Just only good visual impact

Rating: 5/10 (18 April 2007)

We learned at school while studying ancient history that in 480 b.C. 300 Spartans commanded by their king Leonidas stood in the way of a huge Persian army in the Thermopylae pass thus preventing it of invading Greece at the cost of their lives after a fierce battle. That story is narrated in this movie in beautiful images (although some of them awful indeed) of fierce fights sometimes in an almost ballet style. It seems however that there is the intention of presenting the Greek-Persian war as a fight between tyranny and freedom (with the meaning these concepts have nowadays) which is little true regarding the epoch in question when those notions didn't exist with the meaning they have today. Sparta was an aristocratic monarchy and even in Athens (so often called the cradle of democracy) only the citizens (which were a minority among its population) enjoyed civil and political rights. Going now back to the combat scenes it must also be said that there is much fancy in them namely in the characterization of the Persian army where inclusively we can see monsters similar to those that appeared in "Lord of the Rings". The impersonation of the king Xerxes of Persia like an effeminate being full of piercing objects is quite ridiculous and very unconvincing. And for instance the ephors who were respected magistrates and political leaders in ancient Sparta are here presented as pestilential and repulsive priests living on the top of an almost inaccessible mountain. This movie doesn't convey therefore any solid message according to the historical truth and it's only worth by the beauty of some of its images. We must refer namely to those with the sepia tones of the old photos.