Fighting In The Shade With The 300

It's pretty safe to say that the best film trailers that have been made are due to the fact that they're packed to the hilt with money shots from the films they are advertising. The more impressive and spectacular shots that the host film has to offer, then the better the trailer representing it will be. That theory can be no better demonstrated than in the trailer for 300 which must be one of the most incredible examples of the trailer art form ever made. Watching the movie 300, an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel, it almost seems that every single shot has been lovingly framed, painted and composed as if each one was a glorious work of art itself. Directed by the Dawn Of The Dead remake's Zack Snyder, 300 must surely be one of the most visually beautiful films ever made.

Rather than simply dramatise historic events, Snyder and Miller refract the tale through a grandiose, fantastical style of heightened realism where fantasy and reality clash. The brave 300's actions are more impressive tha reality ever could be, the Superior nature of the Spartans in exaggerated and the Persian Army they face is vast and limitless. Snyder pushes the action to new limits as well. If John Woo mastered the art of slow motion and the Wachowski brothers took it to the next level in The Matrix with bullet-time, in 300 we get a new shot which tracks close quarter combat with a long duration shot which ramps up and down the frame rate to perfectly capture the gory carnage in all its glory.

The cast are excellent but it's Gerard Bulter in a deserving star making turn as Spartan King Leonidis who triumphs. Stoic and regal, impossibly aggressive and shouty, darkly witty and completely relatable, Butler owns 300 completely. If his performance has been much parodied it's because he's so successful in delivering such an intense, fearless performance as the heroic leader.

A stunning piece of work which has launched both Butler and Snyder into the movie making stratosphere. And as for that first trailer, you can see that below and witness the trailer art form at it's most effective.