Continuing our obsessive week of 300, I wanted to post some interesting trivia about the movie. I am consistently amazed at the number of people who don’t know about or go to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), but my college roomate/movie-guru Kyle showed it to my wife and I one day and we were hooked. The site contains all of the information you could ever want to know about actors, movies, directors, television shows, the works! An inherent property of trivia is that it be interesting, but a lot of the things you can find out about your favorite movies are very surprising. Here’s a selection from the trivia on 300:
The film was shot in 60 days.
The film was shot on blue and green screen in Montreal.
The filmmakers used bluescreen 90% of the time, and greenscreen for 10%. They chose blue because it better matched the lighting paradigm (green would have been too bright) and because red garments (a la spartan capes) look better when shot over blue.
There was one day of location shooting, which was for the horses that were shot for the ‘approaching Sparta’ scene.
I was probably most surprised by this one, because it’s very early in the movie and it actually made me think, “Crap, if the whole movie is like this scene I don’t feel like I’ll be able to get into it or relate at all!” Yea, the only scene that was actually real…
The script demanded that most of the male cast spend the majority of their screen time bare-chested, as per Frank Miller’s original graphic novel. Therefore, in order to adequately present themselves as the most well-trained and marshalled fighting force of the time, the entire principal cast underwent a rigorous and varied training regime for 6 weeks prior to shooting.
According to an interview with IGN.com, Director Zack Snyder says that fighting styles and formations (particularly the Spartan’s phalanx) were purposefully changed – making them historically inaccurate – so they’d “look cool” and work better for movie purposes.
I’m SORRY, the O, I’m an ass and I know it. You’re a genius. My advanced knowledges of Architecture, the Romans, and Fighting techniques have failed me… I should have figured as much, he married a Greek woman afterall.
The movie never claims to be historically correct. It is based almost entirely on Frank Miller’s 1998 comic book mini-series. Changes from history were made by Miller and Snyder so as to appeal to a wider audience and create a more exciting and visually stunning action movie, rather than a typical historical epic.
Frank Miller was inspired by the original Battle of Thermopylae after viewing the 1962 film The 300 Spartans (1962) as a child. His perception of the ‘hero’ concept changed greatly after seeing the Spartans make their sacrifice.
The makers showed a 90-second test of the movie to Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov, the executives from Warner Brothers, who then greenlit the project.
The song that can be heard in the various trailers is Nine Inch Nails’ “Just like you imagined” from their 1999 double album “The Fragile” (Halo 14, Left CD, Track 7)
The monolougue said by the narrator when it shows Leonidas and his men dead is actually found on the tomb of the real King Leonidas.
There are a few more over at the actual IMDb page for the movie. If you’ve never checked out the trivia feature before, I suggest you head on over and read up on some of your favorite movies! Did you know that while filming Batman Begins Christian Bale demanded his trailer sign read, “Bruce Wayne”?
I would have demanded that it say “Batman.”
Not to spoilz or anything, but Bruce Wayne -is- Batman. 😛 (sorry, I’m a smartass)
It was instead of having “Christian Bale” on the trailer. Also I’d hope that you’d demand “BatWoman”. “Batgirl”? I’d say the -girl is a bit derogatory, but Barbara Gordon has always kicked ass so I suppose not!
Uh, yeah.. I got it. I’m saying if you go to the trouble of changing it to Bruce Wayne, why not have it say Batman.. It’s much cooler.
And I meant if I were him. Which I’m glad I’m not.
Yeah, it’d say Batgirl for me.. not Batwoman, since, you know.. she’s a lesbian.
Didn’t mean to be rude or insulting, I was really just trying to illustrate that to me Bruce Wayne and Batman are really synonymous. It is an interesting thing to consider though, as to which character you’d rather feel more a part of when playing the role.
Batwoman is a lesbian?! Righteous.
I didn’t know most of that about 300. Cheers buddy.
What did you think of the movie? Personally I was a little let down. I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it was great.
Well, I’d say it’s mostly clear having decided to do most of a week’s posts about the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed it! I haven’t yet seen it a second time (not for a lack of wanting though) at which point I’ll make more refined observations and judgements about directing, acting, and cinematography. I can make an educated guess that it will easily become one of my favorite movies, but I tend to rate those on pure enjoyment rather then anything else.