To sum up the movie "300," it contains a drug-induced erotic dance (the Oracle-girl), a softly pornographic love-making scene (Leonidas and Queen Gorgo), a hedonistic semi-orgy (Xerxes' court), a multitude of digitally-enhanced pecs and abs (the Spartans), and enough blood and violence to drench a frightened by-stander. It also explicitly and implicitly expresses fundamental American values, including freedom, duty, sacrifice, honor, justice, defiance, integrity, meritocracy, patriotism, and familial loyalty, devotion, and love. Arguments can also be made for other values, especially feminism.
So what does all this mean in the grand scheme? What does it say about American culture that its core values can be bundled with heaping helpings of sex and violence in a mainstream blockbuster movie that makes hundreds of millions of dollars?
Like the Romans 1500 years ago, Americans are awed by decadent spectacle. It is not always enough to tell a good story or to portray epic events, such as the Battle of Thermoplyae, as they really occurred. Americans are bombarded with media everyday of their lives and thus become desensitized to it. Those daily lives are hectically busy, making any time investment in television, film, or literature a cramped luxury. Yet in spite of their busy lives, Americans often go to the movie theater or video store, and they have a virtually limitless selection available. Therefore, film producers must work very hard to make sure their movie compels people to spend their precious time and money on tickets, rentals, and DVDs. Sex and violence are two common methods of gaining and keeping people's attention, but Americans are so inoculated against violence and sexual suggestion that movies must continually up the ante, so to speak. "300" may seem tame compared to films thirty years from now.
Sex, violence, and good old-fashioned American values are the ingredients of a sure-fire recipe for a large audience and huge economic success. The eroticism of "300" attracts viewers based on a fundamental, undeniable human appeal. Its violence fascinates an equally basic aspect of human nature and experience. Any movie that can present either or both of these appeals will find an audience in America. The audience will be larger if these appeals are presented with any artfulness, such as striking cinematography or visual effects. And the audience will be enormous if the movie also offers core American values in a fairly uncomplicated manner. The stunning success of "300" reveals as much about Americans as it does about how to make a blockbuster.
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