Asked to imagine what a movie based on a graphic novel about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae would look like, most people willing to hazard an attempt would picture something very close to 300. That's one way of saying this gory, kitschy epic is a rousing success.

300 has Spartan beefcake gleefully spearing Persians and declaiming anachronistic dialogue in a medley of accents from the British Isles. Toga-draped elders, priests and political rivals plot against their sanguine leader King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who has soft-porn relations with his Queen (Lena Headey) before going off to battle. To dissuade Leonidas from leading his elite cadre soldiers against invading armies from the east, a virginal oracle writhes like she's auditioning for a racy perfume commercial. Digitized tableaux during the battle itself have blood-red accents that vaguely suggest Old Master paintings. And everything happens against a virtual, black-and-bronze backdrop reminiscent of Sin City, Robert Rodriguez's crime triptych based on another of Frank Miller's books. 

It all bears a tenuous relationship to reality, just as we require when seeking escapism at the movies. And 300's lack of historical pretension is refreshing. So it may come as a surprise how much the script -- credited to director Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon -- sounds like a post-9/11 speech by George W. Bush. King Leonidas harps on and on about freedom and democracy while defending Greece against decadent barbarian armies led by Persia's drag-queen ruler King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro).

Did David Frum, the speechwriter who came up with Bush's "axis of evil" line for a State of the Union address, decamp to Hollywood? Not likely. But it's impossible to resist making the connection between America's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq -- and, extrapolating further, the war on terror -- with the rhetoric spouted by these gladiatorial neo-cons.

300 can be read as purposefully sounding the drumbeat for our armed forces, and is hardly unprecedented or contrary to Miller's worldview. For all the noise about Hollywood being liberal and anti-American, the movie industry has often come to the aid of the nation's war-making efforts, right or wrong. The filmography of John Wayne contains numerous examples. Dick Cheney may be the one moonlighting as a screenwriter. 

Lines like "Blood is the cost of freedom" would sound hollow if the Spartans uttering them weren't prepared to die for the cause. What's more worrisome is that 300 goes beyond the advocacy of any particular skirmish to enforce more global ideological dichotomies about East vs. West, Christianity vs. Islam, Occident vs. Orient, Democracy vs. Tyranny, Civilization vs. Barbarism, Morality vs. Decadence.  

The Persian camp is a bona fide freak show presided over by the effeminate Xerxes while the Spartan warriors, in all their virile pectoral splendor, have lofty motivations for cutting the heads off their inferior enemies. They only lust for blood and liberty; and if they were as pretty as the baby-oiled hunks in Troy or Kingdom of Heaven, you'd suspect Donald Rumsfeld had come out of the closet. Leonidas and his mates engage in mayhem meant to uphold a noble code of duty and honor and certainly relish defending their culture and all of Greek civilization.

Risible though it may be in many respects, 300  delivers what legions of moviegoers are looking for -- sure-handed, confident, blustery filmmaking, done mainly on computer. That it doesn't end well for the Spartans is what America's military leadership didn't consider sufficiently before our nation's recent forays eastward, sold as fights for freedom.

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated "R" for graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity.)

Listen to the ReelTalk Radio Show discussion of 300 by clicking here.