AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

gavin6942 A small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans do battle with the whole invading Persian army.When it was released in 1962, critics saw the movie as a commentary on the Cold War, referring to the independent Greek states as "the only stronghold of freedom remaining in the then known world", holding out against the Persian "slave empire". This is interesting, as I absolutely do not see it. What is the parallel? Comic artist Frank Miller saw this movie as a boy and said "it changed the course of my creative life". His graphic novel "300" is about the Battle of Thermopylae, and in 2007, was adapted into a successful film. What I like about this is that it might be assumed that the movie "300" is a remake of this film (albeit a very different one). But, in fact, "300" comes from a graphic novel that was inspired by the original movie... so there's that extra step, giving it a more interesting lineage.

Leofwine_draca An early film version that retells the classic story of the Battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas and his 300 loyal Spartan warriors fought the Persian forces of King Xerxes, who were said to number over a million. This was a childhood favourite of comic book author Frank Miller, whose comic book version of the same story, 300, was made in a 2006 film by Zach Snyder.It's hard to compare the two films because they're so very different. 300 is a heavily stylised comic book film filled with garish violence and green-screen effects. By contrast, THE 300 SPARTANS is a traditional sword and sandal adventure in which the battle doesn't even take place until the last half hour of a two hour film. If I'm honest, this has too much back story while 300 has too little.Still, there's much to recommend in THE 300 SPARTANS, not least some solid acting in the likes of rugged lead Richard Egan and Ralph Richardson in a minor role. The movie was actually shot in Greece, which adds plenty of authenticity to it, and the action scenes are handled with aplomb and just as exciting as those in 300. The first half is quite slow and there's a tacked-on romantic sub-plot which drags things down alongside a couple of those needless dancing scenes to pad out the running time, but it's still a solid, able production that provides a fairly faithful retelling of the source material. If you want a fantastic adaptation of the story that blows away both film versions, check out Steven Pressfield's gritty novel, GATES OF FIRE.

Blueghost Sayeth the Persian King.This is a moderate and mediocre epic regarding the Persian invasion of Greece. This was one of two actions that helped decide the fate of the western free world, because otherwise the Persian invasion would not have been held off, and the rest of the world would have looked radically different today.The acting is on par for other films of this type for the time. It's nothing spectacular, but passing. The costumes are on the mark, but the location doesn't quite resemble the battlefield upon which the Battle of Thermopylae took place, but it's close.I certainly like this more than the modern "300" that hit the theatres in 2007. In essence this film is a vanilla flavored classic era epic with lots of sword play, some chariots with of course, bows and arrows.I don't have too much to say about it. There's no real profundity here. It was an event that took place, and thanks to Sparta's martial tradition, they had the warriors fit to hold off the avante garde of the Persian military.See it once. Check out the letterboxed edition DVD. It's something to watch on a lazy weekend afternoon.

Gunn We saw this back in 1962 and never forgot it. The Battle of Thermopylae is one of most stunning events in the history of the world. It is so fascinating; not only the battle but the Spartan lifestyle. King Leonidas of Sparta (Richard Egan in his best role) and his honor guard of the finest 300 warriors of Sparta, held off the entire Persian Empire led by the conquering Persian King Xerxes, until the other Greek City States observed religious rites during a holy festival. Thus Greece was saved and became closer to becoming a nation. The only slight drawback to this low-budget film was inferior special effects. The cast also included Sir Ralph Richardson, Diane Baker, Kieron Moore as Ephialtes, Laurence Naismith and David Farrar as Xerxes. Credit must be given director Ruldolph Mate' and veteran cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth who filmed it on location in Greece. One of the greatest low-budget films ever!