Cited: 300. Dir. Zack Snynder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006.
Cited: 300. Dir. Zack Snynder. Perf. Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, and Rodrigo Santoro. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006.
Because of the recent movie, 300, most people are aware of the epic battle that occurred at Thermopylai were 300 odd Spartans supposedly held off an army of over one million led by Xerxes I. Now, there were many errors in the movie (the number of men on both sides being the chiefest of them). But it still leaves many people asking how a force so drastically outnumbered was able to hold a force nearly twenty times their number. The answer lies in the difference in their equipment, tactics and their training.…
The Greeks had chosen to defend a narrow pass, or gap, between the mountains of central Greece and the sea, called Thermopylae. This pass was part of the route into Greece from the north. King Leonidas of Sparta rounded up 300 of Sparta’s most elite soldiers with the help of 7000 Greek soldiers from other states marched for an attempt to block the only road by which the massive Persian army could pass, while the small army knew they would face a large army which would end up to be over 100,000 Persians.…
Leonidas refuses, and with their tightly-knit phalanx formation, the Spartans use the narrow terrain to repeatedly rebuff the advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally parleys with Leonidas, offering him wealth and power in exchange for his loyalty and surrender. Leonidas declines, and Xerxes sends his elite guard, the formidable Immortals, to attack, but the Spartans successfully dispatch them, suffering a few casualties of their own. Xerxes then sends a number of exotic weapons at the Spartans, including black powder bombs and war elephants, but all of these attacks fail. During these attacks, Astinos is killed, which drives his father Captain Artemis into a fit of…
Without getting too excited, and before embarrassing myself thoroughly with clichés, let it be stated that The 400 Blows changed the lives of many, my own included. It is for the French youths what On the Road was for the jazz-crazed beatniks — a definitive bible of sorts. One shouldn’t expect a bildungsroman arc from the works of Truffaut. If anything, this film is more of an anti-narrative. It is a film about a juvenile delinquent named Antoine Doinel; it is a film about you; it is a film about anyone and no one in particular. Released in 1959, The 400 Blows defied the traditional filmmaking canon and, arguably, set the French New Wave in orbit. Five minutes into the film, we should accept that there will be no pseudo-intellectual pillow talk, but…
Imagine being taken away from your family and your home when you were just seven years old. The Spartans may have built one of the finest militaries of the ancient world, but their culture was so harsh that the word “Spartan” has become synonymous with an austere way of life. Spartan society was carefully constructed around a strict moral code and sense of duty, and its people underwent extreme hardships and deprivation on their way to becoming accepted as full citizens. It is with this cruel way of life that lead to the greatest, hardest, and most disciplined warrior 's who ever existed in the ancient world.…
We watched the Breakfast Club. One of the main character's name was Brian. He changed throughout the movie. At the beginning of the movie he was picked on a lot and no one cared about what he said. It was hard for him to talk to other students or try to say something, but they didn’t listen to them or tell them to shutup. When he was in the car his mom wanted him to study constantly. He was trying to be funny and did a weird pencil thing to be funny. People in his class did not laugh they just looked at him strangely.…
After viewing “the 400 blows” one feels a very strong connection between the filmmaker and the subject of the film which turns out to be present even more than anticipated since the film is indeed semi-autobiographical and most of the events depicted in the film are directly inspired from Truffaut’s own troubled youth and his uneasy relationship with his parents (Neupert, History, 182). However, what one would expect from a “new wave” film is not directly noticeable at first sight like it is in Breathless (Godard, 1960), although, as soon as we delve deeper into dissecting the movie we discover that it is far from being ordinary and it is full of unexpected twists relating to both from and content.…
Cited: The Notebook. Dir. Nick Cassavetes. Perf. Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling. DVD. New Line Home Entertainment.…
On the first day of battle, the Spartans use the mountain pass to their advantage and kill many Persians with only losing a few Greeks. Xerxes learns of a hidden trail that leads behind the Spartans and sends an elite force to annihilate them. Leonidas sends a party to assassinate Xerxes in the middle of the night, but the attempt fails. Leonidas released his allies on the third day, while him and his 300 stay to die at the hands of the Persians. Xerxes beheads Leonidas puts his head on a pike and nails his body to a tree. Xeones completes his story about the Battle of Thermopylae, but dies. Xerxes’ scribe continues his story of the war saying that the Athenian Navy defeats the Persian Navy which causes Xerxes to retreat from Greece. The Greeks defeat the remaining Persian Army and win the…
The film 300 is a text book example of a dramatized Hollywood film. Many aspects of the film have been altered to appeal to an action hungry audience which is exactly what happened. The film in some…
The debut film of Francois Truffaut, The 400 Blows is world-renowned for being the epitome of the French New Wave movement. Following the award for best director at the 1959 Cannes festival, Truffaut’s The 400 Blows entered theatres of all nations ranging from its domestic French theatres to the foreign theatres such as in the United States. Domestic (French) reception of the film was quite positive, and commented by Jean-Luc Godard declared it to be “most free, film of the world” of the time (Godard). Certain American critics were surprisingly less appreciative of the film, with comments such as “All of them (French films) display remarkable competences, although none of them is a satisfactory picture” (Kauffmann, 21). As with all general…
|Identify aspects of |The cinematography in this movie has made it one of my favorite movies to the point that my youngest son is named after Maximus. They way they used the |…
Then a Greek traitor told Xerxes of a roundabout path over the mountains. When Leonidas saw the enemy approaching from the rear, he dismissed his men except the 300 Spartans, who were bound, like himself, to conquer or die. Leonidas was one of the first to fall. Around their leader's body the gallant Spartans fought first with their swords, then with their hands, until they were slain to the last man.…
B. This critic directly looks at other critics and compares himself to them and adds views of his own on The 400 Blows. At first Truffaut postponed his implementation of trying and completing a film of this degree in his filmmaking career. He waited until more experience was given to him before starting. Here he describes how different critics looked at Truffaut and put emphasis on how relevant his film was to French culture. French filmmaking and American filmmaking are both reviewed, compared, and criticized for different aspects. In The 400 Blows characters were not made to be more sympathetic then others but on the same level as each other.…
Have you ever thought about what the greatest movie of all time may be? Have you ever been stuck between what makes one better than the other? It may seem simple when you first begin to make your decision and analyze each movie you have seen throughout your lifetime. Wait, think about how the many factors that can really “make or break” any film before you make you final choice. For example, the film’s plot, character choice, believability, and special effects can all make a complete difference. These few differences can make you feel whether or not a movie deserves or is lacking credibility to be titled as number one. One movie that truly deserves this title is Blood Diamond.…