Many movies and television shows today have been inspired by historical events, some based on war and others on the reign of a great or terrible emperor. Of the many historical movies, I have decided to do my movie review and historical on “300 Spartans”. This movie was based on the battle of Thermopylae which took place around 480 BC. Even though 300 was an exciting movie to watch, it had only some relevance to the battle of Thermopylae. But some of the things were still inaccurate.
This movie starts as a narration stating that a Spartan’s life is not for the weak. For example, in the movie 300 the Spartans checked to see if a child was deformed. If it was that child was left to die. Their schools were combat training centers that would prepare the children for battle when they grew of proper age. At the age of seven every boy in Sparta including the king’s son would be forced to live in the wilderness away from his family. The boy would be expected to return to the village as a man, which is what soon to be king Leonidas did. After he returns home and is declared King of Sparta. A few years later a messenger visits King Leonidas. He informs him that the leader of the Persians, King Xerxes wants him to surrender his title as king and the land of Sparta. In terms of him surrendering King Xerxes offered him safety, wealth and anything his heart desired. However, King Leonidas saw this as an act of disrespect and kicked the messenger into a well. This was Leonidas way of showing that he declined King Xerxes offer to surrender. In response to Leonidas actions Sparta ended up going to war with the Persians. The Persians had a massive army of over one million soldiers and Leonidas only had an army of 300 soldiers. Even though the Spartan soldiers were trained since childhood to live in battle, going against a million soldiers is a huge disadvantage. Leonidas hatched a plan to defeat the Persian army. Leonidas had to seek help from the Ephors.
His plan was to...