If you belong to the fan club enjoying the mythological and historical movies with lots of sword fights, war-cries and rolling heads separated from bodies, then 300 is right up to your alley. One of the good epic types movies! It's a visual feast. The Spartans look ravishing. The pile of dead bodies, the red blood splattering over the screen like crimson-confetti really makes one squirm!

Leonidas, the astute and strong king, sacrifices his and the life of 299 other best of the warriors of Sparta to assert their dignity, their freedom, their sovereignty in The Battle of Thermopylae, against the invading Persians. The warriors are, of course, larger than life, they always are. 300 men killing thousands. Still I would say performances are awesome. Leonidas looks Wow!! (I really want to say HOT) This Spartan Vs Persians tale is an act of defiance in the face of their impending doom before they were swamped by a dark tide of evil.

I expected a lot of dialogue-heavy skullduggery. Thankfully there wasn't any. All the words were required, the apt ones.. no filler types. The action sequences were breathtaking and made me cringe more than once. Just a chink in the armour: overuse of slow motion!

The sheer courage, the willingness to die rather than surrendering was awe-inspiring! Leonidas forsees death of all 300s and commands his small troop, "eat a good breakfast as tonight we dine in hell". People willing to die for their country!!! In contradistinction we have a situation in our country. The flickering patriotism is kindled for a brief moment either when we see Chak de India or when India wins T-20.. or to be apt, when India defeats Pakistan and Australia!  Ohhhhh, coming back to movies!!

Sometime back, to be precise last month, I watched Gladiator.. Ok ok.. please don't  look with those raised eyebrows and the hopeless expression suggesting that I should be hanged for the crime I committed, for not watching the film earlier. But truly Gladiator left me speechless. It was a perfect painting on canvas delineating savagery and love together. From there I took to like the historical, war-genre movies! I don't know why Troy didn't trigger me!

In the hind-sight I just wonder how gory is the civilization of human beings… full of greed, barbarity and iniquity. Be it the avarice for women, or lust for kingdoms/power or the Crusades, we have never flinched to make the land blood-soaked and have made the axiom, 'Freedom comes at the cost of blood'!

Well coming back to movies again, now I want to watch Ben Hur and El Cid!! Not able to lay my hands on these..but will soon find them!