The Watchmen assemble

I'm tentatively pleased to hear that the big-screen adaptation of the groundbreaking comic book miniseries Watchmen is not only on track, but the cast is selected and filming will soon get under way under the directing eye of Zack Snyder, who most recently directed 300, which you may recall left me underwhelmed.

Still, 300 was a compellingly made film that I had to respect even though I didn't buy that it was an illustration of "real manhood" or "fighting for freedom." The guy could make a damn good Watchmen movie, I think. We'll see.

I also see by the dates on some of these links that I'm probably the last guy on Earth who cares to have heard about this. Oh well, at least I haven't missed the opening day.

Nope, I still don't get it

Our pastor today gave his sermon on the attributes of a "real man" and used the film 300 as his springboard. That was it. I had to see the damn film.

I recently sidetracked another conversation that also used 300 to make the point that modern society saps the manhood out of men - so I figured OK, having now heard this argument from a couple of different directions, I needed to see the film to understand what a "real man" looks like. Having now experienced the flick, I conclude that a man is apparently someone very skilled at killing other men.

No, that's not fair - a man as shown in 300 is someone willing to fight and die before he'll kneel before tyrants, especially a tyrant who sets himself up as a false god. But I think I'd rather see that model of manhood portrayed without an hour or so of bloodshed and mayhem.

I still can't get past the premise that the Spartan men shown in the film are "free men." Ripped from their families at a young age and trained up to be warriors, they go to their deaths defending what appears to be a "free" society in name only.

The other visually stylized movie adaptation of a Frank Miller graphic novel, Sin City, is ugly and compelling and great storytelling. 300 is just ugly. I love the idea of refusing to kneel. Everything else about the movie left me stone cold.