Stupid

I went and saw this movie (300), and I think this was the absolute worst movie ever. The plotline was ridiculously simple and it was just watching a bunch of silly men in thongs fight for almost the entirety of the movie.

But the worst part: The fact that the Spartans were so glorified made me uneasy. The Persians on the other hand were depicted as a complete utter inferiority... This doesn't follow history at all. Leonidas would never have had to fight a wolf, or gotten beaten. Besides, to "come to age", armed Spartans were to kill unarmed slave Helots (Greeks indigenous to Lakonia and Messenia.)

In fact Spartans did not believe in freedom. They would ritually declare war on Helots in order to be able to have their numerous professional soldiers. The soldiers lived off of the estates of the conquered Helots.

Now, about the battle itself, according to Herodotus, Leonidas had a group of 7000 Greek soldiers. The Greeks (not only Spartans) took turns rotating to the front of the battle scene of Thermoplyae for two days! It is believed that 4000 Greeks perished there. In the end, 700 Hoplites from Thespiae also remained with the Spartans fighting to the death.

Also, what about the vastly outnumbered fleet made up of Athenians that held off the Persians in the straits adjacent to Thermopylae? Or the fact, that in the end, Athenians save all of Greece by destroying the Persian fleet at Salamis?

I understand that movies skew events and characters, and things need to be taken with a grain of salt... but it was strange to see a movie that differentiated Spartans and Persians like they were Gods vs Monsters. And the way they made this differentiation was by lying in an epic way.