The film 300, directed by Zack Snyder, is based on a comic book by a graphic novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley that seeks to portray life in Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae from August 11-13, 480 bce, between a coalition of twelve Greek city-states and the army of the Persian Empire. The entire production is so verbally camp, along with bulging biceps, deltoids, pectorals and abdominal sixpacks, that the film is destined to become a cult classic for bodybuilders and their gay admirers, though the latter must endure a homophobic reference to Athenians as “boy lovers” and an anachronistically effeminate portrayal of the Persia’s King Xerxes (played by Rodolfo Santoro). Voiceovers throughout seek to explain life in Sparta, where babies who look weak are subjected to infanticide. Boys are trained to fight and are removed from home at age seven, trained to endure pain without crying out, forced to survive in the wilds as a rite of passage, and finally are accepted as warriors who are prepared to fight to the death. King Leonidas (played by Gerard Butler) is the prime example of a boy who becomes a man through the rigorous training. However, the film will definitely insult historians. Women have more of a role than would have been the case; in particular, Queen Gorgo (played by Lena Headey) at one point nods approval when Leonidas is poised to send a Persian emissary and his entourage to their death down a well, and she is later permitted to address the Spartan council. The latter scene occurs when a nonwhite Persian emissary urges Leonidas to give an offering of Spartan earth and water as a sign of submission in order to avoid war. The nonverbal “kill the messenger” response is clear evidence that Spartans are the true barbarians; the tendency of Leonidas to screech defiantly rather than confidently testifies to further Spartan lack of sophistication. In any case, despite opposition for the war from Spartan politicians, who have been bought off secretly with gold from the Persians, Leonidas leads 300 warriors to a battle expecting as a result to “dine in hell.” Along the way, he picks up a few Arcadian volunteers, though in actuality the Arcadians numbered 1,120, and other allies brought the total to 7,000. The Persian army, however, is demonstrably much larger. According to Herodotus, the infantry numbered 1.7 million, 80,000 were in the cavalry, Arabs and Libyans (displayed in the film as Africans) accounted for 20,000, though he perhaps exaggerates with a total figure of more than five million when he adds Persia’s navy, support troops, and the armies of Persia’s Greek allies. Leonidas picks a narrow passageway into the Greek heartland to maximize his odds, and the battle features human waves, spearthrowing, magicians, masked infantry, a giant, and large animals. All 300 are destined to die heroically, though one Spartan father grieves unspartanlike over the death of his warrior son. Those with some knowledge of the actual history will be disappointed that titles at the end fail to mention that the Spartan sacrifice gave Athens ample time to prepare its fleet for a decisive victory over Persia the following month. Crude symbolisms abound. For example, an Abu Ghrabian pileup of dead bodies reminds filmviewers of Bush’s fight to “preserve” Western civilization. The slaveowning Spartans in the film pride themselves on being “free” men despite their rigid authoritarian political structure and flatter themselves that they do not employ slaves as soldiers, unlike the Persians. For Iranians, the movie is a travesty of inaccuracies, particularly of Xerxes. MH
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