It is rare these days to see films that take art seriously. And even more rare to see it in a blockbuster movie where most of the scenes are Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). That is what Zack Snyder did when he make 300, the latest artistic version of the Battle of Thermopylae. I’m not sure how much of the works I’m describing below were directly and consciously referenced by Snyder. If I ever get the chance to meet him, that will be my very first question. I know that Snyder was a painting and sculpture student at England’s Heatherley’s art school, and he did go to film school. But there is no doubt that he would have spent time studying many of the works mentioned in this article, which must have left an indelible mark on his mind.
300 is a welcome addition to the historical compilation of the Battle of Thermopylae, which includes written accounts by Heroditus, paintings by neo-classical artists like David, and a 1960s Hollywood version which became the inspiration for Frank Miller’s graphic novel, from which Snyder made his film. The whole history of art is one inspiration after another, and Snyder’s 300 is no exception to this tradition.
When studying painters, from David to Turner, it is striking how much of their works are directly based on Christian themes. It is inevitable that anyone remotely following their example will be influenced by those subjects. I think that is what happened to Snyder. And he is also following the tradition of Hollywood epics, many of them Biblical, which crafted their giant sets to fit their stories. It is no surprise that 300 was produced by the most prolific and historical of the Hollywood studios, 20th Century Fox, which also produced the 1962 Frank Miller inspiration, The 300 Spartans.
Snyder used the latest technical advancements to generate whole battle scenes, endless fields, surges of thousands of arrows, shifting clouds and sprays of blood, and giant waves out of practically nothing. Still, he worked like his predecessor painters and filmmakers, although building on his new canvas of computer screens and virtual stage sets, to unravel the eternal themes of life through art.
The Tree of Death is introduced to us from afar looking eerily like a cross when the Spartans first encounter the destruction that the Persians are capable of. As Snyder slowly zooms into the tree, we see Leonidas in front of it, resembling the converted Roman soldier at the Hill of Calvary, later martyred. This scene is surely engraved in our memory from the classical (or mundane) Passion movies that we watch routinely during the Easter holidays.
Goya's The Third of May, when the brave Spaniard stands with his arms outstretched facing the shooting squad, is echoed from behind Leonidas with his disdainful surrender to the Persian arrows before him. This image itself is an allusion to Christ’s outstretched arms on the crucifix, the brave and lonely moment before his inevitable, sacrificial death, exactly what Leonidas is doing.
Leonaidas’ fallen body pierced with arrows after the barrage of the Persian assault perfectly mimics St. Sebastian pinned to the tree. It is highly appropriate that this soldier/saint, killed by Roman pagans, and who converted so many soldiers to Christianity, should somehow find himself in 300. The scene in 300 is especially ingenious, since we initially see the fallen Leonidas directly from above, and momentarily think he is standing upright.
There are the charging horses of Delacroix, which the Persians (Arabs in Delacroix's paintings) ride. Once again, artistic licence takes over, and Snyder uses the impetuous and aggressive Arabs and their horses to convey the dangers of the heathen Persian enemy.
The rigid structures of the Spartan architecture, with their straight human figures resemble David’s neoclassical art. They contrast dramatically with the sinuous, sinful Persian tent-like interiors and their inhabitants. Straight, narrow and solid was never a clearer path towards honor and glory.
The vortex-like deadly, dark waves in 300, which swallow enemy ships and men to their doom, are reminiscent of Turner’s Evening of the Deluge Shade and Darkness, who used ancient myths and legends to populate his paintings and annihilate the sinful.
Xerxes, the god-king of Persia, is safeguarded by two golden calves, one on either side of his giant platform, no doubt to satisfy his equally giant ego. One sufficed to unleash God's wrath on the Israelite idolaters in Egypt.
And Xerxes himself is the Goliath to the Leonidas' David, as is the Persian army 7,000 strong against the three hundred Spartans that stood with Leonidas. The Spartan forces were annihilated by the Persians and
Whoever retells a history as important and as commanding as the Battle of Thermopylae will have not just the original, but the proceeding accounts, to contend with, all of which spurred Snyder to do one better than the last. The soldiers who fought so bravely for their and their future’s preservation deserve as much. It was, after all Leonidas’ courage that gave us the art, and the specific morality, that enabled all these generations to depict him so honorably.