300

" Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!" King Leonidas

☆☆☆☆☆ Classic 


300 (2010) is a visual feast.


Directed and co-written by Zack Snyder.


Starring Gerard Butler, Lena Headey and David Wenham among many others.


I like 300, because Zach's visual style of using both super-imposition and chroma key techniques which brought to life what hand to hand sword fighting in sandals must have been like 2,500 years ago. I've got to hand it to Gerard for being as convincing as Russell Crowe was in Ridley Scott's, sword and sandal epic, Gladiator (2000). It's not easy delivering cheesy, pro-wrestling lines as, "Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!" Butler's charismatic personality and dark sense of humor carried 300 on his shoulders as well as Crowe carried Gladiator with his Oscar winning performance. As an actor you've got to figure out how to get around weak dialogue or CGI or whatever may be lacking in the story. Both Gerard and Russell show that personality is one effective way in overcoming cheesy dialogue or lackluster CGI.

The CGI wizardry in the scene below kept me glued to the story as it unfolded. I think in a few years location shooting will not exist in filmmaking. Need to shoot in New York, London, Cairo and the Bahamas for James Bond, software like Lightwave will make it possible and cost effective. I included a small CGI discussion by the masters of Lightwave to give you an idea of the artistry involved in making 300.

Film Scene

Trivia -  Director Zack Snyder's son, Eli Snyder plays young King Leonidas (7-8 years old) in the child fight training scene.

Film Trailer

Discussion on CGI Work 300

Film Photos - Posters

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Film Transcript

 

Note - If you would like to view 300 to rent or buy please click on the link below the comments. It is sponsored by Google, so it is the safest and most secure way to get a copy for your film library.

The Ghost Writer

"He can't drown two ghostwriters, for god sake. You're not kittens!" Robert Rycart

☆☆☆☆☆ Classic 


The Ghost Writer (2010) is an elegant and grand political thriller.

Directed by Roman Polanski.

Starring Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams among many others.

The Ghost Writer is as much about the craft of filmmaking as it is about the craft of acting. Polanski shows us how to make a Hitchcock style thriller and his cast shows us how to act in an intelligent political drama. Roman adapted Robert Harris novel, The Ghost and helped write the screenplay with Harris.

What is amazing to me is that Polanski was able to finish his film after being put into house arrest by Swiss authorities acting on an arrest warrant in the US dating from 1978. The film takes place mostly in the US, but had to be filmed in Germany's Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam, on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, on the ferry MS SyltExpress and on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea to avoid US authorities.

In the scene below I love the way Polanski heightens the drama by having the actors stroll along an empty, cold, windy, cloudy beach, filled with barren sand dunes, while being trailed by an armed guard. I wonder if being under house arrest in his private Swiss Villa, Polanski endured the same kind of confinement the characters in this movie face in their luxurious beachside estate. I'm also drawn to the haunting and eerie music in the scene that Alexandre Desplat crafts.

Film Scene

Trivia - Polanski's daughter Morgane Polanski appears as the hotel clerk at the Inn Ewan is staying at. 

Film Trailer

Film Photos - Posters

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Film Transcript

 

Note - If you would like to view The Ghost Writer to rent or buy please click on the link below the comments. It is sponsored by Google, so it is the safest and most secure way to get a copy for your film library.