A great movie 300 - a remake of a comic book by Frank Miller that was inspired by the original celluloid from 1962 which told the story of a historical event between the Spartans and the Persians dating back to 480 B.C. Or in short:
Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of them his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army more than 20 times as large. The actual heroism of those who stood (and ultimately died) with Leonidas helped shape the course of Western Civilization, allowing the Greek city states time to organize an army which repelled the Persians. Set in 480 BC.
This movie by Jack Snyder fantastically captures the feeling and colours of the comic book. I had a feeling of watching a computer enhanced version of the comic book, which is essentially what the director of the movie has done. Shooting the film only took a couple of months, but postproduction took several years and many, many hours of computerlabour. Most of the acting took place in a large hangar somewhere in freezing cold Canada, in front of a huge green/blue screen where a huge plastic rock was set up. From this material the Director spent years to recreate all the surroundings and look and feel of the Frank Miller comic book 300. The result is magnificent. I can only advise you to go and watch this movie, in a theatre if possible. This is a movie well worth seeing on the big screen ;-)
Updated 30 March 2007, by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk
I found a great summary over at IMDB of the historical background of the movie 300:
It is spring, 480 BC Persian King Xerxes, continuing his fathers, Darius, master plan to conquer the Hellenic city-states, arrives in Hellas. The previous Persian invasion and diplomatic attempts have already turned most northern Hellas tribes and states to the Persian side. But the people of Athens and Sparta, the largest Hellenic powers at the time, feel quite insulted by the Persian emissaries requesting their surrender to Xerxes and slay them. In Sparta, King Leonidas consults the local oracle, which gives two options: either a spartan king will have to be sacrificed or Sparta will be burned to the ground. A year earlier (481, BC) a panhellenic consortium of all southern city-states have already recognized the superiority of the spartan army (the best organized and trained army at the time) and have announced King Leonidas supreme commander of the combined Hellenic army. It is then decided that a small force should block Xerxes' way to southern Hellas in the Thermopylae passage.This passage was at that time 12 meters wide.The great historian Herodotus, possibly exaggerating, states that there were 1700000 Persians(their true number could be anywhere around 100000 and 1000000) against 7000 Hellenic hoplites and slaves, including the 300 men of the spartan king elite guard. King Xerxes waited for 4 days for the Hellenes to be frightened and eventually surrender and was quite astonished by his opponents complete apathy who were following their daily program practicing and making their hair! After that Xerxes tried to convince Leonidas to give up their position, kneel before him and live on as a local governor under Xerxes. King Leonidas replied "molon lave", which means "Come and get it". Then the 3 days battle begun with the 300 Spartans, and 700 thespians (the other Hellenes where sent by Leonidas to protect passages to their flanks) slaying thousands of Persians with minimal loses. The whole Persian campaign would have fail if there wasn't Efialtes who showed Xerxes a secret passage to the Hellenic flanks. After a final battle lead by king Xerxes himself the Hellenic force was completely slain and their heroism and glory was written forever in history. From the beginning of the battle the Hellenes buried their dead in the spot they fell dead. After the battle signs where made for the dead of each Hellenic faction. For the pelloponisians generally (including the 300 Spartans) the sign reads 'Hereby 4000 thousand pelloponisians fought 30 millions), for the 300 Spartans(lakaedaemonians) especially the sign reads 'Oh foreigner tell the lakaedaemonians that we are buried here obeying their laws' meaning that they never hesitated and never retreated from the enemy. The impact of the battle was enormous for both sides. The Persians' morale dropped to zero and the Hellenes lost their fear for the Persian conqueror and organized their defense. After several successful battles the Hellenes ultimately defeated the Persian army and repelled their invasion in the Battle of plataea in 479 BC.
Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top
... on 04 October 2024 @ 08:04
Jonathan posted:
1I saw the movie last week... wow, great scenes, beautifully made.
Wiki about the Battle of Thermopylae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
... on 30 March 2007 @ 20:26
pappa posted:
2zag m ook thuis...lol...erg goed...
... on 03 April 2007 @ 19:26