300 (movie)

[Drake Tungsten]

The original is a comic book.

The comic book was inspired by the original movie.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST

Yes it is, for the 300 Spartans that, together with Leonidas, defended the pass.

Actually modern historians estimate they were 6.000-10.000 and not only Spartans but from several other Greek city states as well.

When the Greek forces were betrayed by Ephialtes (Greeks still use him name to describe a nightmare) and just before they get encircled, they decided to abandon the battlefield. 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians refused to leave and stayed, fought and died.

Some might call them fools. I call them heroes.

[Nostromo]

Sin City was interesting, aesthetically. But boy was it a dumb movie. I was embarassed for Frank Miller. Its as if he used all the clichés of noir movies/books. I hope for him that it was a voluntary pastiche.

One thing I don't like about fight scenes nowadays is that they film them close up. You don't get a sense of the action.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by nostromo
One thing I don't like about fight scenes nowadays is that they film them close up. You don't get a sense of the action.

QFT.

Gladiator

[Elok]

Originally posted by Keygen


Actually modern historians estimate they were 6.000-10.000 and not only Spartans but from several other Greek city states as well.

When the Greek forces were betrayed by Ephialtes (Greeks still use him name to describe a nightmare) and just before they get encircled, they decided to abandon the battlefield. 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians refused to leave and stayed, fought and died.

Some might call them fools. I call them heroes.

Idunno. Knowing what I do about ancient Sparta, I can't help thinking they'd have been better off if the Persians won. Better human rights record, less pederasty and encouragement of brigandage, nicer to the rest of Greece, etc...by Thespians, you mean people from a region of Greece called Thespia or some such, right? As opposed to 700 actors? I'd assume so, but you never know with Sparta.

My impression from the previews was of machismo overdone to the point of low comedy, far worse even than the worst Rohan swagger from Return of the King. "Our arrows will blot out the sun!" "Yes, well, my penis will still be bigger than yours!" "Oh, you have a taut, gravelly voice, I'd better go belly-up and submissively urinate!" "For Sparta!!!" The action did look quite nice, though. The lurid colors were fascinating too. But I've mentioned all this before, in my last thread on it.

[DanS]

Originally posted by nostromo
Sin City was interesting, aesthetically. But boy was it a dumb movie. I was embarassed for Frank Miller. Its as if he used all the clichés of noir movies/books. I hope for him that it was a voluntary pastiche.

One thing I don't like about fight scenes nowadays is that they film them close up. You don't get a sense of the action.

Sin City was great. Fun and funny.

[FrostyBoy]

Originally posted by LordShiva
QFT.

Gladiator

Agree with this. 300 does have its closeups, but they are good. Most of the fighting scenes are slow motion full body movements.

Movies are otherwise known as Moving Pictures. I call 300 a Moving Painting.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Elok
Idunno. Knowing what I do about ancient Sparta, I can't help thinking they'd have been better off if the Persians won. Better human rights record, less pederasty and encouragement of brigandage, nicer to the rest of Greece, etc...by Thespians, you mean people from a region of Greece called Thespia or some such, right? As opposed to 700 actors? I'd assume so, but you never know with Sparta.

Also QFT.

But the movie portrays Sparta an enlightened democracy, and Persia as consisting entirely of orcs

[Will9]

I have been wanting to see 300 for some time. Lucky for me there is an IMAX theater in Evansville that will be showing it.

Currently I'm watching a show on the History Channel called "The Last Stand of the 300." It say that the greek fighting style had the line of troops put their spears below the spear wall, then the second line would put their spears above the first line. This way the first line could aim for their oppenent's stomachs, and the sencond line could aim for their heads.

[FrostyBoy]

They show that technique in the movie IIRC.

[Seeker]

I just downloaded and watched the original "300" it was pretty good although a little spoiled by having too many real modern Greeks in it (hairiness increased 1000%)

Also:

If Thermoplyae was in RTW:

-the enemy would build heavy onagers and bombard the phalanx with flaming missiles.

-the enemy would send in Armoured Elephants and end it quick.


Also, the whole thing was that just 300 spartans couldn't just stay in the phalanx the whole time, they did lots of other stuff like the accurate anti-cavalry tactic, raids, etc. Remember that Thermopylae was an extremely rough and rocky battlefield, not phalanx territory.

Hoplites didn't ALWAYS fight in a phalanx. Even in Roman times, if you read Livy.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by Seeker

Also, the whole thing was that just 300 spartans couldn't just stay in the phalanx the whole time, they did lots of other stuff like the accurate anti-cavalry tactic, raids, etc. Remember that Thermopylae was an extremely rough and rocky battlefield, not phalanx territory.

Hoplites didn't ALWAYS fight in a phalanx. Even in Roman times, if you read Livy.

If you mean that the Greek had not only Phalanxes?
Thats of course true, as the greek armies also had support troops. Many of the poorer people who couldn´t afford arms and armor to become a hoplite for example fought as peltastes, throwing spears at the enemy and then retreating befor the enemy met the phalanx line.
And there were other support troops, such as archers, cavalry and, during the war of Pyrrhus against rome even some indian war elephants.
But hoplites AFAIK normally fought in Phalanx formation most of the time (at last I never read about hoplites being used in other roles, the other roles seemed to be the domain of troops specialised for it)

In Sparta AFAIK the spartans themselves normally became hoplites, whereas the helotes became support troops (such as peltastes).

As for the Thermopylae:
What made it good phalanx territory was that it was rather narrow, preventing that the enemy could outflank the phalanx line.

There were also several gates, although I don´t know what a role they had in the battle.

And of course therewas the tactics of Leonidas to rotate his troops, keeping only a part of them in battle while the other part was in camp and rested until it was their turn to fight again.

[Keygen]

Originally posted by Elok

Idunno. Knowing what I do about ancient Sparta, I can't help thinking they'd have been better off if the Persians won. Better human rights record, less pederasty and encouragement of brigandage, nicer to the rest of Greece, etc...

Is this actually an opinion, or simply trolling?

[Keygen]

Originally posted by Seeker

I just downloaded and watched the original "300" it was pretty good although a little spoiled by having too many real modern Greeks in it (hairiness increased 1000%)

Like Canadian women, only too blond to easily see their hairy bodies

[Keygen]

Originally posted by Proteus_MST

There were also several gates, although I don´t know what a role they had in the battle.

If you mean mountain passages, one of them, after been pointed out by Ephialtes to the Persians, they used it to encircle the Greeks and therefore end the resistance.