300
300 is a 2007 American action film adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller. It is a fictional retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. It was directed by Zack Snyder and had an array of producers including Gianni Nunnari and Jeffrey Silver. The main character is the ever present Gerard Butler who stars as King Leonidas.
The beginning of the film shows a young Leonidas working his way through the harsh training environments of Spartan law. The climax of this is when the young Leonidas kills a giant wolf using a spear made by himself, after which he returns to Sparta and is crowned king. Years later, Persian messengers arrive at Sparta demanding its submission to King Xerxes. Offended by their threats and behavior, Leonidas and his guards kick the messengers down a well. Knowing that these actions will precipitate a Persian attack, Leonidas visits the Ephors, ancient priests whose blessing he needs to convince the Spartan council to authorize going to war. The Ephors consult the Oracle Pythia, who decides that Sparta must not go to war. When Leonidas leaves a messenger from Xerxes appears, rewarding the Ephors for their covert support and revealing that they have been corrupted by Xerxes.
Boldly, Leonidas follows his plan anyway, deciding to set out with only 300 soldiers. While he does not require the council’s permission for this, taking such a small force seems to be a certain suicide mission. Leonidas hopes that the sacrifice of himself and his men will spur the council to defy the Ephors and persuade all of Greece to unite against the threat to freedom and democracy from King Xerxes.
Along the way to Thermopylae, the Spartans are joined by other Greeks and the group of 300 encounter a town burning on fire, apparently caused by Persians. Only a young child is left to live. Meanwhile, Leonidas encounters Ephialtes, a hunchbacked Spartan whose parents fled Sparta to spare him certain infanticide. Ephialtes asks to redeem his father’s name by joining Leonidas, warning him of a secret path the Persians could use to outflank and surround them.Leonidas is sympathetic to the eager warrior but rejects him, as Ephialtes cannot properly hold a shield, which would compromise the Spartan’s formation.
Prior to the battle, the Persians demand that the Spartans lay down their weapons. Leonidas refuses and uses the narrow terrain to repeatedly destroy the advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally approaches Leonidas to persuade him to surrender, offering Leonidas wealth and power in exchange for his loyalty. Leonidas declines, Xerxes sends in the Immortals, whom the Spartans dispatch. As the Spartans continue to defeat Xerxes’ forces, Ephialtes defects to the Persian king and reveals the location of the secret path. When they realize Ephialtes’ treachery, the Arcadians retreat.
Leonidas orders a reluctant Aristodemus to return to Sparta to tell the Council of their sacrifice. In Sparta, Gorgo, Queen of Sparta reluctantly submits sexually to the Theron in exchange for help in persuading the Spartan council to send reinforcements to Leonidas. Theron publicly betrays the Queen prompting Gorgo to kill him out of rage, spilling open a bag of Persian coins from his robe. The exposure of Theron’s treachery, along with their Queen’s plea, prompts the Council to unite against Persia.
Meanwhile, at Thermopylae, the Persians use the goat path to surround the Spartans. Xerxes’ general demands their surrender, again offering Leonidas titles and prestige. Leonidas seemingly bows in submission, allowing one of his men to leap over him and kill the general instead. A furious Xerxes orders his troops to attack. As Persian archers shoot at the remaining Spartans, Leonidas rises and hurls his spear at Xerxes, cutting the King on the cheek. Visibly disturbed by this reminder of his own mortality, Xerxes watches as all of the Spartans are slaughtered by a massive attack of arrows.
300 world premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2007, in front of 1,700 audience members. 300 was released in theaters in the United States on March 9, 2007, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD on July 31, 2007. The film’s opening was the 24th largest in box office history. It grossed $28,106,731 on its opening day and ended its North American opening weekend with $70,885,301, breaking the record held by Ice Age: The Meltdown for the biggest opening weekend in the month of March. The film also set a record for IMAX cinemas with a $3.6 million opening weekend.
300 generally received mixed reviews as it got a standing ovation at its world premiere but when watched later by the press, many left and some even booed at the end. Rotten tomatoes received a 60% thumbs up from their users and metacritic received a rating of 51 out of 100 from their users. As such a popular film it has been reviewed by many different types of media and critics. Some people reviewed it as “a possible redeemer of modern moviemaking” and one critic even said it left him with “a feeling of power”. Others did not seem to share the same ideas as one critic called it “as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid”, with another critic writing “300has one-dimensional characters who talk like professional wrestlers plugging their next feud”. Despite positive and negative reviews it is said that Mark Canton, Gianni Nunnari and Bernie Goldmann have started on a sequel meanwhile Frank Miller is writing the follow-up graphic novel.
