Umm, they *were* so great. Each Spartan warrior killed at least 100 enemies. But the odds were 1,000 to 1 (or something like)! Not counting the mercenaries and other Greeks, heh.

Even if people laid down and let you kill them without a struggle, it'd be tough to slaughter them all in a matter of hours (I'd imagine). Much less so if they go down fighting, eh?

I'm wondering how they transported the elephants and rhinos, lol.

Yes, don't discount the archers! They offer an incredible advantage in ancient battle. Look up the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. 500 men-at-arms and 1000 archers, outnumbered 4 to 1, slaughter the enemy. Now that would make an excellent movie too--oh wait, didn't they make that already? :p Yeah, Henry the V.

It doesn't work like that. A main tactic of the spartans was their phalanx. In a phalanx, each spartan protects the man to his left. As Leonidas clearly desribed in the movie, this is a "single impenetrable unit." If any part of the phalanx is broken "the phalanx shatters." Also, as pixelbend pointed out, there were not 300 soldiers by the end of the movie. There were very few in fact. So around 40 soldiers, surrounded, forced to fight ground troops from all sides while covering arrow fire from above. Even if there were 300 spartans left, the result still would have been the same. Without the advantage, they were screwed. Still very dangerous, but a far cry from any chance of winning.
This reminds me of what you said earlier... The movie never hinted at being any of those things; those were connections you placed. Such an expectation of the movie was derived from the hype given to it by others.

You're right, there are is not a hidden message. Instead, there is a core to the movie which roots itself in the Spartan's actions. Its not just a CRAZY ACTION MOVIE WITH A FEW BADASS GUYS SLAUGHTERING HELLA MORE GUYS WITH HEAVY METAL, OMGZ!!. If you didn't get that, its fine since it can be viewed as I just described it.
I can understand why you saw faults in continuity if you didn't understand the movie. You could blame Frank Miller for failing to help show you, and Zack Snyder for failing tl portray those apects of Miller's story. However, there were subtleties to the movie. By there very nature, they cannot be completely obvious since they are not directly highlighted, but instead untouched upon by speach, making it an underlying core of the movie. I had to watch it twice to entirely identify it.

He may have just missed like Sultana said, but I would rather believe that it was intentional. He knew that if Xerxes was killed then it wouldn't really do any good because there would be some other person to say "oh now I am a god king" or some such nonsense, but if his holier-than-thou attitude was broken but he was left alive it would leave a king that wasn't feared by his people anymore which would loosen his grip on them. Thats just my interpritation of it though. His comment about making him bleed fulfilled its purpose to me and I still think it was badass.:thumbsup:

This is a war, Ch'i, not a pissing contest between guys at a bar. There's NO REASON to give your life in a moral victory over your enemy when you could've just as easily sent the damn spear through the middle of his face. It's not like they were in single combat and Leonides was clearly overwhelmed but managed to get in a slash to Xerxes just as he fell. He chucked his spear at him from far away just to scratch his cheek and knock off some of those pretty piercings. Drawing blood in single combat would've been one thing. Drawing blood with a projectile when your opponent is sitting on his throne scratching his nuts means either a) you're a bad shot (not that he didn't have every reason to be a bad shot in that case) or b) you're somehow deluded into thinking that it's somehow a significant moral victory to scratch your opponent's cheek while you die in a mess of arrow fire.

Nicking Xerxes' cheek didn't demoralize the Persian army, though I'm sure it would've pissed him off. Being held at bay by a force of 300 did. If that spear goes out, it should either have missed in a display of the futility of his effort at that point or it should skewer Xerxez.

I think, again, the problem with the movie as a concept is that the REAL victor here was the phalanx. As people keep noting, watching a phalanx work is relatively boring, so the entire system gets tossed out to keep the bronzed Adonises in single or double combat against swarms of enemies. That's all well and good, but it undercuts what made the real battle so amazing and it makes it seem very odd that suddenly they get slaughtered just because they're surrounded. They did ok for the rest of the movie without using a phalanx. What happened?

I think being able to hurl a eight foot spear that is weighted at both ends over about 30 to 50 feet and draw any kind of blood is a pretty darn good shot.

But maybe I just need more practice.

The standard for 8 foot spear throwing is hitting a charging rhino's eye at exactly the right moment so that its twitching corpse slides to a stop inches from your feet. Scratching a cheek doesn't really compare.

Yeah. I get the whole "fighting as a single unit" part, but those guys jumping 20 feet in the air at people didn't convey that at all. Where was the "single unit" when Leonydis was fighting the boss with the big axe? All I'm saying is, for someone who doesn't read the comic/graphic novel/whatever, the movie isn't that good. It was close, but it didn't reach it. If the movie is good only if you read the novel, that's a bad prerequisite. To an outsider, the movie just had some weird flow/continuity/theme problems. I couldn't decide if this was a tragedy, a tale of justice, a story about believing in something and sticking to it, etc. The movie was like a runaway freight train, barely all over different plot themes. The only reason I'm still defending my opinion and haven't lost interest already is because this movie came so close to being that damn good. When it is released on DVD, I'm going to attempt to capture the entire movie, and re-edit it and make it work.

Its fine if you didn't like the movie. On it being a bad movie, I disagree. Maybe I'm just biased because I study and practice this sort of thing all the time. I understood the tactics, and the philosophy of their fighting which may have been something not everyone picked up on. I would like to help clarify the strategies applied to the battle.


That being said, I would like to try and clarify why they were defeated so quickly once they were surrounded. Since the movie was based on a historical event, they did have to inevitably follow a certain criteria for what happened in the battle. I will describe the movie's tactics, and the ones used in the real battle of Thermopylae.




Its getting late; I'll have the examples finished some time tomorrow.

Regarding the spear toss: I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a distance of half a mile or something like that.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic

Today's Penny Arcade comic illustrates it pretty well. :)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/img/3-21-07c.jpg

This is mind of a 300 fan. :lol:

I had been waiting to see 300 for a long time and I wasnt disapointed. Although I was a bit bored. First time this has happened to me. Let me explain. Basically I have read the graphic novel and am very familiar with the history so the problem was that it was like I had already seen the movie. Like literally I would know their lines half the time before they spoke them. There was only one new little surprise in there that I hadnt been expecting. But otherwise all very similiar. Of course this also speaks to good conversion between book and movie but still, I was left a little bored throughout the movie.

Right with ya on "History of Violence." I was unimpressed.

300, PG edit. Trailer only, no spoilers for those who haven't seen it.

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I saw this movie the day it came out. I thought it was a great movie, but I did have a few problems with it. For one, this movie got way too hyped up. When I went to go see it, my expectations were that this was going to be hands down the best movie ever or something. Unfortunately, it fell short of that for me. Also, I felt that it could've been longer...perhaps more fight scenes.

Redjake: It almost sounds like you're saying the Spartans should've won and overcame the Persians. You do realize that history says they were going to lose right? I don't mean to offend, but your arguement is begging to contradict history.

It opened in England last night, and my wife bought tickets.

Bear in mind that the story is not the portrayal of what happened, it's the tale being told by a survivor to motivate the army a year after a thwarted invasion attempt.

He's trying to stir his compatriots before charging into battle as free men to defeat the awesome power of the massed armies of the richest and most militarised country in the world.

[sarcasm=10]
I can't see how anyone can see this film as anything other than historical storytelling - there are no parallels to any current political situations. [/sarcasm]

All in all it was a great watch, and I loved the soundtrack. Five Stars.

/threadjack
You are not alone. A History of Violence is one of the lousiest pieces of cinematic trash I've ever seen disgrace a movie screen. My hubby and I are both astounded by the raves it received. /end threadjack

As for 300, we just got back from it. I wasn't expecting a precise history lesson. I wasn't expecting deep character and plot development. I really don't even like gory movies that much. I was quite pleased when I left the movie theater and it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

Playing heavy metal during the fight scenes was a definitely plus for me. haha:thumbsup:

I liked 300, however my problem with it is that it didn't have much originality. Other than everyone having an 8 pack, there were many things in the movie that had been done before in other movies. It's also kind of funny seeing things you've done for years (kettlebells) turning into a fad.

To be fair, the story is a few thousand years old... :lol:

Definetly took my girlfriend to see this movie the second day it came out

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD

They definetly did stick to most of the graphic novel and the way they filmed it was incredibly amazing


I was reading on how they made it and apparently they used this huge rock for about 4 or 5 different sets, pretty interesting atleast i think so

but then again the little stuff generally amuses me =P




Bottum Line




Great Movie

I agree... though I swear it may have turned me slightly gay as I would probably fuck a few of those Spartans.

Speaking of 300 turning you gay, I found this on You Tube. Very Funny.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi2t58CRmbU

That is awesome!

I thought this was a great movie. Every girl that I know who saw it liked it more then me.

I'm a self-avowed movie snob and I loved this film. I thought it was beautiful.

I recommend seeing this in Imax for enhanced bigification. The movie is visually impressive but in Imax, hoo hoo!