300 - Rise of an Empire

300 - Rise of an Empire is clearly a testosterone-laden, gore-soaked, fantasy version of what the days of the Greeks were like. It never pretends to be a historical documentary or an Ivory Merchant gentle story. That being said, just how well does 300 - Rise of an Empire do at its target quest?



I'm perhaps unusual because I'm not the target audience for this movie. I'm female. I'm over forty. That being said, I adore movies with sword combat. I've taken sword fighting training for several years and write books involving female sword fighters. I enjoyed the first 300 movie immensely, even with its graphic novel style and gushing blood. I love movies like Gladiator and Conan. I understand that this is a fantasy, not a portrayal of actual events. I understand that it's going to be over the top.

Also, I give them film immense kudos for portraying two capable females who can hold their own in this world. It wasn't that long ago that a man simply COULD NOT fight a woman in a movie because that would be cruel. Clearly women were too weak to defend themselves properly. I am so thrilled that modern movies show women who are strong and talented. Here we have Queen Gorgo of Sparta - played by the talented Lena Headey of Game of Thrones fame. She's furious about the death of her husband, the hero from the first 300, and wants revenge. Here you see her from behind as she charges into battle, leading her men.



We also have Artemisia, played by Eva Green, who is the naval commander for the entire Persian army. For Game of Thrones fans, you can think of her in two ways. First, she was trained from a young woman to be a swordswoman and had great talent in it. The training scenes are much like Arya Stark building her skill set. She's able to land a solid blow on her trainer.



So that is awesome! Women with strength. Women who are taken seriously. When Artemisia grows to adulthood she is similar to a second GoT character. Artemisia's men don't mutter behind her back about her being female. They respect her skill and talents. She's like Asha Greyjoy in Game of Thrones - a fierce naval commander who earns the respect of her troops.

So I like swordplay. I like strong male and female characters! I enjoy fantasy stories and don't mind the gore. This should have been a perfect movie for me. Why do I have issues with it?

First, as much as I adore the two female characters, it irks me that they still fall into the two main categories that women in these male-power movies tend to portray. There's the loyal, chaste wife who dutifully does what she should. The main character, General Themistocles, is respectful to Queen Gorgo her and treats her fairly as an equal.

Then there's the loose woman who uses her body to achieve her goals. The whore-slash-prostitute who uses her sexuality to get what she wants from men. Artemisia climbs all over Themistocles, he rips off her clothing, and when it seems she might want to stop he flips her over and takes her anyway. It's not exactly rape, but it's fairly close. Clearly she's egging him on - and somehow, despite all her years of experience with men, she's surprised when he does the "honorable thing" and refuses to switch sides after having his way with her. "Ha ha," he seems to say, "I got what I want and now I'm leaving."



Studies have been done - and the mere fact that these have been done boggles my mind - about how men react to different types of sexual videos. They like it, naturally, if the woman wants the sex and participates in it. But according to these studies the men watching seem to react more strongly when the woman does NOT want the sex at first, but due to the man's prowess they get sucked into wanting it almost against their will. So a rape sequence where the woman ends up enjoying it. It's troubling of course that this is appealing for a portion of men - but it's even more troubling to me that this is portrayed on the big screen as a fantasy to watch and emulate. Certainly one could say that "it's just a movie and clearly a fantasy" - but movies have a way of infiltrating into our minds. We build ideals and patterns based on what we watch. A woman who watches gentle romances all the time might come to believe - even slightly - that she deserves some gentle romance in her life. She begins to crave it, just a little. What might happen to a man who watches near-rape scenes all the time, where the woman is saying no but it seems she actually means yes?

Certainly I'm not advocating that all movies be happy-go-lucky films that avoid mention of any challenging topic. Some of my favorite movies tackle hard core issues. At the same time, it makes me uncomfortable that a movie aimed directly at a young-adult male market, with powerful female characters, has to stoop to having the hero rape one of them in order to make a point. Was that really a necessary part of the plot? Surely the same message could have been made more powerfully without rape? This woman has already been raped throughout her life. Was this one more rape - by the HERO - a critical part of how the story unfolded? Or was it the writers being lazy? Or playing out their own fantasy, which should give us pause ...

I'll note as a final point about this that the actual Artemisia was brilliant, wise - and she was a loyal wife and mother, just like Queen Gorgo. She was the daughter of a king and took the throne when her husband died. She took over the naval commander job, too, at that point. So in many ways she is just like Queen Gorgo. Why not showcase Artemisia in this manner? Why turn her into a whore? It seems to be because the writers wanted a wild rape-sex scene and it just isn't "right" to do that with the dedicated-wife character. However it's quite fine to do that to a loose woman. Maybe with a loose woman "she deserves it." Which, again, bothers me.

Three stars.

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