300--The Movie (not the car) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

BENZ-LGB · #1 04-01-2007, 08:51 PM

who has seen the movie?

What do you think?

Like it?

Don't like it?

iwrock · #2 04-01-2007, 08:56 PM

My friends got stoned and saw it.... They said it was pretty good....

Also had a group of friends that saw it wasted... Said the parts that they could remember were good....

TheDon · #3 04-01-2007, 08:57 PM

sooo much gore and violence... The effects were pretty sweet as well

Larry Delor · #4 04-01-2007, 09:18 PM

The History Channel had a show on, that was not only about the battle of Thermopylae, but also about the battles leading up to it. I think they used some scenes from the movie 300 as visual aids. Quite interesting.

Botnst · #5 04-01-2007, 09:20 PM

If, when you were a kid, you liked those large-format, stylized artsy comics, you'll love the movie.

It had occasional intersections with Herodotus, but nothing that would disrupt the story line.

For example, there were indeed, 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but there were also several thousand soldiers who fought alongside them to the end, who were from several other city-states. The movie showed them all leaving.

Also, the Persian fleet was actually defeated in a late afternoon engagement at Thermopylae by a small force Athenian task force that performed a brilliant raid that disorganized the Persian fleet and forced them to split into 2 groups, one of which was to circle behind the Greeks but got caught in a terrific storm that delayed them so that they were too late to help the Persians at Thermopylae.

In the training, the Spartan boys weren't required merely to survive on their own in the wild, they were also not accepted into the adult ranks until they had successfully sneaked in among the Helots (the much-abused slaves of the Spartans) and kill a slave, all without being caught.

Also, Leonitus got conflicting advice from two different oracles. One was depicted but the more important one, Delphi, told him essentially that either a king or Sparta would be dead. Leonitus used that to justify the 300 and used the 300 as an intentional sacrifice to obligate all of Sparta.

The taunt from the Spartans when Xerxes ordered the Spartans to lay down their arms, "Come and get them" is a direct quote. It is still the motto of a Greek Army unit from the area formerly known as Sparta.

Finally, Sparta had two kings as their heads of government. This was essentially so that one could run the army when beyond Starta's borders while the other managed Sparta. The Spartan slave system was extensive, far greater than any other Greek city-state. The Spartans lived in a sort of constant dread that the Helots would revolt while the army was away. This made Sparta, which for several hundred years could kick anybody's Greek ass anywhere, anytime, very reluctant to engage in foreign adventures. Athens used that fear of the Spartan's own slaves to great advantage in the long, stupid, bitter, vicious war that Athens and Sparta fought a couple hundred years after Thermopylae. The war essentially destroyed both city-states allowing Phillip of Macedon to seize power. Alexander's father.

Just as an interesting aside, the landed patrician class of the southern United States, from colonial times until 1865, saw themselves as akin to the Spartans. From slave-holding to education to military prowess. Southerners still serve in the military in proportion far beyond their census numbers.

I liked the movie and look forward to seeing it again. No question it was terrifically violent. War in those times was violent and personal. But it wasn't as upsetting to me as, "Saving Private Ryan." I think the comic-book aspect softened it.

Oh yeah, I know they showed the Spartans breaking ranks to fight because everybody likes to see heroic individuals on TV. But the key factor that allowed Sparta's hoplites(heavy infantry), organized by phalanx, to defeat other Greek armies who were similarly organized was their incredible discipline. They did not break ranks. They knew that to break ranks exposed the soldier to the right, their brother, to attack. A Spartan was disciplined, powerful, and implacable. They were the most feared infantry in the area for hundreds of years because of their training and discipline. Later, Alexander would adapt their tactic to his own combined-arms tactics with cavalry and war engines. In ever one of Alexander's massed-army battles, his infantry was the anvil that would never break.

B

Ara T. · #6 04-01-2007, 09:45 PM

It was a good film. The constant speeches and warcries of freedom get tiring and annoying though. Especially considering how integral slaves (as Bot said, Helots) were to the Spartan way of life.

The Spartans never went too far from Sparta to engage in battle thanks to their paranoia of a Helot rebellion.

dannym · #7 04-02-2007, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Delor

The History Channel had a show on, that was not only about the battle of Thermopylae, but also about the battles leading up to it. I think they used some scenes from the movie 300 as visual aids. Quite interesting.

I saw that, it was very interesting.
The Spartans were smart to choose that narrow pass to fight in. Though they were severly outnumbered the were only able to fight a very small amount of Persians at a time. The Persian light infantry was no match for the Spartans. They literaly slaughtered thousands of Persians.
The only reason the Spartans lost was because the army that was supposed to be guarding the other pass through the mountains deserted and the Spartans found themselves fighting on both sides.
The Spartans were the best army of their time. They were the "Delta force" of their age.

I haven't seen the movie yet but I would like to.

Danny

Botnst · #8 04-02-2007, 10:33 AM

Just doing some recent reading about Spartan education.

They believed in educated women, almost unheard of in the world at that time. The girls even got pretty rigorous physical training, though not as brutal as the boys. The Trojans believed that smart, strong women would make mothers capable of bearing the best warriors.

Hatterasguy · #9 04-02-2007, 11:05 AM

Still 300 holding up 100,000, what a battle!

I need to go see this movie, just in case its bad I'll go see it drunk.