Reviews of the new film ‘300′ have been all over the map. There was an attempt to politicize the film, with those of polar ideologies claiming the film was a strong statement against the GWOT and others claiming it is in support of the very same war. It is neither. Both fail to comprehend it’s just a movie, and a phenomenal one at that.

Before seeing the film I read a review by Townhall columnist Ben Shaprio, where Shapiro wrote in part: “The comic-book tale of the battle of Thermopylae (480 B.C.) brims over with excessive nudity and violence. The dialogue is often laughable — lines like “This is madness! This is Sparta!” leap to mind.” Shapiro also criticizes other reviewers for bashing the film “on the grounds that the Spartans in the film are a bunch of jackbooted thugs” and one reviewer who wondered why there weren’t any non-white Spartans.

Without addressing the ridiculous question of where the black or brown Spartans were, Shapiro and those reviewers he criticized are completely off the mark. In fact, the Iranian rejection of the film is much closer to a suitable review for rather obvious reasons. ‘300′ does present the Persians as barbaric, heretic non-humans, but that is for a reason because it is a story told in the art of Greek mythic tales.

But the film also takes a firm stance against the Spartans in the opening scenes where viewers are told Spartans inspected all new-born Spartan babies and discarded the ones that were not the best. Sparta, in the film at least, was a nation built upon its warrior class. Neither side looked particularly good in today’s version of ‘enlightened’ souls. And in the case of Ephialtes, the spurned Spartan soldier turned traitor, his horribly contorted body plainly presents the film as a story of the Spartans, not the Persians, where a nation demonizes its enemies to paint its own heroes that much more valient.

Unlike Shaprio, I thought the dialogue in the film was what made the film. It is a narrated tale that brought back reading Greek Mythology in grade school. The Battle of Thermopylae is only as great as the tale weaved by the 300 Spartans and worn proudly by the Greeks; it matters not what actually happened for the purposes of this movie or if the famed Persian Immortals were demons in disguise. History is replete with fictionalized tales told to inspire many, but that does not make the story of The Alamo less important nor does it make ‘300′ less enjoyable.

The film is more story, and yes, a comic book narrative, than anything else where the battle scenes are complimentary to the tale. It is a story of a group of men who fought against what they saw as tyranny and enslavement to protect their nation and their families.

There were no chained half-man, half-demons brought to Greece by the Persian military, nor does the film even try to stay close to historical accounts of the battle. It doesn’t have to, and it shouldn’t have, because ‘300′ is a pictoral tale of accounts passed on throughout the years with each passing mouth embelishing more of story beautifully presented in reel format.

‘300′ is violent, bloody and has some of the same sort of bloodlust dramatizing as seen in ‘Sin City,’ another Frank Miller comic, but so too was the actual Battle of Thermopylae a violent and bloody encounter. The scenery esquisite, the music masterfully blending in with the storyline, ‘300′ is pure entertainment and should be taken as just such.

It is one of the best films I have seen in a very long time, but not because of just the subject, but for the same dialogue Shapiro finds “laughable.” If it’s one-liners you seek, you won’t find them in ‘300,’ but if you simply want to see a story in the same mold as the stories of Zues or Poseiden come alive, you will enjoy the film and you might even see it again before it leaves theaters.