Frank Miller is more than just a comic book writer; Miller is emerging as an important voice in film. Through his movie 300, Miller brings to life unlikely heroes who fight injustice against tremendous odds, and often lose. He virtually redefines the hero. In his movie 300, the heavily outnumbered Spartan warriors fight for their country’s freedom against an overwhelmingly enormous Persian Empire. The Persian king, Xerces, expanded his empire by force, whip, and greed. Claiming to be a god, Xerces demanded loyalty or death from all his subjects. His reign was a dark cloud of evil that overspread country after country. He set about enslaving his captives, forcibly taking from them their freedom and seeking to beat out of them all hope. The three hundred soldiers of Sparta who fought to the death for their freedom represented a small but significant light of hope in a dark cloud of evil. Although the three hundred soldiers were defeated by a dark cloud of arrows, their actions led to the eventual defeat of the Persian Empire. Had they decided their lives were not worth losing, that the odds were too greatly stacked against them, they would never have inspired so many others to step up. In addition, though such may not have been his intent, Miller’s films encourage the average citizen to take a stand, however useless it may seem, and fight for freedom and goodness in the world. Miller himself is quoted as saying, “It was an epiphany to me to realize that the hero wasn’t necessarily the guy who won… I tend to be drawn to characters who might die disgraced to the world, who technically lose whatever combat they’re in (sic) but win the moral victory” (Ito). While it is true that in this film the heroes die and the world remains relatively unchanged, the world is changed nonetheless, at least in a small corner or for a short time.
Ito, Robert. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Nov 26, 2006. Pg. 2.
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