Blessings & Curses Pt 4: This is SPARTA!!!

Just back from watching '300'. Sort of planned my evening around it. Headed down to Chinook after work to grab tickets, mail something, get food, shop for some stuff for niece & nephew & then see the movie. Showed up at a little after 5 to find the 7PM IMAX showing was sold out, so debated & then picked up a ticket for the 7:15 showing. The rest of my tasks were over too quickly so I had lots of time to wait in the theatre, which was maybe just as well 'cause the theatre packed out quickly....

.... well worth the watch, well for me anyhow. Fair bit of nudity, tons of violence & gore.... more blood splattered around than I think I've ever seen in a movie. If these things bother you, uhm, maybe don't go.... but if you can stomach such things I'd recommend it.

Definitely a guy's movie, though I was impressed by how many females there were in the theatre - not exactly date movie material in my books, but yeah, unlike the other Frank Miller movie (Sin City), this is a movie I'd recommend to some females (perhaps a select crowd)... As with Sin City, this is very much a boys movie, though while Sin City has nothing really in it worthy of a woman's attention, Queen Gorgo in '300' is a fine example of a warrior bride, a free woman who is more of a man than a number of men in the movie (or in real life)... she makes one compromise in the hopes of helping her husband, but her strength & courage shines through.

The movie is fascinating from a historical perspective. It's a great story & well told/well sculpted... It paints a stark & incredible picture of a wild time in history. The initial parts of the battle are an amazing look at the battle techniques & strategies of the ancient Greeks.

It's a fascinating movie to place in this time in history. In talking with one of my brothers, he mentioned that people were comparing this movie to gulf war stuff & I originally scoffed at it, but I can totally see it now. If this story was told at any other point in my history I would've thought it was just a good story... but it really makes me wonder what was in the minds of Frank Miller & the filmmakers in choosing now to retell this ancient epic when currently the forces of 'democracy', 'freedom', 'liberty' battle against what once was the seat of ancient Babylon & rumors of war with Persia keep cropping up over & over... It terrifies me to think that Mr. Bush will see this as some prophetic vision of his rightness. Though it does inspire me to respect & honor the soldiers who battle in places like Afghanistan & Iraq. Right or wrong, the individuals are, in theory, standing for some ideal.... so maybe I can admire that... or at the very least I can admire someone who has the courage to stand in that place of hell.... Being at work gives an interesting perspective. A number of guys there are ex-military & they have buddies in Afghanistan. You hear much different stories when you talk to them than what you hear on the news. Talking to the guys at work you hear about individuals doing courageous things - both on the battlefield & especially off (there are apparently a lot of soldiers who spend a lot of their off-hours over there building schools & such)....

As expected, the movie stirs me though... it calls out to some part of my soul that longs for battle, for bravery & courage, for violence & brutality... I am a lot of things, writer, artist, feeler, friend, loyal, giver,.... My heart wears so many faces & identities.... but one of the identities it longs to wear is that of warrior.... & perhaps of king...

Movies like this speak to that part of me.... they make my blood burn with passion & make my eyes weep in a lament that we do not see more like Leonidas, weep that I am not more like him....

...leaving the theatre, blood boiling, heart aflame, I wanted to go out & battle, to find adventure, struggle conflict.... what I did was brush the snow off my car, drive home while trying to stay in the lanes & not get killed, drop off cookies with some friends, shovel my walk, unload the dishwasher, pour myself a glass of wine & a bowl of ice cream.... all of this was done with a certain level of ferocity ('cept for scooping the ice cream... it's hard to be ferocious towards ice cream, especially with a name of 'Cherry Blossom')....but yeah, it's not the same....

I don't think I fully understand what it is to be a man. I look at the portrayal of Leonidas & see a true man & wish that I acted more like him. Too often I fear I am like the other 'free greeks' - men who are not soldiers by trade & who live with their fears more than with their courage. I long for battle, but question if my blood turns cold in the heat of the fray.... I wonder what there is to fight in North America, in this land of comfort & excess. I wonder what there is to fight as a Christian, as we are to be a people of peace since our battle is not against flesh & blood, but against evil in spiritual places... In the movie, evil wears many faces - corrupt rulers that proclaim themselves as god. politicians & opportunists who live for their own avarice, people who trade their honor for momentary pleasure & who are cursed by the blessing of 'may you live forever'... perhaps evil comes in the guise of those who do nothing, those who live with apathy or fear... & it is hard to know how to battle these things - to battle ideas or motives instead of flesh & blood warriors.....

.... and what of our Christianity? Should we always live constrained & pacifist? In some ways, yes, but yet we have the Christ flipping over tables, lashing those who would bar free access to God... we have the psalmist say:

"God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid [them] out of the hand of the wicked. (Psalms 82:1-4)"

and as Job cries:

"Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and [him that had] none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment [was] as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet [was] I to the lame. I [was] a father to the poor: and the cause [which] I knew not I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. " (Job 29:12-17)

Tell me if you don't hear some level of violence, or at least forcefulness in these words... Again, I don't think these speak of uprisings & overthrows & killing people, but I think there is some level of this that calls to the warrior in each of us, that cries out for brave men & women who will burn with love for others enough to stand up to the injustices done against them.......

.... on the drive home I thought again of the battle between the idealist & the opportunist in the movie. The idealist is asked to choose 'what would a free man do?' & somewhere in his heart he knows the answer to that question. The opportunist asks, 'what is freedom?', 'what is liberty?', 'What is courage?' & scoffs at them all as concepts that cannot be defined.... and I thought about this in light of a few posts down - that dreams when defined seem to lose their purity.... as a wordsmith, I try to define words like 'freedom', 'truth', 'love'... these are concepts, ideals that I aspire to, but it seems that the definition of these words are elusive... no matter how I bang away at it, the words of description never do justice to define the ideal behind the words.....

....and I think now that, while things like love, freedom, truth, hope, while these things can't be defined, yet our heart of hearts know what the words mean..... oh sure, we can tell ourselves stories & convince ourselves of the lies we live in, but deep down we know what love is... what freedom is.... or maybe more truthfully, we know what it is to feel the absence of love & long for it in it's purist form... & we know what the chains feel like around our souls....

Recently had some friends call out 'words' for me. I 'failed' to speak words over them 'cause I got nothing &, I think, it was as much an exercise in me learning to be comfortable with getting nothing - to recognize that I speak when I am given words & remain silent when I'm not.... but the friends spoke words over me: 'orator', 'guardian', 'lover'.... all of which are words/identities that I doubt & believe in in my own life. The movie calls out again the importance of the orator, of the storyteller... it speaks of the power of inspiration, of how that somehow words, the stories of battle, are very much part of the victory as is the fighting... One man/woman can give his or her life for a cause, but the story of that one can raise up thousands in their stead.... There is great power in story & while Xerxes attempts to block out all memory of Leonidas, it is the story of the '300' that blazes in the heart of ever Greek as they crush Xerxes under their foot....

... have been thinking about how I doubt myself, of how I doubt the story being written in my life.... I no longer fear these doubts. The question of 'who am I?' pushes me to put myself in the crucible again, to sit there in the night, in the solitude, roasting my being over the open flame... In the fire, the dross is removed, the true worth is shown, burning ever purer within the furnace of flame.... I trust more & more the Christ who indwells me & whose heart burns through me... His flame is an unquenchable one, the fires of love unfettered & limitless, unconditional & wild. His story is the one that speaks & inspires, it is His word that becomes flesh in me.... & so I burn....