PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

chaswe-28402 Dialogue, direction, performance, incredible. Beyond belief. Dreadful, dire, dismal, abysmal. Egan looks good, but the script and his accent defeat him. Richardson does his unsuccessful best to cope. The teen-age love-interest is repeatedly cringe-worthy, the dancing girls worse.Xerxes, by Farrar, triumphs as the pantomime villain. What exactly was Artemisia playing at ? Suddenly a lot of women were massacred; luckily off-screen. Oh no you don't ! You evil tyrant! Where precisely were the narrow fiery gates ? Why didn't the arrows darken the sun ? What happened to Phylon ? What happened to Ellas ? Who cares ? Why was charismatic Kieron Moore cast as Ephialtes ? Lucky the wounded Spartan had his life saved, by Phylon and the doctor. Or else he wouldn't have been able to die later. Have I got that right ? The battle scenes were one ghastly chaotic lifeless mess.This film's sole merit is that it was seen by Frank Miller when he was in short pants, and inspired his comic version, followed by the far superior and much more entertainingly controversial 300, by Snyder, with excellent Butler and Headey. My only excuse for the extra star.

Secondof5 This is a truly awful film which is not worth the time or trouble to watch. The acting is terrible, stiff and wooden, ( and that includes Ralph Richardson ). It's badly written with laughable dialogue that comes across almost as a spoof. You get the impression that the director, if that's the correct term, used every first take just to get it over with. There's no tension or excitement or anticipation engendered. There is no sense of epic scale or epoch changing import to the unfolding events. The battle scenes are pedestrian and unconvincing, the locations hardly spectacular. The costume design is passable, the soundtrack is not. It's impossible for me to think of any redeeming features for this feature. Do not waste your time on it. It is truly awful.

david-sarkies While I thought that the movie 300 with cinematrographically dazzling, this film, to me, is the more historically accurate (as much as a Hollywood film is accurate). The movie is based on one of the most famous battles in the ancient world (though there is probably still a lot of debate as to what the greatest battle was though). This battle, to me, is famous, because it is not only a battle where the protagonists were defending their freedom, but also because Leonidas, one of the Spartan Kings, went against the wishes of his people to go and lay down his life for all of the Greeks. It is also a tragedy, because not only was he fighting against incredible odds, but also because in the end he was betrayed.This movie does a very good job in painting the background and explaining to us who the major characters are. While a movie based on the events in the 2nd World War need little explaining, most events in the ancient world are unknown by a majority of the populace. While we may have all heard of Alexander the Great and Julius Ceaser, very few of us can say who Themistocles, Leonidas, and Xerxes the Great were (Themistocles was an Athenian Admiral, while Xerxes was the Persian king who desired to complete what his father was unable to do, and that is conquer Greece - he failed).As mentioned, while the special effects in 300 are impressive, in the end it comes down to being able to replay the events close to the actual events, and to give the audience enough background so that they are not scratching their heads wondering what is happening and why it is happening. This movie does both of these things quite well.One should mention the story behind the movie, and that is the battle of Thermopylae. Around the 5th and 6th Centuries BC, Persia had risen to become a world superpower under the king Cyrus the Great. During the reign of his son Darius, a section of the empire, along the Anatolian coast (the Aegean seaboard of Turkey, known as the Ionian citystates) revolted against Persian rule with the help of the Greeks. Angered at their meddling, Darius raised an army to attempt to crush the Greeks. His first foray met with disaster when his navy was destroyed by a freak storm in the Aegean, and his second foray met with disaster when his troops were defeated at the battle of Marathon. However, Darius died before he could mount a third expedition, and this was taken up by his son Xerxes. Thus Xerxes raised the biggest army that the world had ever seen (according to the historian Herodotus) and made his way to Greece. However, he was temporarily halted at the pass of Thermopylae by a small force of 300 Spartans (King Leonidas and his personal bodyguards) for about a week, however when Leonidas was betrayed, in that Xerxes was told of a goat track around to their rear, their brave and valiant effort came to naught.While this movie only retells a famous historical battle, the event itself shows how people are willing to risk all to protect their desire to be free. Many historians have explored this event and speculated on how the world would have turned out if the Greeks had lost. This, in the end, is irrelevant, because the won. Still, counter-factual history to assist us in understanding the relevance of the event and how this event impacted upon the world in which we live.

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!