A Stunning Visual Feast.

Rating: Null/10 (7 October 2007)

I have actually been to Thermpolaye, when I went on a Classical Tour in the mid 1990s. The setting of the battlefield in the 300 looked nothing like the terrain that I saw, but it makes for a better picture I guess. I've been waiting for this film on DVD ..I wanted to see it on cinema, but time wasn't on my side.
Well, finally watched it, thoroughly enjoyed it. Its the rumours that circulated around the film, "its homo-erotic" or "its racist"... Maybe I missed something, but I didn't really see that aspect of it. Yes there's nudity and the uglier features of Spartan Society are actually laid bare. The Spartans were very, very religious and that really should've been explored more.
Anyway, the film, a visual feast, for those who like battle scenes. The slow motion scenes were truly effective and the mixture of animation and reality was brilliant. It added to the mystique of the times. If I was to cast my eyes on disappointment, it would be the historic inaccuracies and the geographical betrayal. Cold winters and cloudy weather....Were talking Greece here!!! Its hot and the Countryside, especially around Thermopolaye, is hilly and arrid. Olive trees and bushells. The water was calm and battles spanning from the time of Antiquity to the Mediavel era were campaigns that took place in the summertime. Anyhow...A visual feast, I was impressed with Gerard Butler's Leonidas, when he calls to his men, eat hearty this morning, for by the night we shall be dining in hell...unfortunately, he should've said..with the gods!!! David Wenham, as Pelios, commanding performance, excellent narration and a mixture of his previous character in Van Helsing was a nice touch!!! Anyway, definitely a "must view"...Just for the Battles and the mysticism. The biggest contradiction of all, ws that Spartan society was not only religious, it was extremely conservative, when hearing Leonidas talk of freedom, justice and reason...I did think, "hang on a minute"!! Because it was the Spartans under Lysander that beat Athenians in the Pelyopinesian Wars..and destroyed a society that actually strived for those virtues. Anyway...Enjoy the film.