The 300 Spartans (1962)

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.

Richard Egan ... King Leonidas
Ralph Richardson ... Themistocles of Athens (as Sir Ralph Richardson)
Diane Baker ... Ellas
Barry Coe ... Phylon
David Farrar ... Xerxes
Donald Houston ... Hydarnes
Anna Synodinou ... Gorgo
Kieron Moore ... Ephialtes
John Crawford ... Agathon the Spartan Spy
Robert Brown ... Pentheus
Laurence Naismith ... First Delegate
Anne Wakefield ... Artemisa

Director: Rudolph Maté
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/

Runtime: 114 mins

Codecs: XVid / AC3

What is it about the tale of 300 Spartans holding off the whole of the Persian army that haunts us still?

At some point they'll make the great version of this story, until that day comes this film will do nicely.

The plot has the 300 Spartans going off with a small band of other Greeks to perform a delaying action in a narrow pass against the vastly superior Persian Army. They delay the Persians for several days before a final and terrible battle that assured them their place in history.

The battle scenes are wonderful, as is pretty much everything in this film. The problem is that they've shoehorned a love story into this testosterone charge film to the point it distracts from the rest of the film, it just doesn't belong. Actually most of the early part of the film, before the troops move out is rather soapy. However once the troops march the film picks up, and other than the damned romance is fine film.

See this movie. Forgive the soap and you'll have a rousing good time.

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If you enjoy a lot of blood, then watch "300". But, if you want something closer to what history really tells us happened at Thermopylae, then "The 300 Spartans" is what you want. I enjoyed the fact that they showed what both sides had in that time as far as weapons and tactics were concerned. They also kept the focus on the bravery of the Spartans, and that all of Greece not only wished them well, but could help, as with the Athenian fleet, not some CGI generated storm.

This was also marked by good acting all around, from Richard Egan as Leonidas, and all the supporting cast. This movie is for those who crave real history, even if much of what occurred may be lost to the ages.

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The true story of the stand made by 300 Spartan soldiers against an entire army of invading Persians is given the Hollywood Cinemascope treatment here in a lushly mounted production featuring a solid if unspectacular cast. Second-string leading man Richard Egan stars as Leonidas, King of the Spartans, who marches his personal bodyguards to Thermopylae to repel the invading Persian hordes. He expects to be joined by the rest of the Spartan army but, when he is betrayed by a Council decision, he and his faithful soldiers decide to make a stand.

This is quite an inspirational story, and the battle scenes ? if a little tame by today's standards ? are impressively staged. Unfortunately, we have to sit through an hour or so of turgid politics and a romantic sub-plot that stubbornly refuses to be even slightly involving, before we reach the main thrust of the story. Many of the characters are strictly one-dimensional, their words describing the mindset of a culture rather than the thoughts and feelings of individuals, which I guess is why they fail to engage the viewer. On the plus side, the Spartans' final stand is poignantly handled, there is some stunning location cinematography from Geoffrey Unsworth, and the remastered DVD offers a beautifully crisp and clear picture.

This is one of those films that, if you saw it as a kid, sticks in your memory because of the climactic battle scenes and, because of that, some might have a mistakenly high opinion of the film as a whole.

* The final film for David Farrar, after which he retired to South Africa.

* Average Shot Length = ~6.6 seconds. Median Shot Length = ~6.1 seconds.

* The photos of ancient Greek ruins used during the main credits are directly comparable with the paintings used during the main credits of "The Guns Of Navarone".

* The film is listed in the annual "Screen World" for 1961 releases as "The Lion Of Sparta", but reappears with full photo coverage for the next issue (for 1962 releases) as "300 Spartans".