A must see!!!!!

Rating: Null/10 (12 March 2007)

I just saw this film expecting it to have many historical inaccuracies like Alexander or Troy.However,I was pleasantly surprised that the story followed the true events very closely,with small exceptions like the spartan council that was shown as a bunch of monsters,Ephialtes that was shown to come from Sparta(he was actually local from the Thermopylae area) and all the monsters that the persian army was carrying .Still small details like those are not important compared to how greatly the true story of the Battle of Thermopylae(=Hot Gates) was given on the big screen.King Leonidas was put to flesh exceptionally by Gerard Butler,for whoever has seen the real statue of Leonidas at the town of Sparta you see that he looks exactly the same!Same clothes,same shield,same helmet,same spear.The battle itself looked exactly as one must have imagined it while reading about it in historical books.The phalanx and how it worked,the perfect fighting skills of the Spartans,the way they used the narrow passage.Amazing scenes with the Persian arrows covering the sun and the Spartans saying "then we'll fight in the shadow".700 Thespians (Arcadians) indeed went to help but they were amateurs as Leonidas mentions so they left before the final battle.The Spartans of course were extremely trained,they were training for battle their whole life. The special effects and the music of the film fitted extremely well to the scenes and I never had to think of it during,it just fitted.The colors were kind of extreme sometimes but perfectly served in order to show the intensity of the facts.I also loved that they used the original phrases that were mentioned from that time,like "come and get them","come with your shield or on it","then we'll fight in the shadow" and the inscription from the real grave of the 300 at Thermopylae. The ending was exactly like I hoped it to be,it showed exactly that Leonidas was not just a proud psycho who wanted to die for glory,but knew that the sacrifice of himself and the 300 would inspire the rest of Greece to come together and fight for their freedom against the invading Persians. It would also delay Xerxi's army,therefore giving enough time to the rest of Greece to prepare for the big battle of Plateai and the Ship-battle of Salamina where Xerxi's army was completely defeated. At last,I would like to mention that this film is talking only about what happened at that time.Of course everyone is free to compare it with modern events but in my opinion it's blasphemy to compare the glorious sacrifice of 300 ancient Greeks for their land and freedom to the War for oil,power and money that the Americans are making around the world.If any comparison could be made then the Persians of that time would be the Americans of today.The Greeks fought against a huge army that invaded their land,threatening their freedom.Therefore,only people that have been invaded by nowadays' biggest militaristic powers and have fought in their land to defend it against them can truly sympathize with it. Congratulations to Franck Miller and Zack Snyder for making an amazing movie without lying on the true facts.May more film-makers get inspired and show the world how real heroes put their lives above any personal ambition.How their sacrifice led to the freedom of Greece after which the Golden era of Perikles came and gave the term "democracy" to the world.
PS:to Iranian friends,you are right to complain that the film is overreacting with the monsters and the evil look of the persian army.However,at that time the invaders and therefore "bad guys" were the persians that had a huge army trying to bring free Greece under their rule.But that was at that time.The future movies to be made about our time will probably be showing the Americans and the other militaristic powers of today as monsters because now they are the ones invading other countries and trying to rule the world.So please don't take it personally,it's just a movie based on a historical event.