Why 300 was a Surprise Success

Published March 19th, 2007

Well I have my theories. But really my title is referring to Neal Stephenson’s recent commentary in the NYT. For those of you who may not know, Mr. Stephenson is a very popular sci-fi author, one of the New Guard - and perhaps a founding member. He singlehandedly revitalized and revolutionized cyberpunk (in my opinion) with Snow Crash, introduced many geeks to cryptography with Cryptonomicon, and provided a sort of window into the early days of modern science with his Baroque Cycle.

His latest article though - not really sure what his point is. I think he’s trying to relay why 300 was a success to the incredulous masses who didn’t expect it. Maybe. It was ripped by the movie reviewers, but it has pretty much steamrolled all competition at the box office for 2 weeks in a row. Outsiders - and by “outsiders” I mean, I guess, “mainstream” people - non-geeks, non-nerds, whatever. In any event, it shows just how strong “geeky” sorts of things can be in the marketplace these days. I mean, 300 is based on a comic book (graphic novel, whatever - it’s a comic book. “Comic book” is not a judgemental term in my book - it’s just descriptive).  And people came out in droves to see it. It’s about ancient Greeks - and that has NOT been a formula for success of late (Troy, Alexander). The “experts” expected even less of a turnout for a movie based on ancient Greece with no big star actors. Stephenson points out where they went wrong because of their pre-conceived notions:

The critics, however, were mostly hostile, and frequently venomous. Many reviews made the same points:

• “300” is not sufficiently ironic. It takes its themes (duty, loyalty, sacrifice, the preservation of Western civilization against enormous odds) too seriously to, well, be taken seriously.

• “300” is campy — meaning that many things about it can be read as sexual double entendres — yet the filmmakers don’t show sufficient awareness of this.

• All of the good guys are white people and many of the bad guys are brown. (How this could have been avoided in a film about Spartans versus Persians is never explained; the distinctly non-Greek viewers at my showing seemed to have no trouble placing themselves in the sandals of ancient Spartans.)

But such criticisms aren’t really worth arguing with, because they are not serious in the first place — and that is their whole point. Many critics dislike “300” so intensely that they refused to do it the honor of criticizing it as if it were a real movie. Critics at a festival in Berlin walked out, and accused its director of being on the Bush payroll.

Any critic (or Iranian for that matter) who believes that Hollywood is in the business of making propaganda for the Bush administration needs to have their head examined. Just as an FYI. And since we’ve traveled off-track into politics (hey, Stephenson did it first) he also lets out this gem:

The few conservatives still able to hold up one end of a Socratic dialogue are those in the ostracized libertarian wing — interestingly enough, a group with a disproportionately high representation among fans of speculative fiction.

I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know how to talk to conservatives that aren’t libertarians. I really don’t. They utterly baffle me at this point. Anyway.

Back on track, Stephenson points out just how successful previously “too nerdy” things have been lately. Spiderman has blown the superhero movie genre out of the water. Lord of the Rings was enjoyed by pretty much every demographic you can think of. The Matrix? Not just a cult phenomenon (though it started that way). Sin City. Martial-arts epics. Even anime is breaking out into the mainstream more and more. The geek shall inherit the earth? Maybe. Something is going on though, that’s for sure.

Stephenson speculates that maybe things changed when geeks learned to laugh at themselves.

Lack of critical respect means nothing to sci-fi’s creators and fans. They made peace with their own dorkiness long ago. Oh, there was momentary discomfort around the time of William Shatner’s 1987 “Saturday Night Live” sketch, in which he exhorted Trekkies to “get a life.” But this had been fully resolved by 2000, when sci-fi fans voted to give the Hugo Award for best movie to “Galaxy Quest,” a film that revolves around making fun of sci-fi fans.

True, I think. And so once geeks became comfortable with themselves, apparently society has followed right along. Video games are big business - bigger than the movie business now. Think about that. It’s been a quiet shift, but it’s a very significant one. Video games are much maligned, even still, by the politicians and “moral leaders” in this country. They fear that which they do not understand. More studies come out showing the great benefits video games are having. Youth crime and violence is DOWN over the past 10 years. Studies show playing games improves hand-eye coordination (I want my surgeon to be a gamer) and cognitive ability. Indeed, Stephenson somewhat indirectly points out that we are heading towards a world predicted by sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card in Ender’s Game.

Video games have turned everyone under the age of 20 into experts on military history and tactics; 12-year-olds on school buses argue about the right way to deploy onagers and cataphracts while outflanking a Roman triplex acies formation.

The military has been conducting war games for years, centuries. What happens when generals have been fighting complex wars since they were kids instead of just since they enlisted? I’d rather have a general who knows how to use an army than one who is still learning. The geek culture is outflanking the old world. There really is a shifting paradigm going on, and we’re smack-dab in the middle of it right now. I don’t think society at large has quite caught on yet - in fact I know they haven’t, since they predicted 300 would bomb. But the ones who are at the forefront of the shift know it. As Stephenson points out,

When science fiction tackles classical themes, the results may look a bit odd to some, but the audience — which is increasingly the mainstream audience — is sufficiently hungry for this kind of material (and, perhaps, suspicious of anything that’s overly polished) that it is willing to overlook the occasional mistake, or make up for it by shouting hilarious things from the balcony. These people don’t need irony or campiness self-consciously pointed out to them, any more than they need a laugh track to enjoy “The Simpsons.”

they’re smart enough to know it. Mystery Science Theater 3000 lives on in real life. We know when to laugh - in fact we’ll laugh where we’re “not supposed to” - and that’s OK. It’s OK to outsmart the screenwriters. In a way that’s what the internet has helped do - the amount of pretty hilarious criticism available now is astounding. Think back 20 years ago - widespread mocking of popular culture was pretty much non-existent. In the 80’s, people found their local niches and ignored everything else (which brought us great movies about niches clashing, hi Breakfast Club). Now, the niches blur, if they exist at all. You can find folks of all stripes playing online games or posting to online message boards. Stereotypes need not exist as strongly anymore. Maybe the jock is on your Counter-Strike team. Maybe the class president is trash-talking on a message board about politics with the local rebels. Perhaps that cheerleader you haven’t ever spoken to is actually your best guildmate in World of Warcraft. And all of them probably enjoy watching Heroes every week(which I’ve never seen - but its a comic book show. So there you go….).

Yeah maybe it’s silly idealism. Maybe you don’t agree. But I can tell you, in 2007, its far easier to be a geek, a nerd, a dork than it was in 1997. Definitely easier than 1987. I have first-hand experience in this. I am a geek, a dork, a nerd. So what? Does anyone care anymore? Only those that didn’t get the memo - the world is changing.  Because as it turns out, we’re all a little nerdy about some things, and feel like a dork at times. We all want to belong - maybe we’re finally realizing that we don’t have to belong to anything at all. Maybe we’re finally really understanding the message at the end of the Breakfast Club, of all things.

“But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete and a basket case, a princess and a criminal.”

If you’re not a bit of a dork - it’s you who doesn’t belong.

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