300 Spartans
Picture: B Sound:
B- Extras: D
Film: B+
Filmmaking during the
1960’s brought many great epics to the big screen any many of these including
true or mostly true Biblical epics of films involving Rome. 1962’s 300 Spartans is a great example of some
of the great filmmaking that was taking place bringing to life the events that
occurred around 480 B.C. in Greece. Director
Rudolph Maté began his career as a cameraman on films like Carl Theodore
Dreyer’s Passion Of Joan Of Arc
(1928) and Vampyr (1932), so he had
a very advanced grasp of visuals early on.
He took this talent to Hollywood on films including Stella Dallas (1937), Alfred Hitchcock’s Foreign Correspondent (1940) and the Film Noir classic Gilda in 1946. It was after that he decided to be a
director. He turned out to be a great
journeyman director and early on gave us the original Film Noir classic version
of D.O.A. in 1950 and soon after in
1953 even tried a 3-D film with Second
Chance. This film was his next to
last and one of his most distinct.
The story circles a Greek
soldier who led The 300 Spartans
into battle against the overwhelming odds of the Persian army in the battle of Thermopylae. Part of
the films amazing visual work is due to Mate’s ability to transform the film
into a very visceral film with the material beautifully captured in
Cinemascope, and picking the right cameraman to work with him. Fox has issued the film to DVD and while it
contains no supplements the film is at a nice price and the quality looks very
good overall. The film is presented in a
very rich 2.35 X 1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which demonstrates the
vibrant look of Cinemascope and the vastness it creates. Notice the rich greens, reds, and blues that
are jumping off the screen. A good
comparison for this transfer is to that of Criterion’s Spartacus (1960), which was a 65mm shot film, but both films
resemble some of the ways that older films, when transferred correctly, can
still look amazing even by today’s standards!
Geoffrey Unsworth’s
cinematography is also some of his best, especially after some awesome black
& white work in the past (A Night to
Remember (1958) for example), he would later incorporate his skills into
various projects including some of the best cinematography in all of cinema in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)! He would continue to work in various
formats as well, including TV’s Columbo,
Zardoz (1974), and even Superman (1978). There is no doubt that part of the visual
language created in The 300 Spartans
would prepare him well for his future endeavors. The audio is presented in a 2.0 Dolby Stereo
configuration, which is basically a mono source thrown into right and left
front speakers, but since this was scope, where is the multi-channel master? This works fine for the film and a 5.1 mix
would have had interesting results.
Since the film is mainly dialogue it would have made little difference
anyway.
This is a film that still
has a large following of fans, mostly those that were captured by the film when
it came out in the 60’s and have sought after a good version of the film
since. Its availability since then has
been limited on other formats, so having it on DVD is a real treat! Not only that, but having the film presented
widescreen, which to my knowledge this is the first time ever on home video! The film has been much requested and you can
see why. This is one of the most
interesting of all the “sword & sandal” films that came out during this
cycle that was a mainstay of early widescreen filmmaking. The
300 Spartans is one of the most underrated of all these films and it is
great to see it arrive in such a solid DVD.
- Nate Goss
