Limited Collector's Edition" in Blu-ray?

"Spartans never retreat! Spartans never surrender!"
--Leonidas

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