300 Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

superb

this film is superb, and my 12 year old son loved it.

it is spring in 480 B.C. Persian King Xerxes, continuing his father, Darius', master plan to conquer the Hellenic city-states, arrives in Hellas.

The previous Persian invasion, and diplomatic attempts have already turned most northern Hellas tribes and states to the Persian side. But the people of Athens and Sparta, the largest Hellenic powers at the time, feel quite insulted by the Persian emissaries requesting their surrender to Xerxes and slay them.

In Sparta, King Leonidas consults the local oracle, which gives two options: either a spartan king will have to be sacrificed or Sparta will be burned to the ground.

A year earlier in 481 B.C. a panhellenic consortium of all southern city-states, have already recognized the superiority of the spartan army, (the best organized and trained army at the time) and have announced King Leonidas supreme commander of the combined Hellenic army.

It is then decided that a small force should block Xerxes' way to southern Hellas in the Thermopylae passage.This passage was at that time 12 metres wide.

The great historian Herodotus, possibly exaggerating, states that there were 1700000 Persians, against 7000 Hellenic hoplites and slaves, including the 300 men of the spartan king elite guard.

King Xerxes waited for 4 days for the Hellenes to be frightened and eventually surrender and was quite astonished by his opponents complete apathy who were following their daily program practicing and making their hair!

After that Xerxes tried to convince Leonidas to drop weapons, give up his position, kneel before him and live on as a local governor under Xerxes. King Leonidas replied 'molon lave', which means 'Come and get them'.

Then the 3 days battle began with the 300 Spartans, and 700 thespians, (the other Hellenes where sent by Leonidas to protect passages to their flanks), slaying thousands of Persians with minimal losses.

The whole Persian campaign would have failed, if the Efialtes had not showed Xerxes a secret passage to the Hellenic flanks.

After a final battle lead by king Xerxes himself, the Hellenic force was completely slain, and their heroism and glory was written forever in history.

From the beginning of the battle, the Hellenes buried their dead in the spot in which they fell.

The impact of the battle was enormous for both sides.

The Persians' morale dropped to zero, and the Hellenes lost their fear for the Persian conqueror, and organized their defense.

After several successful battles, the Hellenes ultimately defeated the Persian army, and repelled their invasion in the Battle of plataea in 479 BC.

well worth watching.

Not as good as gladiator

Generally, I found 300 to be a pretty good film but the cgi blood was very unrealistic and because there was so much of it almost ruined the film. It's not in the same league as Gladiator but still well worth watching. Great plot and some fantastic dialect kept the film going and the last hour was pretty amazing. Did take a little while to get going but certainly wasn't difficult to keep watching. Chad Goymer is cool. Long live Chad!!!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Speechless

Saw 300 last night and i'm still in a daze!

The imagery in it is FANTASTIC! The story is great but doesnt matter cos as soon as the battle scenes kick you you wont care! The 'bad' guys are BAD and the 'good' guys are GREAT!

Even the sub-characters are arresting and watchable!

I seriously cannot say good enough things about this film! I could try but we'd be here all day!

[Highly rated reviewer]

Kick ass

Ignore some of the blood effects issues like that tart (My work colleage) Simon Broad states.

The film is shot in CGi and the effects are pretty amazing for the most part. The lead has you rooting for the spartens to win and the battle scenes are all well put together with plenty of slow motion death scenes for you gore hounds out there.

The film is loosely based on historical fact but the film is mostly geared towards big battle scenes and to be honest it manages this rather well.

If it battles you are after you will find plenty in this movie,

Awesome

* * * This review contains spoilers * * *ShowHide

Fodder for the Mindless

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC, an alliance of Greek states fought the invading Persian Empire at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the Persians for three days in one of history's most famous last stands.

A small force led by King Leonidas of Sparta blocked the only road through which the massive army of Xerxes I of Persia could pass. After three days of battle, a local resident named Ephialtes betrayed the Greeks by revealing a goat path that led behind the Greek lines. Dismissing the rest of the army, King Leonidas stayed behind with 300 Spartans, 700 Boeotian volunteers and 1,000 Helot slaves.

The Persians succeeded in taking the pass but sustained heavy losses, extremely disproportionate to those of the Greeks. The fierce resistance of the Spartan-led army offered Athens the invaluable time to prepare for a decisive naval battle that would come to determine the outcome of the war.

Basically that is the historic version, the film 300 however is an absolutely terrible load of rubbish akin to watching a comic strip similar to Sin City but with swords and spears and better likened to an X-Box production than to a movie.

Persians portrayed as zombies and monsters, Spartans as Gung Ho GI Joes.

There's no mention of the Helots or the Boeotians that numbered over 1,700 who fought and died with the Spartans.

The baddie is portrayed as a hunchback demon and the whole sorry affair was obviously created for an audience of brain dead morons.

One question “Why oh why did they bother to have the fifty or so real life actors – the majority of this so called film was computer generated tripe so the ’REAL’ actors were not really necessary were they?”.

300

By far the worst film I have seen for quite some time. Caricature figures brought to life with a poor plot and even worst script. Surely the terrific cinematography deserved a reasonable attempt to portray a historically accurate event with a decent script.

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME.

Poetry in motion! A flawless masterpiece!

Butler's portrayal of Leonidas was perfect and superbly inspiring.The whole film was so masterfully and beautifully put together that it's hard to say anything was wrong with it. The film was rich and vivid and very skillfully shot with close ups at the appropriate moments that really heightened the mood and enhanced the anticipation of the audience. I think Lena was perhaps not the best choice for the gutsy Queen. She just didn't pull it off convincingly. But the music, the imagery, the battle scenes and even the exquisitely muscled bodies of the Spartans were majestic and truly breathtaking to watch ! The movie itself had a superb story of courage, bravery and valor that was very inspiring on so many levels. I want to see it again and I'm probably going to take all my friends one by one to see it, several times over. Don't miss out on this feast of a film: it's a masterpiece that deserves to be appreciated!

[Highly rated reviewer]

A visual treat

This visually arresting and very enjoyable adaptation of Miller's graphic novel about the Spartans' stand against the invading Persian armies is a lot of fun, even though plot and characterisation take third seat to visual spectacle and sound design (this is one of those films were a spear won't clatter to the ground when a speaker-blasting BOOM will do!)

The look of the film is great - steely cold blues and greys dominate (even though we are told it is August in Greece) - and helps compensate for some melodramatic acting and lack of plotting. At times the film teeters on the verge of camp and there is no denying the homoerotic element of the film, but, overall, this is a straight forward fantasy/actioner which will have wide appeal.

Although it is based on a graphic novel with its endless parade of eye-popping battle scenes the film seems more like a hi-tech video game bought to the screen, but, again, the sheer visual power of the piece ensures that you hardly notice the lack of structured plot.

Rousing Stuff!

I studied Classics at college, and was especially interested in how the battle would be portrayed, as Thermopylae was probably THE most important land battle of the Western world insofar as it delayed the Persian advance and gave the Greeks both time, and inspiration.

Historical inaccuracies apart, I think the film offered a good insight into the desperation of the Spartans' plight against the Persians. It also hints at just how 'hard' these Greeks were when it came to fighting on land... they absolutely rocked!

The Persian Elephants and Clawed decapitator of failed officers, whilst not perhaps being historically correct, did hint at the great mysticism of this Persian empire as would probably have been seen by the Greek world... a very real threat!

There are some real corny moments in the film, where the dialogue is laughable, but I think on the whole the film does show the battle for what it was,

a desperate, very brave, but ultimately suicidal venture.

For anyone wanting more insight into this battle, you may want to read Stephen Pressfields' 'Gates of Fire', a description of the battle and the Spartan ethos from an assumed Greek survivor of the battle.

The Spartan battle of Thermopylae should be one battle taught in Western Schools!

Unrespect to the unique persian history

This movie has a political view with it, it has been made againt persian history. in real history this has never happened, the beauty of the history was shown very different.