Now that I have seen and reviewed "300: Rise of an Empire", I
thought it would be appropriate to review the movie that inspired Frank Miller
to create the graphic novel. “The 300
Spartans” was made with the cooperation of the Greek government which provided
5,000 soldiers. The film was shot near
the site of Thermopylae. It was directed
by Rudolph Mate. It was his only war
movie.
The credits roll over shots of the Acropolis. The Persian Emperor Xerxes (David Farrar)
marches into Greece with a variety of units.
A captured Greek spy sasses Xerxes about freedom versus slavery. Cold War analogy. A Greek traitor named Demaratus is an advisor
to the Emperor. He is also accompanied
by a Greek queen named Artemisia (Anna Synodinou). She is more than just an advisor, if you get
my drift.
The Greeks are meeting at Corinth to discuss the
invasion. Themistocles (Ralph Richardson)
argues for unity. When a foe quotes the
first Delphic prediction about blood running from the roofs, Themistocles
counters with the second prediction referring to the “wooden walls”. Later Themistocles and Leonidas (Richard
Egan) discuss strategy using a model of Greece.
The Spartans will hold at the mountain pass of Thermopylae and Themistocles will bring the
fleet. Unfortunately, the Spartan
council refuses to allow the Spartan army to go to war during a religious
festival. Leonidas defies them by taking
his bodyguard of 300 men.
Phyllon (Barry Coe) is the son of a traitor, but
engaged to the niece of Queen Gorgos of Sparta.
He wants to prove himself, but Leonidas refuses to take him along
because of his father and to set up a redemption arc. Phyllon and Ellas (Diane Baker) tag
along. The Spartans are joined by 700
Thespians. The Greeks arrive at the pass
and begin to fortify it.
Leonidas leads a surprise night attack on Xerxes
camp. Phyllon sneaks into the group to
begin his redemption. They catch Xerxes
with his pants down as he is canoodling with Artemisia. As a result of the ass-whipping, Xerxes executes all the camp followers to
motivate his men. Meanwhile, Leonidas
gets the unwelcome news that the Spartan army will not be coming. They are on their own.
In the first Persian assault, the infantry advances
in lines and the Spartans await in lines.
The Persian cavalry attacks through the infantry and the Spartan front
line ducks! The horsemen are trapped
between the first and second lines and a melee results. After this initial fight, Leonidas meets with
Xerxes second in command. “Our arrows
will blot out the sun.” Leonidas: “Then we will fight in the shade.”
On day two the Persians send in chariots which are
dealt with by archers and javelinmen.
Next it’s the Immortals with their wicker shields and short spears. The Spartans fight in a phalanx. Phyllon has pretended to be dead and then
sets fire to hay behind the Immortals.
War epics love fire!
A Greek traitor named Ephialtes visits Xerxes to tell
him of a goat path to get behind the Spartans.
Leonidas sends Phyllon back to Sparta to inform them of the
situation. The Thespians stay thinking
they will become famous for their sacrifice.
Oops! Note the title of the
movie.
Spoiler alert if you are so ignorant that you don’t
know the outcome of the battle. Xerxes
leads the final attack in his white chariot (shouldn’t it be black?). Leonidas advances in a wedge shape. Leonidas is killed and the remnants carry his
body to a hill and form a circle around the corpse. Xerxes offers them their lives if they give
up the body. They prefer a barrage of
arrows. Remember Thermopylae!
I was pleasantly surprised at how accurate “The 300
Spartans” is. You get the basic facts
about the battle from the film, but a lot of the details are fudged. The background is the strongest section. Xerxes did march into Greece with a huge
multi-ethnic army. Greeks like
Themistocles did view the struggle as freedom versus slavery (as posited by Herodotus). The main characters are based on actual
personages and are not caricatures.
Their relationships are Hollywoodized.
There is no evidence that Artemisia and Xerxes had an affair, but it is
not beyond possible. Themistocles and
Leonidas did not meet to discuss strategy, but the strategy discussed is fairly
close to what actually happened. The
movie does an admirable job fitting in the most famous quotes from
Herodotus. For example, the “fight in
the shade” line.
The movie veers away from history and military sense
in the battle itself. The raid on the
Persian camp was crap, of course. But
necessary to redeem Phyllon. There is no
record of Xerxes killing the camp followers.
The battle is laughable in its tactics.
The narrowness of the pass did not lend itself to lines of
infantry. Plus the Spartans would have
been in a phalanx anyway. Given the
nature of the terrain there would have been no use of cavalry or chariots by
the Persians. The Immortals are
accurately dressed, but the Spartans look like legionaries. The fire surprise is pure bull shit, just as
it was in “Spartacus” and “Braveheart”.
The role and motivation of Ephialtes is fine and certainly closer to the
truth than in “300”. Xerxes may have had
a white chariot, but he did not participate in the battle. The death of Leonidas is as per
Herodotus. Overall I would give the film
a C for accuracy.
“The 300 Spartans” is surprisingly not sucky. Egan and Richardson do a good acting job, but
the rest of the cast is low rate, especially the females. However, nobody embarrasses themselves. The romantic subplot is lame and
perfunctory. The dialogue is average,
but gets points for borrowing from the ancient sources. It was cool hearing the famous quotes. Although the tactics are shaky, the action is
pretty good. The hand to hand is well
done and the deaths are not laughable.
“The 300 Spartans” is a fun companion to “300”. It is entertaining in an early 1960’s B-movie
sort of way. Watching it and then
comparing it to “300” could not be a bigger contrast between an Old School war
movie and whatever the Hell “300” is.
Grade =
C
