Sunday

I saw the original, if it can be called that, film The 300 Spartans the other day. It was made in 1962 by Rudolph Maté (who died only 2 years later, and was better known as a cinematographer). It's a fairly ordinary, classically made film. Nothing, that I noticed, particularly interesting about it. Indeed, I had never heard of it until news of 300 began to circulate. What is remarkable is the old Hollywood style of filming battle scenes: no trick photography needed, they would just hire thousands of actors. Surely this is the best way of doing it? Incredibly difficult to organise and control, but shouldn't good things be hard? I know 300 has been filmed mostly with blue (or green) screen. I don't think that can possibly capture a battle as well as actually having real actors on a real field in Greece (or a parking lot outside Fox studios, wherever it was). Apparently Frank Miller was inspired by this film, but calling it a remake is probably stretching the meaning of the word. We'll see.

For the next three weeks posts to Stranded Cinema may come slow and irregularly due to me trying to work very hard. Again, we'll see.