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The more I think about it, the more I'm fascinated by the implications of 300's limited color palette. First of all, there's the visual resonance with Spartan culture. The world and landscape of '300' is muted, dark, and drab, relieved only by brilliant scarlet capes and gleaming slashes of blood. This is a culture that literally comes alive in battle. Everything else is monochromatic.
Then there's the evolutionary significance of the color scheme. Cultures with primitive languages, such as the tribes of New Guinea and Congo, only have words for "black" and "white". Gradually, as language evolves, the word "red" gets added (most African tribes, some Amerindian and Australian aborigine tribes), then "yellow" (Philippines, Polynesia, and - interestingly - Homeric Greek). Words for green, blue, and brown are the last to enter a language.
From these findings, some scientists suggest that human vision evolved the same way: the ability to distinguish light and dark first, followed by the ability to see red (predators?), then yellow, and so forth. Whether consciously or not, 300's color palette returns us to that ancient Homeric visual mode, by eliminating more sophisticated, recently acquired colors. The film wouldn't feel as authentically Bronze Age in a salmon, eggplant, and teal theme, for example.
There's also the moral significance of the Manichean color palette, simplifying the world into black vs. white, and by extension, good vs. evil. That works within the context of the film, although it becomes somewhat dubious when translated to real life. As tempting as it is to frame the 300 Spartans as some sort of metaphor for modern democracy making a stand against the forces of unenlightened barbaric hordes who Hate Our Freedoms (fill in the blank - jihadists, terrorists, al-Qaeda, Communists, fascists, etc.), in reality Spartan culture was closer to Soviet-style feudalism in nature, and depended on oppressing neighboring towns and enslaving Helots to keep itself going. Not that it's bad that they held off the Persians long enough for the other Greek city-states to organize armies. But history is usually much grayer than the textbooks reveal.
On a different topic, after reading about the Spartan training regime on joblo.com, it's just occurred to me that 300 may end up being an intense workout on the eyeballs. We fans might want to start getting into shape now for repeated viewings of 300 in the theater and on DVD. Practice waving graphic panels from the book back and forth past your eyeballs for 30 minutes a day, until your mind feels the burn. Hup! One! Two! Work it! Own it!
