Go Tell the Spartans

In response to posts such as this, I think it good to mention my take on 300. My short review is as follows: It's a graphic novel turned into a film, and as such, thoroughly enjoyable.

My longer review: action scenes great, alternating between the chaos of battle and the tactics which impose order on that chaos. Dialogue windy but not horrible (a shame that movie Spartans can't be, uh, laconic). Historically, the film's incomplete to off. The most accurate portrayal, aside from the intro on Spartan boyhood, was of the uniforms of the warriors, from the red cloaks to the shields with the L on them (L for, uh, Laconia). Only problem is, that the bronze breastplates seem to be missing.

Larger than that is the fact that the real heroism of Thermopylae is missing. Leonidas didn't march against the Persians alone, but with a combined Greek army, including Athenians, Corinthians, Thebans, the lot. It was outflanked, and Leonidas volunteered his boys to hold the pass so that the rest could live to fight another day. It was a sacrifice to save the military strength of Greece, not a showing-off to rally the people. Spartans did not throw their lives away so that philsophers would admire them.

The bit about the Persian envoys getting tossed down the well and Leonidas telling Xerxes to "come and take" the Spartan arms appears to be legit, though. And like I said it's a comic book, with all the intensity from plot-frugality that suggests.

So check it out. There isn't much else worth seeing.