Rodrigo Santoro (right) stars in 300.______
'There's no room for softness in Sparta,' the narrator intones at one point in the FX-infused 300, the ultra-violent video game masquerading as a movie. The narrator is either referring to the tradition of Greek men training to become warriors from the moment they can heft a spear or the much more fun tongue-in-cheek explanation: the fact that every male in Sparta sports a rock-hard physique topped off by spectacular six-pack abs. The time-honored tradition of gay men and straight men both dying to see Hollywood's latest sword-and-sandal epic ( admittedly for different reasons ) has never been more potent than with 300.
If these pictures—everything from the Steve Reeves epics to Troy—can be viewed as homoerotic ( and boy, can they ever ) , then 300 sets the bar almost as high as Mt. Olympus. If things went any further, these guys would penetrate each other with two spears instead of one.
King Leonidas ( Gerard Butler ) is the typical, tough Spartan who, like all his brethren, was trained in the 'killing arts' to be a soldier first and to put his fellow warriors above all else. Leon strides around wearing copper-colored thigh-high boots and a copper-colored leather codpiece, both set off by his dark cherry red cape. Afraid of nothing and taking council from none except his beautiful but fierce wife, queen Gorgo ( played by Imagine Me and You's lesbian heartthrob, Lena Headey ) , Leonidas quickly dispenses with an emissary from the approaching, massive Persian army demanding fealty.
The oracles advise Leonidas to avoid conflict with the Persians and he's refused help from Sparta's army, so the headstrong king lines up 300 of his best buds on his own. Before taking off on his quest for glory, Leon stands naked in the moonlight musing on his fate, gives Gorgo a quick thrust of his love gun Greek-style and then heads off with his handpicked pals. The manly men head for a narrow area of Greece near the sea between two cliffs conveniently nicknamed the Hot Gates in order to up their chances of beating back the approaching enemy. Upon arriving, Leon and his men quickly knock off the Persian scouting party, which so upsets their leader that he arrives to get a closer look at this defiant hothead.
The arrival of Xerxes ( Rodrigo Santoro ) , the self-proclaimed god of the Persians, kicks the movie into hyper homo drive. Standing at a statuesque eight feet, Xerxes is toted in on a massive throne by a host of slaves to confront this recalcitrant Spartan. Wearing about as much jewelry, make-up and mascara as Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra; donning a bejeweled codpiece; and striking a Cher pose, the fey Xerxes tells Leon that he'll get to keep Sparta and have untold riches and more if only he will bow in submission at his feet. As Xerxes offers this he literally stands behind Leon, massaging his shoulders and cooing in his ear, his intentions clear. But Leon, apparently a top to the end, demurs and vows to fight on, which he and his men do—in increasingly violent and bloody battles.
The source material for the film is based on the comic book by Frank Miller ( the mind behind Sin City ) . The violence, not surprisingly, is also that of the comic-book variety. Though the movie is chock full of decapitations, eviscerations, hacked-off limbs and the like, the computer-generated process gives all this gore the veneer of un-reality. Much of the film was shot in front of a green screen in order to incorporate the dazzling visuals and it's a beautiful, dark movie with copper and blood-red the primary colors. But though director Zack Snyder delivers a ravishingly beautiful picture, the real visual splendor remains the magnificent torsos of the movie's human inhabitants, with Butler ( who played the phantom in Phantom of the Opera ) and Santoro taking highest honors. I suppose the highest praise I can offer a film like 300 is to say that I felt like taking a cold shower after seeing it.
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All month long you can see Queen Latifah on HBO in Life Support. Based on a story inspired by the sister of the film's co-writer-director, Nelson George, the movie has the good fortune of having Latifah as both its star and executive producer ( along with Jamie Foxx ) . The consistently likeable actress plays Ana Willis, an HIV-positive former drug user who has put her life back together but not without consequences. Ana now works for a group providing counseling and outreach on AIDS to the Brooklyn community where they live, but emotional scars remain. Ana's relationship with her teenage daughter, Kelly ( newcomer Rachel Nicks ) , and her mother ( Anna Deavere Smith ) remains tenuous. When Kelly's gay friend, Omari ( Evan Ross ) , who also has AIDS, goes missing, old wounds are reopened.
One of Life Support's biggest highlights is the interaction between Ana and her co-volunteers, who meet and talk about the problems the disease has brought them. These scenes, reminiscent of the women's bitch fests in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, crackle with energy and Latifah, as the fictional Ana, effortlessly and compassionately matches up with the other women ( playing themselves ) .
The film incorporates a lot of social issues revolving around the insidious pandemic but, to its credit, doesn't try to tie up the problems facing its characters with neat solutions.
The high pedigree of the star and production team ( along with an excellent supporting cast headed by Deavere Smith and Wendell Pierce ) also helps keep the movie a notch above the treacle of an after-school Special. It's earnest, thoughtful and entertaining.
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My number-one GLBT film for 2006, Shortbus, is out on DVD from Velecity/Think Film. Gay writer-director John Cameron Mitchell's follow-up to Hedwig and the Angry Inch is passionate, thrilling and gloriously fun about sex. The DVD includes an amiable director and cast commentary; a fascinating, in-depth look at the laborious process of getting the film cast and shot; several deleted or extended scenes; and a short featurette on shooting the sex room where all the characters eventually converge.
My archived reviews are at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Feedback can be left at the latter Web site.
