The 300 Spartans

Plot synopsis:
Xerxes I of Persia leads a vast army of soldiers into Europe to defeat the small city-states of Greece, not only to fulfill the idea of "one world ruled by one master", but also to avenge the defeat of his father at the Battle of Marathon ten years before. Accompanying him are Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus, who beguiles Xerxes with her feminine charm, and Demaratus, an exiled king of Sparta, to whose warnings Xerxes pays little heed.
In Corinth, Themistocles of Athens wins the support of the Greek allies and convinces both the delegates and the Spartan representative, Leonidas I, to grant Sparta leadership of their forces. Outside the hall, Leonidas and Themistocles agree to fortify the pass at Thermopylae until the rest of the army arrives. After this, Leonidas learns of the Persian advance and travels to Sparta to spread the news.
In Sparta, his fellow king Leotychidas is fighting a losing battle with the Ephors over the religious festival of Carnea that is due to take place, with members of the council arguing that the army should wait until after the festival is over before it marches, while Leotychidas fears that by that time the Persians may have conquered Greece. Leonidas decides to march north immediately with his personal bodyguard of 300 men, who are exempt from the decisions of the Ephors and the Gerousia. They are subsequently reinforced by Thespians led by Demophilus and other Greek allies.
After several days of fighting, Xerxes grows angry as his army is repeatedly routed by the Greeks, with the Spartans in the forefront. Leonidas receives word that, by decision of the Ephors, the remainder of the Spartan army, rather than joining him as he had expected, will only fortify the isthmus in the Peloponnese and will advance no further. The Greeks constantly beat back the Persians, and following the defeat of his personal bodyguard in battle against the Spartans, Xerxes begins to consider withdrawing to Sardis until he can equip a larger force at a later date. As he prepares to withdraw, however, Xerxes receives word from the treacherous and avaricious Ephialtes of a goat-track through the mountains that will enable his forces to attack the Greeks from the rear. Promising to reward Ephialtes for his betrayal, Xerxes sends his army onward.
Once Leonidas realizes he will be surrounded, he sends away the Greek allies to alert the cities to the south. Being too few to hold the pass, the Spartans instead attack the Persian front, where Xerxes is nearby. Leonidas is killed in the melée. Meanwhile, the Thespians, who had refused to leave, are overwhelmed (offscreen) while defending the rear. Surrounded, the surviving Spartans refuse Xerxes's demand to give up Leonidas' body. They are then annihilated by arrowfire.
After this, narration states that the Battle of Salamis and the Battle of Plataea end the Persian invasion, which could not have been organized without the time bought by the 300 Spartans who defied the tyranny of Xerxes at Thermopylae. One of the final images of the film is the memorial bearing the epigram of Simonides of Ceos, which is recited.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
What is it about the tale of 300 Spartans holding off the whole of the Persian army that haunts us still?At some point they'll make the great version of this story, until that day comes this film will do nicely.The plot has the 300 Spartans going off with a small band of other Greeks to perform a delaying action in a narrow pass against the vastly superior Persian Army.
They also kept the focus on the bravery of the Spartans, and that all of Greece not only wished them well, but could help, as with the Athenian fleet, not some CGI generated storm.This was also marked by good acting all around, from Richard Egan as Leonidas, and all the supporting cast.
The brave Spartan army is the great hope to free and unite Greece, and Ling Leonidas (Richard Egan) promises to the council of the Greek Stats to defend the passage of Thermopylae, the only way by land to reach Athens.
Using courage and great knowledge of strategies of war, he defends Thermopylae until a treacherous goatherd tells King Xerxes a secret goat passage leading to the back of Leonidas's army.The epic "The 300 Spartans" is a great tale of courage, heroism and idealism.
A real story of how Leonidas led a small army of Spartans to do battle with the whole invading Persian army commanded by Xerxes.
Ultimately the Persians are vanquished in the battles of Salamina, Platea and Mycala.This is an acceptable film produced and directed by Rudolph Mate with great cast as Richard Egan as king Spartan Leonidas and Ralph Richardson as Themistocles , Diane Baker as Ellas , Barry Coe as Phylon , David Farrar as Xerxes ,Donald Houston as Hydarnes , among others .
A spectacular and colorful version about Battle of Thermopylae between Leonidas leading his small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans against Xerxes .
Then we will fight in the shade..." With these famous lines from the movie THE 300 SPARTANS, I decided to begin my comment since the words best resemble what clash really took place a long time ago at Thermopylae - one of the most known and captivating battles in history when a mere wave of a few free men dared say "NO" to the ocean of "immortal" Asian hoards.
Therefore, we can as well state that THE 300 SPARTANS differs from the latest movie 300 exactly in that character development - the characters here are not only strong men who only fight well and are directed towards dining in hell but human beings with the feelings that they are bound to control, psychological strength that they must retain, and ideals that they live and die for.The performances are absolutely terrific though some people may not appear to be cast well to their parts.
Another brilliant moment is at the cottage of a mountaineer: "Gods create beautiful women and later transform them into wives." Moreover, except for many other terrific script moments, Xerxes is showed at the beginning on his throne saying memorably "At Marathon, my father sent a mere wave, now I lead an ocean." The final scene, though a bit too short, has an unforgettable feeling that can hardly be expressed: the shields kill all Spartans but they are not afraid, they are with their king.
(Minor Spoilers) Spectacular recreation of the historic battle of the Thermopylae Pass in 480 b.c that had a contingent of 300 Spartan Warriors, together with another 700 Greek volunteers, hold off the entire might of the Persian Army numbering as much as 500,000 battle harden soldiers.
With the Persian hoards sweeping into Northern Greece the Greek Parliament, consisting of some dozen city or nation states, can't seem to get it's act together and form a unified front, spending most of it's time bickering to who's to lead a untied Greek armed force into battle.King "Heart of a Lion" Leonidas,Richard Egan,of the Spartans takes charge of the defense of his beloved Greece by getting his army of Spartan Warriors on the march to the valley of Thermopylae in order to establish defensive positions in an attempt to hold off the enemy.
Ellas a young woman with a family of, unlike Phylon's, good standing in the Athens Greek community comes back together with her patriotic boyfriend to fight and die for a free and democratic Greece despite the fact that he may very well be put to death by King Leonidas for doing so.
It's only later with the help of a sleazy Greek traitor the scuzzy mountain goat-man Ephialtes (Kieron Moore), who also tried to rape the sweet and innocent Ellas, that King Xerxes Persian army gets the drop on King Leonidas' Spartans by using a secret passage, that Ephialtes revealed to King Xerxes , to outflank the brave and courageous Greeks and force them into a circle where there were all, to the very last man including King Leonidas himself, shot and run through with wave after wave of deadly Persian spears and arrows.The battle of the Thermopylae Pass ended in defeat for the 300 Spartans and their some 700 Greek allies with almost all of then ending up killed and those few that were captured ended up, if not executed by King Xerxes' men, sold into slavery.
A rather modest cast, but very good actors, no real big names led by the under rated Richard Egan, the fine British actor, Sir Ralph Richardson, David Farrar chews the scenery as Xerxes, Barry Coe as a stoic Spartan officer and the lovely Diane Baker headline the film.
The story went on with almost no sense or purpose and it spent too much time on the Diane Baker sub-plot when the main story should have been sufficient for an entire movie.Personally speaking, the movie lacks the qualities seen in Italian made Sword & Sandal films of the same period, which were so much more rowdy and lusty compared to the big but staid Hollywood Biblical/Historical epics.
For me, reading Leonard Maltin's negative review of CAMELOT felt like a slap in the face; as a six year old child I loved that musical and saw none of the flaws.)  I'm not poking fun at anybody who loved this movie; I'm just giving my honest opinion about what I watched.I do want to point out one great fight scene before I start trashing, and that is the one near the beginning in Xerxe's tent where the former king of Sparta duels with Xerxe's best swordsman.
As for the few romantic scenes, they are done so woodenly that we can clearly see that here is where George Lucas got his inspiration for directing the love scenes in STAR WARS II:  ATTACK OF THE CLONES.It's a shame that so little was presented of the life and customs of Sparta, which would have been far more interesting than the celluloid wasting romantic sub-plot.I didn't catch any specific political allegory, as some other IMDB reviewers did, but the notion of Greeks as freedom fighters opposed to the Persian slavers was played up.
The device of providing the young couple, Phelon and Elas, gives the viewer with a point-of-view from which to learn about or witness such scenes as the perfidy of Ephialtes who betrays his country, the intelligence of the Spartans' attack on the Persian camp, the attempts by Queen Artemisia to persuade Xerxes to give over his scheme of domination, the sheer ability of a dour, sinewy little Persian king, Demaratus, who demonstrates the superiority of his nation's ways in battle against a Persian killer--all this is exhibited in an authentic setting with wonderful music and Rudolph Mate's usual sensitive direction.
Ancient history's Alamo was the Spartan guard of King Leonidas who held the Persian army at Thermopylae, 300 men against the army of King Xerxes which numbered in the thousands.
However, he was temporarily halted at the pass of Thermopylae by a small force of 300 Spartans (King Leonidas and his personal bodyguards) for about a week, however when Leonidas was betrayed, in that Xerxes was told of a goat track around to their rear, their brave and valiant effort came to naught.While this movie only retells a famous historical battle, the event itself shows how people are willing to risk all to protect their desire to be free.
An excellent epic adventure movie, retelling the tragically heroic defence of the Strait of Thermopylae by the Spartan king Leonidas, his bodyguard of 300 men and supporting Greeks.
From what I've read, Hollywood for once stays fairly true to the actual historical story, only to my mind contriving a romance between the young son of a disgraced former Spartan king and the daughter of another high-ranking Spartan officer and the subterfuge of a Greek-sympathetic queen within the camp of the Persian king Xerxes.In the early part of the film, there's lots of exposition as different characters get to explain the then-current political situation passed off as dialogue just to make sure the audience understands the historical context.
While the battle scenes lack the realism of what you might see in a modern-day feature and you never really get the sense of the overwhelming numbers of the Persian army, it's impossible not to get caught up in the spirit of the Spartans futile but heroic resistance and there's real pathos in the ending as death rains down literally, at last, on them.Ralph Richardson is the big name classical actor brought in like Olivier in "Spartacus" to add gravitas to proceedings and this he does capably but Richard Egan, as the noble Leonidas, is particularly good in a performance which makes you wonder why he didn't go on to become a major leading character actor of the 60's.
Zack Snyder's 300 based on Frank Miller's graphic novel may perhaps be the interpretation that's etched on the modern moviegoer's mind, with its slow motion, stylized battle sequences leaping out from the panels of the comic, and plenty of wailing WWE style with Gerard Butler leading the charge as King Leonidas of Sparta, his troops severely outnumbered against the mighty Persian army in the Battle of Thermopylae, but morale running high nonetheless for being able to fulfill a warrior's calling of an honourable death on the battlefield while defending their homeland from foreign invaders.Naturally the 1962 film version directed by Rudolph Mate will be dated, but the spirit and scheme of things remain on the agenda, with the story given a more holistic coverage of the same battle with its sea component mentioned, a pity that it wasn't filmed.
For instance, it would have been great if the sea battles made it to the film, and Leonidas (Richard Egan) conducted a daring raid of the Persian camp with a handful of merry men, which made them go on the offensive instead of just depending the narrow pass at Thermopylae, for a reason none other than to spread chaos and panic, and also to buy the Greeks time to set up their defences.More importantly, this film doesn't over romanticize the Spartan warriors.
Battle sequences aren't as stylized, and some of the strategies were quite weakly executed to have imagined the Persian army led by Xerxes (David Farrar) himself, also beefed up with his Invincibles troops, couldn't outfight the Spartans since almost all fights are close quartered mêlées.Dialogue is slanted 60s styled, so don't expect pompous lines screamed across the screen by any character wanting to rouse their troops.
For all the lean and meanness of Butler's very toned and muscular Leonidas and his Spartan troops, the lack of physique gets camouflaged here through the use of battle armour, and while 300 was essentially a King Leonidas story, this one somehow had a romantic subplot spun between the characters of Ellas (Diane Baker) and Phylon (Barry Coe), with the former persuading her beau to abandon duty for romance and the quieter life.Still for those who prefer a break from the flashy, exaggerated treatment gladiator style of Snyder's 300, this version may be the more accurate account given its mention and time devoted to the sea component and other Greek troops joining the Spartans, and also without making Xerxes look androgynous.
The movie "300 Spartans" (1962) is a portrayal of the historical events surrounding the Battle of Thermopylae and the heroic deaths of King Leonidas of Sparta and his soldiers.
After Marathon's battle King Xerxes trying to invader the city-states having in first sight Athens, after Sparta and Corinth (where my football' team name come from) the famous battle of the Thermopoly in 480 BC told early by Homer was shooting in Greek, this small epic didn't have a major impotancy until the new version '300' indded all casting wasn't a star properly apart Ralph Richardson, the tight budge implied some battle that according some sources about thousands warriors, but looking carefully 300 were Persians and 30 Spartans at most, well all this exposed this one seems just them were got a heroes status, forgot the thespians who were there all the time, after all this epic is more valuable than '300' all made by awful graphic computer, as a Holywood esque type had a sub plot where fit a spelled soldier and a beauty woman as Diane Baker to adorn all around!!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.25.
A small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans do battle with the whole invading Persian army.When it was released in 1962, critics saw the movie as a commentary on the Cold War, referring to the independent Greek states as "the only stronghold of freedom remaining in the then known world", holding out against the Persian "slave empire".
With the release of the enormously popular 300 which was based on a graphic novel attention focused on this 1962 version which some people said was superior.In 480 BC King Xerxes of Persia is expanding his empire to the independent Greek islands then the only free part of the known world.King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans have to hold off Xerxes men until further Greek help arrives.This is a starch B movie, filmed on location in Greece with several British thespians giving it some class but its very slow with a lot of talking, an uninspiring plot and some lacklustre action scenes.
Though the tale told is true, and the battle scenes as honest as can be found in a sword and sandal movie, 300 Spartans collapes under the weight of its own attempts at allegory and sub-par acting.The story of the last stand at Thermopylae is set up as a thinly veiled Cold War allegory with only strong military men able to stand up to evil empire to the east.
It is obvious that comparatively speaking, this project had a somewhat limited budget (the B-movie cast alone bears that out), which is truly sad, since it was made by a major studio, 20th-Century Fox, was filmed on location in Greece (a much bigger deal back then than it would be today, and a fact that likely used up most of the budget), and saddest of all, the true story was worthy of first-class cinematic treatment, which it certainly does not get here.Someone posted a review of the film here in 2004 and expressed a desire for a definitive version of the story of the Battle at Thermopylae.
"The 300 Spartans" is about their heroic defense at Thermopylae passage to gain time for the rest of the Greek cities to prepare a force worthy of fighting the Persian invasion back in Greece's golden years.It is clear that producers didn't focus this one as a major budget picture but as a one to take advantage of the sword and sandals wave of films that appeared in the late 50's and early 60's.
In my opinion, 'The 300 Spatans' is not as good as Spartacus or Ben Hur, but it is worth a watch if you are really into historical epics or Greek history.I rate this a 5/10 because the story is a little slow and I can name better films in this genre..
secondly the spartans did not ever,ever invade persia they did not burn the city and they did not rape the persian women!..this was one of the worst movies about the greek empire that i have ever seen if you want to see a good battle go rent a decent ancient greece movie like spartacus.
In 480BC, 300 Spartans, lead by King Leonidas and supported by 6,000 soldiers from other Greek cities held the pass for seven days against 100,000+ Persians under King Xerxes.This Hollywood retelling remains the best film version we have of this extraordinary event.
An early film version that retells the classic story of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas and his 300 loyal Spartan warriors fought the Persian forces of King Xerxes, who were said to number over a million.
Although the Greeks are well aware of their military prowess, the fear of a much larger army concerns them to the point that some 'city-states' would be better to capitulate before the invader.Naturally, the 'special forces' of the day, the Spartans with their counterparts the powerful Athenians dismiss rhetoric like this in the council chamber and hatch a plot to thwart Xerxes and his army at the narrow pass of Thermopylae, with its topography a natural challenge to anyone who'd invade southern Greece (They don't mind leaving the rest to rot it seems!)King Leonidas, played by Richard Egan, presents his case to the Spartan council and strangely they're dismissive and apprehensive too.
It's the very known and yet inspiring, titanic struggle of 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians, under Spartan king Leonidas's (Richard Egan) leadership in Thermopylae, versus the huge army of Persian King Xerxes, who attempted to bring to an end the freedom of the independent Greek States, incorporating them within his vast empire and become world's ruler.
The battle scenes, filmed in their original location in Greece, are well made for it's time and hundreds soldiers of the Royal Greek Army take part as extras.
Also, after one of the battle scenes, where the Spartans may have killed over 500 Persians, they only had a few guys scrawled on the ground.Even with a few mistakes, it's a great movie that I have watched over and over..