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I highly recommend that anyone who likes ancient civilization movies or war movies go to see this..

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen...I love it. It is gory and bloody but it was designed for a mature audience. If you have a chance go what this feel...

Anyone else feel the same...?

Haven't seen it yet, but read a review on it today and it got 2

Loved TROY so I know I will like this one.

I'm looking forward to it, and I almost never go see movies.

I saw it today and LOVED it.

Went and bought the Graphic Novel afterwards as well

is it out yet? Thought it wasn't out for another week or so. I guess I am wrong. Looks like I just found something to do this weekend.

All my friend went to last nights special midnight showing.....i couldn't go cuz i had a exam 8:30 in the freakin morning

They all said it was one of the best movies they have seen in a long time...if not EVER

I'll probably see it sometime this week.

I'll wait until I can download it for free.

May have to check it out...if not not, for sure when it come out on DVD.....going to watch Borat now.....have Man of the Year for the morning.

later.

was 300 directed by Sam Raimi or am i wrong in thinking so?

Website says Zack Snyder

web page

OK OK! yea...

It was the Sin City guy not Spiderman, I mixed myself up...thanks for the info

Boart was a one time flick....nobody can make me sit through it again....it was funny but nothing special about it....sick of ALI G! wonder who will be the next "tom green" or "ali G"

I saw this in the IMAX theater. It was amazing.

It made me want to go grab a spear and stab someone

"...It made me want to go grab a spear and stab someone "

Please no one pass him any toothpicks.

Since this is getting such great responses on this board I thought I would post a review I found for this movie.............



Battle of the Manly Men: Blood Bath With a Message
Warner Brothers Pictures
Gerard Butler plays Leonidas, the Spartan who leads an army of 300 against a Persian invasion.


By A. O. SCOTT
Published: March 9, 2007
“300” is about as violent as “Apocalypto” and twice as stupid. Adapted from a graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, it offers up a bombastic spectacle of honor and betrayal, rendered in images that might have been airbrushed onto a customized van sometime in the late 1970s. The basic story is a good deal older. It’s all about the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, which unfolded at a narrow pass on the coast of Greece whose name translates as Hot Gates.


Hot Gates, indeed! Devotees of the pectoral, deltoid and other fine muscle groups will find much to savor as King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) leads 300 prime Spartan porterhouses into battle against Persian forces commanded by Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), a decadent self-proclaimed deity who wants, as all good movie villains do, to rule the world.

The Persians, pioneers in the art of facial piercing, have vastly greater numbers — including ninjas, dervishes, elephants, a charging rhino and an angry bald giant — but the Spartans clearly have superior health clubs and electrolysis facilities. They also hew to a warrior ethic of valor and freedom that makes them, despite their gleeful appetite for killing, the good guys in this tale. (It may be worth pointing out that unlike their mostly black and brown foes, the Spartans and their fellow Greeks are white.)

But not all the Spartans back in Sparta support their king on his mission. A gaggle of sickly, corrupt priests, bought off by the Persians, consult an oracular exotic dancer whose topless gyrations lead to a warning against going to war. And the local council is full of appeasers and traitors, chief among them a sardonic, shifty-eyed smoothy named Theron (Dominic West, known to fans of “The Wire” as the irrepressible McNulty).

Too cowardly to challenge Leonidas man to man, he fixes his attention on Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), a loyal wife and Spartan patriot who fights the good fight on the home front. Gorgo understands her husband’s noble purpose, the higher cause for which he is willing to sacrifice his life. “Come home with your shield or on it,” she tells him as he heads off into battle after a night of somber marital whoopee. Later she observes that “freedom is not free.”

Another movie — Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s “Team America,” whose wooden puppets were more compelling actors than most of the cast of “300” — calculated the cost at $1.05. I would happily pay a nickel less, in quarters or arcade tokens, for a vigorous 10-minute session with the video game that “300” aspires to become. Its digitally tricked-up color scheme, while impressive at times, is hard to tolerate for nearly two hours (true masochists can seek out the Imax version), and the hectic battle scenes would be much more exciting in the first person. I want to chop up some Persians too!


There are a few combat sequences that achieve a grim, brutal grandeur, notably an early engagement in which the Spartans, hunkered behind their shields, push back against a Persian line, forcing enemy soldiers off a cliff into the water. The big idea, spelled out over and over in voice-over and dialogue in case the action is too subtle, is that the free, manly men of Sparta fight harder and more valiantly than the enslaved masses under Xerxes’ command. Allegory hunters will find some gristly morsels of topicality tossed in their direction, but you can find many of the same themes, conveyed with more nuance and irony, in a Pokémon cartoon.

Zack Snyder’s first film, a remake of George Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead,” showed wit as well as technical dexterity. While some of that filmmaking acumen is evident here, the script for “300,” which he wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Michael B. Gordon, is weighed down by the lumbering portentousness of the original book, whose arresting images are themselves undermined by the kind of pomposity that frequently mistakes itself for genius.

In time, “300” may find its cultural niche as an object of camp derision, like the sword-and-sandals epics of an earlier, pre-computer-generated-imagery age. At present, though, its muscle-bound, grunting self-seriousness is more tiresome than entertaining. Go tell the Spartans, whoever they are, to stay home and watch wrestling.


web page

My husband and I just saw this movie.. Too bad for me. The history within the movie is warped. Furthermore, there is little storyline. In no way is it comparable to Braveheart, Troy, or Gladiator. It is nothing but a gore fest. I recommend saving your money.

On the bright side. We saw KW2 and his wife, coming out while we went in.

I haven't seen the movie, but The Battle of Thermopylae is quite a heroic epic. Each of the soldiers who stayed had to have a male child to carry on for them. They could not be the "last of their line", and their heroism could not be allowed to die with them.

Overall, the Battle of Thermopylae and the later Battle of Salamis were quite a compelling bit of intrigue and strategy.

I saw this film last night and was hugely dissapointed. Having been a history buff all my life, I found the sight of the Spartan warriors looking like chippendale dancers with no armor on their breasts historicly innaccurate. I further realize that the film makers were going for a certain "look" for their film but give me a break. When you see the film notice that for some inexplicable reason the Persians are clad from head to toe...yet the Spartans, all look like participants in a Bow-flex add. Fairly early in the film the Leonidas character give a speech about the Spartans fighting in a Phalanx.. each mans shield covering the next man from approx. knee to throat...yet...in every battle scene it looks like melee combat to me with each warrior freelancing, giving no thought to his shield wall integrity. So much for the Phalanx. I am sure this is because the film makers wanted to have shots of muscles flexing and all that rubbish but I doubt that the Spartans would have lasted a day in battle without armor or Line discipline. I also found it amusing that the film makers had the actors constantly yelling their lines...after an hour of this it became a bombastic bore. The Persians used animals as weapons in this film...specificly a Rhino and Elephants. These beasts were grossly out of porportion in size to their modern day counterparts, as if they stepped fresh from the era of the mega fauna tens of thousands of years previously. The Rhino scene made me howl in derisive laughter. It's huge...and I mean huge..charging like an avalanche, yet...one Spartan spear lays it low at the feet of the spear thrower. And don't even get me started about how mere humans would be unlikely to drive three mammoth size pacyderms over a cliff, especially elephants mad with fear and wounds. The sub plot of the Queen and her trials back in Sparta to get the Army to march to assist her husband is a low point of the Film...who cares? Everyone who knows anything about this event in History knows that no relief was forthcoming so I can only surmise that this was included only to show a Spartan Woman giving a betrayer a liberal dose of Spartan steel. The scene where she speaks to the council was also stupid...Athens was about Democracy...Sparta was a military dictatorship ruled by dual Kings( the second King was conspicuously absent) yet the Film makers gave it an Athenian like democratic government.Had this been a Conan film I would have let all this BS pass...but when filmakers portray historical events they have a duty to try and keep it realistic and believeable. I left the theater with my admiration for Spartan (and yes Greek perservance) bravery intact but the filmakers left me cold.

You guys are just too picky
Nothin' wrong with a action filled, bloody "fiction" flick!

I don't care for historyyyyyyy so i think i'll like it.....

Sounds like we have a few reviewers who have spent time in France evaluating such noble art as "The Constant Gardener" and the "English Patient" to accept this movie simply for what it is...an interesting new approach to cinema to make a buck.
Anytime we can see Iranians being taken down a few notches we should support the vehicle it arrives in!

im going to see a movie, not a documentary. i could care less if its entirly fictional

I agree with you, after getting through my Humanities class that bored the hell out of me, I could care less about history.

Im sick of western civilization in Europe form the 1400's to the 1800's, it made people go to sleep.

I'm sick and tired of the renaissance, the many revolutions, the enlightenment, and Napoleon. I'm just going to relax and watch the movie.

Getting my anger out about that class helps me.

Do they shout every line in the movie like they do in the commercials? I am guessing this movie is just like Frank Millers last project; high on style, low on substance.

Autumn this is one of my pet peeves when it comes to the movies.

Many people go and see these type of movies and leave the theatre thinking they just saw part of history.

There's no reason that they can't keep the story as accurate as possible and still give you a great movie.

Guys let me ask you this...

I haven't watched the movie yet...so i dont' know if they claimed this before the movie started.... did they have that lil blurb saying "based on a true story" or somethin like that? or did they ever claim to depicit a true story??

Took the wife to see the "300" this afternoon with a hundred or so of our closest friends. The theater was filled with "over 30" folks and almost no teens.
The movie was extremely bloody as any good fight to the end film would be but really entertaining. I must admit that the 300 Spartans looked like they have been life long members of Gold'sGym but who wants to see 300 5'2" hairy Greek men waddling about in armor????

The movie was entertaining and while not accurate historically it was a good reminder of how brave free men chose to stand up to evil dictators, fanatics to a questionable god and murderers by the thousands from Iran and points East. Hmmm, this sounds vaguely familiar!!!!!!

Okay you so called history buffs let me ask you some questions

1) Someone mentioned the movie Braveheart which maybe the most inaccurate "history"movie of all time, I could give you numerous dramatic scenes that were added but never really happened...

2) I see you mentioned where they got a lot of things wrong, however, did you mention anything they got right?
1) There was a Naval Battle going on the same time, however the Spartans were not involved in the Naval Battle and that is why it was probably left out.

Truth- Babies were judged and if deemed not worthy, left to die
Truth- At age 7 they were taken away from their parents and put into training
Truth- They were sent on missions of stealing, killing...etc as young children and adolescences
Truth- There were 300 Spartans at the battle who lead from the front. ( Why would you want a story about being in the back of line?)
Truth- There was an Oracle that Leonidas went to see.However, what she said was different in the movie from actual history

False- Leonidas helmet was incorrect. A King, General...etc has the spine of the helmet running from side-to-side, instead of front-to-back as depicted...Did this matter?
False- (The one that kinda bothered me) They did no fight in a true Phalax which is actually quite boring. They had to make the fighting somewhat entertaining...Watching a solid wall move for an 1hr and 1/2 is not Hollywood entertainment
False- They did no wear chest armor and had 6-packs (In reality Young Spartans were usually kept Hungry to get them used to the feeling. If you add that to the fact that they trained rigorously for over 14 years then you will realize most of them would have been in very good shape. (Maybe not as good as in the movie but they still would been ripped and fit)
False- Were some of the animals and characters over-the-top sure....but its a movie...

Name one Hollywood movie about ancient civilization that you so-called "History Buffs " like and I can guarantee I can blow hole through it, in some sort of fashion...


If you guys wanted to watch 100% history go watch the "History' channel or a Documentary....It's called cinematography. Every movie takes licenses with what it depicts....

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If you guys wanted to watch 100% history go watch the "History' channel or a›Documentary....It's called cinematography. Every movie takes licenses with what it depicts....

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EXACTLY! it annoys the hell out of me when people make it more than it really is....

It's a freakin movie ppl...nothing more nothing less....

I remember watching and really liking THE 300 SPARTANS when I was about twelve. I'd be interested in comparing the new 300 to the old 300. I wonder if that old version is available anywhere?

Quite right Charlie. This is Hollywood, they change things to make it more exciting. Reality is rather quite boring. If the movie is not labeled a documentary, there is no reason to expect it to be 100% accurate. "Based on a true story" is exactly that, based. The director will change things as they see fit.

I read an article this week about the laws of physics that don't apply in Hollywood. Talks about all the physics that Hollywoods ignores in order to make the movie more exciting. Bottom line, when you go to see a movie, it should be for entertainment. If you want a history lesson, stay home and watch the history channel, it's probably cheaper.

I mentioned Braveheart, and yet while inaccurate the story has fantastic depth. The plots are woven together brilliantly, like Gladiator, and even Troy. 300 was nothing special. The story was 2d. One main plot, and maybe two subplots.

Historical accurancy can be pushed asside in movies to help develop the movie completely. This film did no such thing. The plot was a simple. It didn't have enough depth for a 2 hour movie. It was completely unbalanced. Maybe 20 % story, and 80% action.

On top of that, the acting was ridiculous, and the voiceovers annoying(The Persian King). Even the mood of the story was off.

The one positive of the film was the art development. The colors were dramatic, and fitting.

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Maybe 20 % story, and 80% action.

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That is all i needed to hear.....

Listen my friend if you didn't like the movie thanks for sharing. For the rest of us looking for simple entertainment without extra critical evaluation of storylines it is A GREAT MOVIE! Fun and the good guys never give up....unlike some in todays world of politics.

I saw this yesterday. Was a pretty good flick. I'd advise not reading up on the real history before seeing it...cause it does deviate rather wildly, but it was entertaining. I do believe it got across the enormity of what the 300 did though.

The only thing that bothered me in the whole movie was the Spartans talking about freedom...they were a dictatorial government as they made relatively obvious in the beginning when setting up the story of the King growing up.