300: "Tonight, We Dine In Hell"

300 is a film about the story of the 300 Spartan soldiers who fought against the massive Persian army in ancient Greece. The film is extremely stylized and views history through the lenses of a comic book. It is by no means an accurate account but that was probably not the filmmakers’ intentions. The movie presents the Spartan warriors as brave embodiments of pure manliness. It is also a shrine to the male body. Every single Spartan is extremely muscular, toned, and oiled. The camera frames their bodies to take up as much of the screen as possible. 300 is filled to the brim with masculine images and themes, but displays instants of homoeroticism.

From a young age the warriors are taken away from their mothers and thrust into the wilderness to become a warrior. This aspect of the story feeds the cultural ideology apparatus that soldiers, especially those willing to die for their country, should be admired to a heroic level (hence the capes). Sparta is a culture where if you are not a warrior then you are nothing. If you do not become a fighter then you are relegated to wearing feminine robes and becoming a politician. The warriors, on the other hand, wear nothing but loincloths, capes, and their weapons. The film is so fixated on highlighting masculine body features that it nears fetishism.

Also, in the film the Persians are framed as the feminine opposite of the manly Spartans. The Persian King, Xerxes, is shown wearing nothing but a golden codpiece and covered in jewelry. The Persians all have “an androgynous quality as if their secret mission is to blur the sexes and turn the Spartan studs into women”. Female qualities are as much the enemy as the Persians are.

A portion of male viewers will more than likely not be able to differentiate between the stylized (and oiled) manliness shown in the movie and manhood in real life, which is problematic because violence and muscles should not be the only prerequisites to being a brave man.