300?

[starwars22097]

I need some info about the battle at thermopalyae with leonidas the persians and the greeks, does anyone have any?

 

[Verbose]

I need some info about the battle at thermopalyae with leonidas the persians and the greeks, does anyone have any?

Read book 7 of the the "Histories" of Herodotus. That's where the account of the battle is found. And Herodotus is pretty much our only, at least only elaborate, source to the event.

One might also start here:
http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/logoi.html

 

[luiz]

Try wiki dude.

 

[scy12]

And if you must see a movie about the subject (which is not a documentary) see "The Gates of Fire " which translates as Θερμοπυλες , the name of the place where the battle was fought.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Try to find the History of the Art of War vol 1 Antiquity by Hans Delbruck.

It is one of the best books on ancient warfare.

http://www.amazon.com/Warfare-Antiquity-History-Art-War/dp/080329199X

 

[BCLG100]

I read a book 'Persian Fire' which gives a nice overview of the battle and all the history surrounding it.

 

[holy king]

And if you must see a movie about the subject (which is not a documentary) see "The Gates of Fire " which translates as Θερμοπυλες , the name of the place where the battle was fought.

is this the real english title? couldnt find it at imdb...

 

[puglover]

The History Channel made an excellent documentary around the time "300" came out called "Last Stand of the 300" that gave historical information about the battle. It was even released commercially as a DVD so it would be relatively easy to find.

 

[scy12]

is this the real english title? couldnt find it at imdb...

Well with a little bit of research i found the film "The 300 Spartans" Which was the one i saw on Tv. However the name used for a title which was in Greek was not a direct translation in Greek but the name where the battle was fought(Which is used to reference the battle) Thermopiles and i guess that is where the confusion rose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_300_Spartans
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/

 

[luiz]

Well, the best advice you will get is to not see that "300" movie. Worst movie ever.

 

[flyingchicken]

"300" was a beautiful movie of a fictional exaggerated narrative in comic book form.

 

[BCLG100]

Well, the best advice you will get is to not see that "300" movie. Worst movie ever.

Its copy cat alone was far worse.

 

[luiz]

I see nothing redeeming about "300". Idiotic history, poor characters, unbearable dialogues. The Spartans were so moronic and one-dimensional that the best part of the movie was when they all died.

What an awful, awful movie.

 

[flyingchicken]

It was all about the action. The action scenes redeem everything bad about 300. Also, the Iranian controversy. That was funny.

 

[Traitorfish]

I see nothing redeeming about "300". Idiotic history...

And this shows that, and I hate to say this, you didn't get it. It wasn't trying to be historically accurate, even in the loosest way. It's an historically-based fantasy film, not an historical one.

Point is, you have to take it on it's own terms. You can't expect a deep, moving historical epic when they were trying to make a fantastical slaughter-fest. I'm not saying that it's perfect- it's true that the characterisation and dialog were both weak, for example- but judging a film by what it's trying to be and how well it succeeds are two different issues. You can't say that a film was bad because it wasn't trying to be the film that you wanted it to be.
Put simply, you can't expect a classical symphony when the artist is trying to give you death metal.

 

[Mirc]

I see nothing redeeming about "300". Idiotic history, poor characters, unbearable dialogues. The Spartans were so moronic and one-dimensional that the best part of the movie was when they all died.

What an awful, awful movie.

I totally agree.

Put simply, you can't expect a classical symphony when the artist is trying to give you death metal.

Unrelated, I know, and I got your point, but death metal is closer to modern classical-music symphonies than most kinds of music.

 

[holy king]

I see nothing redeeming about "300". Idiotic history, poor characters, unbearable dialogues. The Spartans were so moronic and one-dimensional that the best part of the movie was when they all died.

What an awful, awful movie.

within it's genre (noir) it was good. objectively speaking noir/hard boilded is crap of course, but i think it has a certain charme...

one dimensional characters and the characteristic dialogues are part of it...

 

[luiz]

And this shows that, and I hate to say this, you didn't get it. It wasn't trying to be historically accurate, even in the loosest way. It's an historically-based fantasy film, not an historical one.

Point is, you have to take it on it's own terms. You can't expect a deep, moving historical epic when they were trying to make a fantastical slaughter-fest. I'm not saying that it's perfect- it's true that the characterisation and dialog were both weak, for example- but judging a film by what it's trying to be and how well it succeeds are two different issues. You can't say that a film was bad because it wasn't trying to be the film that you wanted it to be.
Put simply, you can't expect a classical symphony when the artist is trying to give you death metal.

I meant "idiotic story", but my limited english skills prevented me from writing right.

I of course have no problems with a fiction film not portraying history accurately. I quite liked Gladiator, for example.

My problem with "300" is that the story was idiotic. It was for 7 year olds. The characters were awful, the dialogues a catastrophe. It was all about killing a bunch of weird looking persians for what seemed like a century.

I don't think there is anything to "get" in that movie.

 

[EnlightenmentHK]

300 was fine when they were yelling. When it came to actual dialog, it was embarrassing. The entire Sparta sideplot was pointless and clumsy. And the narrator was just fricken annoying. We could have gotten what we had to from various scenes without his audience insulting voice-overs.

The action itself...visually appealing to an extent, but it got old quick. There's very little that stands out memorably beyond the basic look. The early promise of phalanx warfare lasted all of 30 seconds, after which everything devolved into a sword and shield slugfest...just like every other movie. By the time the one guy's son died and the narrator told us 'And he broke ranks, went crazy'...the whole audience was asking itself 'How can you tell? He looks like every other disorganized nutjob out there.'

It had its effective, powerful moments...but the fact is 90% of them were already spoiled by trailers. The moments when they weren't yelling about how bada$$ they are definitely dragged.

The guy who played Leonidas was decent. Everyone else was forgettable at best.

 

[scy12]

Has anyone here seen the other movie i was talking about ?