All the while I was watching Passolini's Medea I couldn't help comparing it to Snyder's 300. Both are based on Greek lore although Medea is of the legendary sort while 300 is historical. Nonetheless their portrayal of events certainly reflected the director's vision. I won't go into my evaluation of 300 which I rated as 1. I kept asking myself why did I like Medea so much more? After all both directors took liberties (some would say creative license) with the scenery, the wardrobe, even the story to some extent. The answer is that while 300 played out like a cartoon, Medea was firmly grounded in a reality that may seem foreign to modern sensibilities but nonetheless plausible.
Let's take Jason's voyage. The Argo was not some grand ship but a raft. And when you think about it that makes sense. Jason, despite his royal roots, would have been practically penniless and thus would have been unable to finance a ship. Thus the raft. Medea's hacking her brother to pieces to slow down her pursuers made sense in view of the sacrificial ceremony in the earlier part of the film. Passolini has successfully taken events that in the legend take on mythical proportions and placed them in the real world. He has given the protagonists human motivations and kept the gods out of it. Medea has become a real woman, with real passions, real love and real hate.
Let's take Jason's voyage. The Argo was not some grand ship but a raft. And when you think about it that makes sense. Jason, despite his royal roots, would have been practically penniless and thus would have been unable to finance a ship. Thus the raft. Medea's hacking her brother to pieces to slow down her pursuers made sense in view of the sacrificial ceremony in the earlier part of the film. Passolini has successfully taken events that in the legend take on mythical proportions and placed them in the real world. He has given the protagonists human motivations and kept the gods out of it. Medea has become a real woman, with real passions, real love and real hate.