Extra Credit: ‘’300’’ the movie
The film ‘’300’’ takes inspiration from the real battle of Thermopylae and the events that took
place in the year of 480 BC in ancient Greece. The movie focuses on specifically one battle
during the Greco-Persian Wars - a series of wars fought by Greek states and Persia over almost
half a century. In the movie, around 480 BC the King of Persia, Xerxes, after successfully
invading other Greek states, demands the subjugation of Sparta to his rule. However, King
Leonidas sarcastically refuses such a generous offer from Xerxes, and despite the objections of
the Senate and the oracles, decides to confront the vast amount of Xerxes’ forces, far superior
from the Spartans in the strait of Thermopylae. He then is seen guiding a force of 300 brave and
heroic Spartan warriors towards the battlefield.
In the movie, there are some similitudes and differences from the historical facts. A curiosity is
that the director of the movie based his knowledge on the graphic novel ‘’300’’, and had to
accommodate some scenes to look more cinematographically attractive to the spectators. I
believe most movies based on historical events used this method to make it look more
fascinating when watching it.
While the movie suggests that the Spartans were the only Greek resistance against the
Persians, it is not true since there was a Greek city-states alliance to fight them. When it comes
to the battle of Thermopylae, the ‘’300’’ movie is quite far from reality. In the movie, Leonidas
leaves Sparta with his 300 best men, and on their way to the battlefield, a small force of
Arcadians led by Daxos join them. However, as mentioned before, there were forces from the
whole Greek world that unified to fight Xerxes’ vast army. There were also several differences
in how the movie describes the battle with what happened. In the movie, Spartans are seen
half-naked during the battle without any armor to protect their upper body, which was not the
case with the real Spartan warrior. Spartans were specialized in the art of battle and therefore
heavily relied on their body armor. They usually wore helmets, breastplates, and grieves over
their legs. They also carried a large round shield for protection, a long lance, and a short iron
sword to attack.
Another fact that was exaggerated for cinematographic purposes was the battle formation of
the Spartans. As masters of battle, Spartans’ army true strength came from their battle
formation, called the phalanx. The strength of this formation relied on all men working together
as a unit, meaning each warrior protected the one next to him with their shield. And in the
movie, there are times were Spartan warriors break the formation and run towards their enemy
in a one-on-one fight, which would never happen in a true battle.
Overall, the film ‘’300’’ is quite a showdown with great fight scenes. It does not cover what
happened in the battle of Thermopylae but gives the spectator the impression and situational
awareness of what was going on at that time.
