'300' the Movie

[McobraR]

Wasn't as good as i expected, or as the trailer depicts, but still a great watch. The intro with the Messenger riding the horse towards sparta is a sight to behold :

[XAGSV8]

Great movie. If I saw a wolf like that coming at me I would be running like there is no tomorrow.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by vandrsxr6

Saw it last night to.

Awesome movie, going to hard to beat this year.

Saw the preview for "Grindhouse", that movie going to be a classic.

Was that the tarintino double movie thing? I want to see that aswell.

I didn't have my hope very high, as it look tooo CGI for me, but I loved it. Thought it was better than Troy etc.

I also loved the Kings humour when he was up against it. Ill definitely get that one on DVD.

Tell ya what though, it would have been good to be a Persian King back then...even the Sparta Queen was damn hot!

I like the bit when teh queen stabbed that guy, I didn't see that coming and I did a little fist pump when she did it....LOL

[cupic]

Just loved it on the big screen its a winner

[Rodp]

Watched it yesterday, great production values, great effects, excellent story. Very good movie. If you were greek you'd walk out 10 foot tall.

[Fordman1]

Brilliant !!

Loved it. I'd love to see it on Imax !!

[wheels260]

Saw it today on the Vmax at Knox, what an awesome movie!!!

[xr6ist]

yeh was a good movie only bad side is the greeks will probably have even bigger egos now it will be rocky all over again LMAO

[nugget378]

Seen it today,was entertaining,but having read history many times,I would have liked it to have been truer to the original,not so much a fan of the comic style either to be honest,I think I would have prefered it more as a "standard" type picture,and truer to the real thing,without the grotesque monsters etc..

[Polyal]

I liked it for what it was. It was different thats for sure, I dont want to watch a doco; IMO it didn't go for too long which was good aswell.

[AEF_Silver94]

i cant wait to see this,these ancient war movies are always interesting

[FPV8U]

Going to see it at 9:30, good to see it's getting good reviews.

[Falcon Coupe]

It's a top movie, i will see it again.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by FPV8U

Going to see it at 9:30, good to see it's getting good reviews.

I saw it at gold class at that time, although it sold out quickly and we got front row seats...doh!..glad those chairs recline!

[Quasi]

Originally Posted by AU_Carlos88

i cant wait to see this,these ancient war movies are always interesting

Just as long as the cinema goer doesn't expect a history lesson, just Hollywood.

[JC]

Originally Posted by Barraxr8

Check this Movie out guys.

From all accounts it is absolutely awesome and a must see. In Australia starting April 9. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

There are a lot of great reviews already.

It's like a cross between 'Gladiator' and 'Lord of the Rings', based on Frank Miller's graphic 5 part 'Dark Horse' comic series "300".

The movie is about the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae, where the King of Sparta led his 300 men against the Persians.

The screen shots and trailers look awesome.

Here's the official site:

http://300themovie.warnerbros.com/

IMDb have got some good write ups on it too.

Anyone heard anything else about it ?

Watched it last night. Pretty awesome, and some nice blood shots! Ending wasn't what I expected, but then I'm not too good on my mythical history.

[JC]

Originally Posted by xr6ist

yeh was a good movie only bad side is the greeks will probably have even bigger egos now it will be rocky all over again LMAO

Huh? Rocky's Italian.

They were spartans anyway - the other greeks all ran away.

[TEaaron]

Got it on DVD yesterday. Legaly of course.

I don't know what to say about it, watching it I really couldn't catch onto wtf was happening but I had my eyes glued to the TV with those slow motion limbs flying every where lol.

[XRchic]

It sounds great, I reckon we will head off to see it!!! Worth sorting out babysitters for Id say!

*my kids would probably like it too but I wont take them* hahaha.

[XXRR-50]

Saw it on Vmax at Knox on friday. The movie rocks! Great unique look, choice of actors, soundtrack, everything! You have to see it on a big screen with good, loud sound system, thats why I'm gonna see it at IMAX at least one more time. 10 out of 10!

[MethodX]

Saw it tonight, Its an ok flick.
Xerxes was a bit much on his *** mardi gras float.

overall not bad.


But much preffered Apolalypto.

[AussieJason]

So the battle scenes are better than LOTR:ROTK and Troy ? Might have to check it out. It sounds like it would be a better experienced in the cinema than DVD.

About Gladiator 2, I read somewhere that it is a prequel and will be called Maxiumus, following the story of his rise to a General in the Roman Army.

[HLC]

i saw this last night.

MOVIE OF THE YEAR.

no ******* contest. this movie is the best $12 i ever spent.. at the movies. all the killing, the ugly monster things, the HEAVY METAL BATTLE SCENES!!! BLOODY AWESOME.

[fiery]

I have to agree, saw this movie today.. Absolutely brilliant

I don't like blood and gore type movies, but this was just awesomely done.

If you haven't seen it, make sure you do try to

[bob 351]

yep went a seen it today pretty awesome very good movie

[Bucket]

Originally Posted by Quasi

Don't get me wrong, looks like a good movie, but VERY Hollywood......very little realism.

State the Obvious....Part of the story is Greek Myth

[KBBossedXR]

If you are in to this type of movie you will love it, the fighting scenes are sensational and so graphic and that was watching it at home on the wide screen could only imagine what it would be like at the cinema. Highly recomended you will enjoy

[Stav]

Originally Posted by colossus

Found this:

Most bad-asses will be lucky to have their exploits remembered a year from their deaths. Some will be so lucky to be a foot note in a history book 50 years after the last shovel full of earth is dropped on their plot. It is a rare few who are remembered for centuries, and even rarer those known throughout millennia.

For near two and a half thousand years the last stand of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans has served as a striking lesson in testicular fortitude and sheer bad-assery. Few enough battles have stood the test of time to remain relevant to the best warriors of each nation and generation; the battle at Thermopylae is as vital a lesson in war and the warrior spirit in the halls of West Point and Annapolis as it was in the education of Roman generals.

When the self-proclaimed living god, King Xerxes, began his march to the West with a million men at his command- ok, there’s actually a lot of debate about the size of his army, but we’re just going to call it a million and tell the scholars to shove it- little did he consider the tiny nation of Sparta. A kingdom said to be home to the progeny of Hercules himself, Sparta produced the finest soldiers of the day through measures one might now consider the stuff of comic books and science fiction.

The cultivation of super soldiers began at birth. Shortly after popping out, Spartan babies were appraised by the community and if found weak or in some way deficient would be abandoned in the mountains. At age 7, military education began for boys and girls- the idea being that athletic, well educated women produce stronger children. At 13 boys were divided into units and sent into the wilderness to fend for themselves and train. At 20, men were assigned to their final military units and continued to train throughout life. No man of Sparta could be involved in trade or manufacture, and technically ownership of gold and silver was prohibited; the only real profession of a Spartan man was war.

It is said that when any nation of Greece requested military aid from Sparta, Sparta would send just one soldier. One Spartan is all it ever took.

In 480 BC the vast armies of the Persian Empire, led by Xerxes I, began their trek towards Greece intent upon conquest. Xerxes sent out emissaries to the various states of Greece demanding tribute of earth and water as a symbol of submission; many smaller states capitulated in fear of Xerxes hordes. In Sparta, the emissaries of Persia were cast into a well and told to “dig it out for [themselves]”.

Outnumbered, the Greeks who stood their ground, Sparta, Athens, and Thespia to name a few, knew that they must choose well where to make their stand. The Athenians placed led the allied Greek navy at the choke point of Artemision while King Leonidas of Sparta led a ground force of some 5,000 Greeks under a vanguard of 300 Spartans to Thermopylae. Known as the Hot Gates or the Gates of Fire, Thermopylae provided the perfect bottle-neck in which to strip the advantage of Xerxes’ numbers.

Before Departing for Thermopylae, the Greeks consulted the Oracle at Delphi. The Oracle prophesied that either a king of Sparta would die or his country would die. Leonidas assembled 300 Spartan citizens, soldiers by definition, into an “all sire” unit; every man who marched to Thermopylae left a son in Sparta to carry on his name. Doomed by prophecy, the 300 said good-bye to their wives who told them all “with your shield or upon your shield”, the point being that a man returning home without his shield obviously threw it down in order to run away faster- something no Spartan woman could forgive. When Gorgo, wife and queen to Leonidas, asked her husband what she should do when he left, he told her to “marry a good man, and have good children”.

No Spartan that marched to Thermopylae harbored any illusions of returning home. All they could hope to do was clog the gears of the Persian war machine and halt its advance long enough for the Greek forces behind them to reorganize and field a larger army.

And that is exactly what they did.

The Greeks arrived at the Hot Gates well in advance of Xerxes’ forces. When the Persian army finally approached, Xerxes sent out another emissary and this time offered Leonidas the kingship of all Greece. Leonidas flatly refused, responding:

If you knew what is good in life, you would abstain from wishing for foreign things. For me it is better to die for Greece than to be monarch over my compatriots

The response enraged Xerxes who then demanded that the Spartans surrender their arms.

“Come and take them”, was the Spartan king’s laconic reply.

As the Persian armies amassed and arrayed before the Greeks in the pass, one man remarked that the Persian arrows would be so numerous as to blot out the sun. Dienekes, a Spartan warrior, quipped, “so much the better, we shall fight in the shade”.

On the 5th day of one truly epic stare-down, Xerxes attacked. Sending in his Medes troops first, troops only recently conquered and absorbed into the Persian empire, Xerxes sat atop his gilded throne to watch one of the bloodiest fights in human history.

The pass at Thermopylae was narrow enough that the Greek phalanx stretched from one cliff face to the other. The phalanx stoud as a solid wall of shields and spears into which the Persian troops were poured, poured like spare animal parts into the meat grinder at a hot dog factory. The Medes troops Xerxes committed to this first assault numbered 10,000, the Spartans and their allies tore them apart.

Xerxes, notably shocked by the failure of the Medes to inflict damage on the Greek lines, pulled back what little remained of his pressed soldier and sent in the cream of his crop, the Immortals. The Immortals were so named in that their number was never permitted to go above or below ten thousand; if any Immortal were killed or incapacitated he was immediately replaced within the unit to ensure that the number always stood at ten thousand. Suffice it to say, after their confrontation with the Persians, the Immortals found themselves with many new memers over the next few days.

Better suited to the dessert warfare of the Middle East, Immortals were armed with leather and wicker shields, a short spear, bow & arrows, dagger, and short sword, they wore only light armor at best- a tiara was standard issue. The Immortal was simply no match for the efficient, well armored stabbing machine that was the Greek phalanx and its hoplites. In contrast, the Spartans and their allies wore plate armor including helmets with full cheek plating, carried heavy wooden and metal shields, and faught with heavy, long spears taller than the average man. Many Immortals died horribly well before their puny weapons could even reach their Spartan enemies, their shields and armor providing no protection.

The Immortals charged and broke on the Greek lines just as easily as the Medes did. By the end of the first day, the mountains of dead clogging the narrow pass at Thermopylea stood as a testament to the Greeks’ ability to kill. By the second day, Persian troops had to crawl over piles of dead bodies higher than any man and slide down the other side and become a part of it; with the whips of their masters at their backs, the Persian troops had no choice but to march, climb, and crawl forward and die.

Late in the second day, Xerxes, at a loss for how to break the Greek lines, was presented with the opportunity he needed. A Greek named Ephialtes offered to show the Persian troops a narrow pass through the mountains by which they could come up behind the Greek lines.

Today in Greece, Ephialtes is synonymous with traitor.

Leonidas, realizing his troops were now surrounded on top of outnumbered ordered the majority of his forces to withdraw so that the Greeks could rally elsewhere. Standing in the pass were the 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans. Surrounded, the Spartans abandoned their narrow pass and advanced on the Immortals in order to kill as many of the enemy as they could. The Spartans fought until every spear had broken and resorted to their short swords. In the fighting two of Xerxes’ brothers were killed along with Leonidas himself. The Spartans fought for possession of Leonidas’ corpse and won it, for a time. By the end, Spartans were fighting hand to hand. Further back by the Greek encampment, the Thespians also bravely stood their ground, but succumbed to withering arrow fire, the Thebans however surrendered.

Modern estimates based on archaeology and primary sources put the Greek losses at 1,500: 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, & 500 Greeks of the other various states. By contrast, even the most conservative numbers put Persian casualties at 20,000 men dead some go as high as 80,000. For every Greek that died took more than ten Persians with him.

Xerxes, enraged by his incredible losses, had Leonidas’ corpse beheaded and crucified. The remains were returned to Sparta 40 years later and were interred with all honors. The bodies of the Greeks were buried there in the mountains and at the pass where they fought a stone monument was erected baring this famous inscription:


Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie

This as well said as can be. BTW this movie is banned in Iran (Persia)It will not be shown.

[Stav]

Originally Posted by Bucket

State the Obvious....Part of the story is Greek Myth

This is history.Not a myth.The movie may be puffed up but it happened and these guys are still remembered.They were warrior animals.

[Jeeepers]

I'll wait 'till it's a weekly rental...