Review of 300 (2007) by Bobdick — 16 Mar 2008

I'm Greek and I found this movie quite interesting... *SPOILERS FOLLOW*.

I have read the comments and reviews submitted from the other users and I have to say that most people are quite ignorant either in regards to the movie or to the history of Thermopylae. This movie was not made to offer a historical account of how things happened and as such one can find a lot of inconsistencies. I read a comment about the Spartans being savages and worthless (LOL!) now how can they be worthless and victorious at the same time (although they were all killed this was a HUGE strategic victory) I do not know. I have to say though that there is a tendency in this movie to portray the Persian army as decadent and weak but I think this serves as a method to contrast the two civilizations and their strengths and weaknesses. For example the Spartans were exceptional in hand-to-hand combat while the Persian army relied on archers and cavalry (including chariots).Furthermore, the Spartan soldiers wore heavy armour and carried large round shields in contrast to their opponents who wore expensive jewellery and bright coloured garments -to impress their adversaries with their wealth- and light armour (their shields were made from some kind of bamboo).Both civilizations were equally magnificent (in my book) and the fact that the 'immortals' are portrayed as deformed people is outrageous. Further to that the Persian army had no ogres and goblins (lol) and I do not think they brought any elephants or rhinoceros to fight the Spartans. The side story with the Spartan queen being 'raped' is 100% BS - if there was ONE place in the world at that time where women had power and were respected (sometimes even more than men) that was Sparta...I cannot imagine any woman being raped in Sparta let alone the QUEEN! Since the movie is based on a COMIC BOOK I believe it was wise to use a CG environment and give it a gleam tone so that it will look like a comic. The fight sequences are very impressive and I think this is a very good action movie overall.