I finally saw 300 last night. Kick-ass movie. I’ve got to say, the dudes who played the Spartans were monsters. It seems like people want to see increasingly unreal/unattainable physiques, but we just get bigger and softer as a society. Why the fascination with something that is becoming further and further from reality- is it societal wishful thinking?
300 is a comic book translated to film. Go pick up a super hero comic book, compare the physique of the hero to normal people.
The sad thing about the movie 300 is that the real story of the battle of Thermopylae was compelling enough without the ridiculous embellishment that this cartoon provided.
"The sad thing about the movie 300 is that the real story of the battle of Thermopylae was compelling enough without the ridiculous embellishment that this cartoon provided. "
Why is that sad? There are regular historically based movies about Thermopylae, and as you said, this was a film adaptation of a comic book.
"I’ve got to say, the dudes who played the Spartans were monsters. It seems like people want to see increasingly unreal/unattainable physiques, but we just get bigger and softer as a society. Why the fascination with something that is becoming further and further from reality- is it societal wishful thinking? "
I have some thoughts:
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We are in ‘wartime’ - maybe it’s a way of making us thin about war - whether it’s useful, or non-useful, and when for each.
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We are bigger and softer as a society because we let ourselves get that way from many reasons. Maybe media presentations like this allow us to connect to what’s real about ‘being in our bodies’ - as TV (and computers) and other sedentary devices aren’t real.
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I know people who doing things like that for a living (swing swords, work with horses, hoist heavy things) and they look almost like that. You’d have huge men with big arms and shoulders, and tough solid cores. I watched a friend the other day with that exact physique (but covered in pants and t-shirt, of course). That’s not ‘unattainable’ - except for a computer guy, salesman guy, or other desk-jockey. This movie is talking about people who use their bodies every day, and who train themselves by wrestling each other and picking up chariots. They don’t run 10-30 miles at a stretch, not do they bicycle 100+ miles ‘for fun’. Every bit of work or training is done for a survival purpose, and it might be heavy or cumbersome.
Any person who lifts heavy things for a living will develop the body that the job requires. If those shields are iron, it will take quite a shoulder and arm to carry it for miles, then wield it as necessary. Ever wield a shield? I have: You get one massive arm - and the other arm is massive from being ready with the sword.
FYI, when I was around 20 I worked for the park service, doing maintenance. I worked 5 days a week, all summer, for 2 summers. I could pick up a heavy duty mower and put it onto a the back of a pickup truck ALONE - at 20, and as a GIRL. That was just part of the job, and part of what kept me from getting ridiculed - especially as the ONLY girl. I had to pull my own weight. I probably looked like those guys at the end of each summer 
- I was thinking about this very subject last night when I rented “Alexander”. We’ve had quite a run of military-esque movies with tough leading men in small uniforms with big muscles. It was even interesting how the movie portrayed Alexander, a tough military man, who had a male lover (as well as a wife), although he was devoted to the lover and not the wife. I think one of the reasons that these movies are coming out is to explore why people go to war, what people do in war, and whether war is necessary. These themes have been explored for many years, but only recently have we seen a resurgence in the pre-Christian-era war depictions. I also think that using muscled men is a way of connecting ‘strong men’ to ‘ideas of strength’, because the same ideas (replayed throughout history) don’t have the same impact when using skinny guys in WWI uniforms.
MHO,
Lauren
I thought the Spartans looked pretty physically realistic, certainly muscular and very fit but not freakish. Xerxes and his Persians, not so much. Xerxes looked like a 9 foot tall cross dressing fetishist. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
I finally saw 300 last night. Kick-ass movie. I’ve got to say, the dudes who played the Spartans were monsters. It seems like people want to see increasingly unreal/unattainable physiques, but we just get bigger and softer as a society. Why the fascination with something that is becoming further and further from reality- is it societal wishful thinking?
Don’t know about you, fattie, but I could’ve played Leonidas. I’m a steely-eyed-barrel-chested-all-American freedom fighter. Ka-POW.
Good luck with IMoo. I’ll be with you in spirit. And, by spirit, I mean on my couch drinking Yuengling.
You’d be surprised if you saw me, man. 155#, and I can (sort of) run worth a damn. I think I was about 180-185# when we were at Campbell riding all the time. I think I can bench press my bike nowadays…
That last PM you sent me sucked- he was a good guy. I talked to a buddy of mine from the Rakkasans that I hadn’t heard from in over a year last weekend. I told him his platoon sergeant from Afghanistan was blinded, face “removed” by an IED in 05. Hit him pretty hard- he had no idea.
Drink a beer for me on the 9th. Better yet, come watch and hand it to me at mile 25 of the run!
I didn’t really think they looked that freakish or unattainable. Certainly all of them did it, and none really looked Arnold-like to me. So unattainable, perhaps not, but uncommon certainly. I remember back in the 70’s it seemed like I heard about exercise, getting back to a natural diet, and how we were becoming flabby as a society. Now 30 years later, clearly worse. I am compelled frequently when I see obese patients with their obese children, to comment on how the parents hypertension and type 2 diabetes is not coincendental, and how they are well down the road to passing on that gift to their children. Of course I do it in a loving / caring way, but the response is often: “we try to eat right”. So a reminder of what the human body can look like I think is a good thing, even if it’s not easily attainable. The reality in society today is too often the more freakish manifestation of the human physique. I know I felt like working out after watching the movie. Maybe others will also.
Mitch
Man, that’s got to be hard- you’re giving them the tools, and they do nothing. If life goes right, I’ll become a PA, and likely see some similar stuff. Not sure how to be “politically correct” to people who are the cause of their own problems…
I did want to go start lifting again, but speed is my current fascination. Maybe I’ll return to the iron one day…
well, after reading about a bunch of hunky muscular men swinging swords, i’m going to have to rent it.
The workout regimen those guys went through to build up was pretty insane. In some of the “making of” specials you can see them lifting right before a take so they’d be fully pumped on screen.
It’s really a good movie - but I saw it on the big screen 
I’m actually going to BUY this movie!
I think you are quite right. Your post made me recall a paper that traced the trend between reality and art (societal wishful thinking) in western culture. Specifically female physiques and their peculiar reverse influence on art. From Playboy centerfolds to Rubens well fed (but fertile) beauties the depicted idealized female was, if not the polar opposite to what was her period peer, then certainly, they were in opposition.
Thankfully we’ve outgrown this trend. The various stick figure celebrities reflect the general public nicely.
By the way, when any of the talented and committed actors temporarily buff up like that there are certainly trainers like Deca and Winny assisting every rep.
btw…the physiques of spartans in the movie were enhanced numerically…
It’s a MOVIE! It was adapted from Frank Miller’s comic. Comics tend to be fantasy and movies tend to be dramatic, if too much so. Therefore a comic-book movie might be a tad embellished. Yes the fight at Thermopylae was dramatic but this is a comicbook-movie not a documentary.
I would suggest you buy the movie and watch the extras DVD because there is some great commentaries by some historians and authors commenting on the Historical fact versus the movie including with Frank Miller.