300 (2006) - Full Reaction
Added 2022-12-03 23:31:05 +0000 UTCOOOOOOHHH MMMYYY GGOOOSSHHHH That was insane a little, I didn't look at the clock even once. It's one of those ones I'm not sure how I feel about it, I was invested and shocked and eyes wide the whole time. It was a distinct style that I enjoyed but holy moly that was a lot of gory deaths :/
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Comments
This is the way.
Doc Savage
2024-03-14 09:32:11 +0000 UTCFaramir (the younger brother of Boromir) is the narrator in 300. From The Last Samurai *Cpt. Algren: "There was once a battle at a place called Thermopylae. Three hundred brave Greeks held off a Persian army of a million men. A million. You understand this number?" *Katsumoto: "I understand this number."
Clay F
2023-12-17 11:18:52 +0000 UTCThe relationship between Leonidas and Queen Gorgo is one of the best representations of a partnership in all film. Though brief, it shows that he relied on her as his "sanity check", and she in her turn kept him on path. At the moment before he kills the messengers, for instance, he looks back at her, and she nods. He wasn't asking, nor did he need her permission - but he was taking a moment to confer with a trusted advisor essentially. She nods, and events unfold from there. It is also important to see how much the women of Sparta played in maintaining the code and integrity of Spartan ideals. In large part, men act and fight for the respect and approval of those they love - and Gorgo set an example in this. When she tells Leonidas, "come back with your shield, or on it," she is saying come back in victory, or come back dead. That is what he needed then... he already knew she loved him. By the way, Leonidas was actually a smart, witty man. There are a fair number of really great quotes attributed to him. ---------- When a comrade asked, "Leonidas, are you here to take such a hazardous risk with so few men against so many?" Leonidas replied: "If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but if on men's valor, then this number will do." ------- Lastly, whole Stelios is a composite character, it is true that before the final battle, Leonidas sent many of the younger Spartans away to save their lives. Knowing that they would not go without reason, he gave a lot of them messages to take back to Sparta, each thinking the message was a unique secret. The older men he tried that on all saw through the plan, and were allowed to stay.
Samurai Ken
2023-01-04 11:31:49 +0000 UTCWell Cassie you upped your street cred making it through this one. A fun watch for sure.
softshoes
2022-12-16 19:11:32 +0000 UTCYou should check out Snyder's female-action hero movie Sucker Punch. Very cool.
Odd Thomas
2022-12-15 20:55:20 +0000 UTCSuccinct. My word of the day.
Richard Maurer
2022-12-06 03:31:38 +0000 UTCModern military historians credit the Theban success in this battle to altering their tactics more than who the Thebans or anyone else were sharing their tents with. The Thebans met the Greeks with their lines at more of, like, a 45 degree angle than the usual, head on, slamming into, but whose to say?
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 02:44:39 +0000 UTCThere are a few references in the movie such as Leonidas telling the messenger, “……and if those boy-lovers (meaning Athenians) are willing to fight, then we Spartans can do no less!” Spartan men were prohibited, by law, from marrying until they were 30. They graduated the agoge, or training, at around 18-19. That’s 11-12 years living in all male barracks. I’ll try to be delicate but if a Spartan soldier’s tent was a-rocking, (as most of them were), we’ll be careful about knocking. In the Ancient Greek world, across the board, there was zero shame in an older, experienced male…..how shall I put this….. taking a younger man ‘under his wing,’ shall we say? The younger man was to learn what it was to be a man and the older man was to….. uhhh…. ‘have his needs met,’ shall we say? The only time in the ancient world the Spartans were defeated by a similar sized army was when they lost a battle to the city-state of Thebes () by the Theban army led by their elite unit called, if memory serves, ‘the sacred band,’ a hand-picked unit of 300 men who all had lovers within the unit’s ranks. The thinking went no man would show cowardice in front of his lover. If you were in the ‘band’ you HAD to have a lover within the same group. Those pairings shared tents on campaign and were equally ferocious as the Spartans.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 02:05:50 +0000 UTCAs usual, your tactical sense was spot on. The scene in the first fight where Leonidas throws his spear and you go, “Don’t do that! You might need it!” In the ancient world a ‘spear’ is a stabbing weapon. A ‘javelin’ is a throwing weapon. Considering that the 6’ long weapons the Spartans carried were counter-weighted with a blunt bronze weight on the opposite end from the bronze bladed tip, it’s absolutely not a throwing weapon. Numerous accounts retell how hoplite infantry fights with their spears until the wooden end breaks off. They then turn their spear around and whack their opponents or push their opponents back with the blunt end until a neighbor with an intact bladed end can impale him. Then they turned to their short ‘xyphos’ or stabbing sword. The blades of their spears were pointed on the end, flared out a little but had rounded, bladed curves that mounted the spear. Had they had the sort of blades depicted in the movie, the spearhead would snap off every time it entered the body of an enemy. Being bladed all the way around, front and back, meant being able to penetrate a body, twist, then cutting its way back out still intact. However, the spear and sword were bronze, so more fragile than later, for instance, iron swords. Accounts talk of hoplites fighting until their spears broke, pulling their swords until they, too, shattered and fighting on with bare hands and teeth.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 01:55:02 +0000 UTCThe Persians would have tried their arrows first, followed by smashing light infantry against heavy armored infantry (Picture your high school volleyball team, wonderfully skilled at that game, trying to slam bodily into the football boys offensive line….. in pads and helmets. The Persians would have had about the same success. No doubt they might have tried their cavalry next, but horses simply won’t charge themselves onto a cactus of spears sticking out of a tightly bunched group of men. Riding down individual men, running for their lives? No problem. Slamming themselves and their rider onto a mass of spears…..well, horses, like people, don’t usually commit suicide. The Persians would then have been forced to send in their own heavy-ish infantry, the Immortals. We know, though that hoplite infantry wore laminate armor of layers of leather and linen and then more leather that would turn aside virtually every weapon the Persians had and that only after they’d gotten past the even more formidable shields. They named this type of warrior a hoplite after the hoplon, the shield. They were named for their defense NOT for their spears or shields.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 01:44:26 +0000 UTCThis style of warfare was called ‘othismos,’ in Greek, or ‘shoving.’ The Persians never fought this close together, again, favoring wide open and lightly armored, fast moving formations. The name of the game for them was field an army so large you could swamp your opponent in men with enough left over to fold around or envelop your opponent. The Greeks favored heavy, plodding infantry that could hold a position against all comers. This especially true as Greece is so rocky and mountainous that you could almost always find a nice mountain pass to wedge your army in to. It’s a classic case of a brilliantly designed wrong tool being called upon to do a task it simply wasn’t designed for: trying to use a magnificent hammer to unscrew a screw.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 01:36:10 +0000 UTCDearest Cassie, I’ve always marveled at the fact that, though you’ve never spent a day in the army and don’t particularly like war, your tactical sense in all your reactions has always been spot on. In ‘BoB,’ you were exactly right when Easy attacked a town that “they might need some tanks or something!” What you’ve got, tactically, here is light infantry, wearing little or no armor, and heavily reliant on rather weak bows, to be sure perfect for the wide open terrain to be found throughout the Persian empire, standing against very heavily armored infantry choosing utterly favorable ground, the narrow mouth of a mountain pass. What would have happened is that the Persians would have tried, first, their bowmen. No issue for heavily armored and shielded hoplite infantry. Next they might have tried slamming in to the heavy infantry with their very light infantry. The hoplon, the Greek shield from which the hoplite infantry got their name was a quite large face of bronze, backed by leather and wood, proof against the weak bows and inter-locked with its neighbor to the left and right so you’d have to move the whole line rather than just one or two guys…..
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 01:31:05 +0000 UTCAs to your question, “What’s hubris?” well, we don’t use that term much anymore. It’s a Greek word. We say “arrogance” over “over-confidence” today. The ‘Immortals,’ the Persian King’s guard, numbering precisely 10,000, were the best warriors in the Persian Army. Called ‘Immortal’ not because any one of them lived forever but because as soon as one fell, he was instantly replaced by another. I’ve never read anything about them filing their teeth down but they were known for marching in to battle with a thin, gauze ‘tiara’ or face covering, so they appeared ‘faceless’ and received praise from all Greek writers for advancing in to battle utterly noiselessly. This was most probably to allow them in battle to hear signal drums or other instruments telling them precisely how to maneuver better. The Spartans, on the other hand, were famed for performing calisthenics in the nude in front of opposing armies, oiling their bodies and perfuming their long hair so as to leave a good looking corpse. This, too, was written about extensively in the historical records as being especially impressive. Very similarly to something the Greek Oracle might say, Xerxes was told by a Greek traitor general traveling with his army, when he asked, “Who are these men who face me?” “Sire, they are the Spartans. The finest warriors in all of Greece. If you defeat them, no one can possibly stand against you!” So many of the Greek oracles and prophecies turn on that very powerful word, ‘if.’
Lamar Smith
2022-12-06 01:22:50 +0000 UTC"STOP PULLING THINGS OUT OF YOURSELF!!" Hahaha!!
Philip Alan
2022-12-05 21:12:54 +0000 UTCIt took me a few watches or wanting to learn more about Michael Fassbender after he got famous did I realize he was in this. Usually im really good at placing actors
Sean Stuart
2022-12-05 11:23:40 +0000 UTCOr Man of Steel
Sean Stuart
2022-12-05 07:13:12 +0000 UTCWonder if she will put it together when rewatching Two Towers
Sean Stuart
2022-12-05 07:10:15 +0000 UTCTime for HIGHLANDER!
Matt Rose
2022-12-05 04:20:39 +0000 UTCI enjoyed the reaction, but I liked the movie even less than I did on my original viewing. Leonidas is the 'ultimate Spartan' but notably his upbringing is far more brutal than his own sons, as the movie cheats endlessly to try and make him noble and sympathetic. Also Zak Snyder's cinematography is not aging well. wearingly slow and stylized quick cut action has all the downsides of boring repetitive choreography, and none of the visceral feel of an action shot from say, Game of Thrones or Band of Brothers.
TwistedMagoo
2022-12-05 02:29:50 +0000 UTCLena Heady is so very sexy in this and I can’t help but love a movie so absolutely overflowing with testosterone. We don’t see it a whole lot in movies anymore.
Mr Trick
2022-12-05 02:14:33 +0000 UTC@Lamar - All I'm saying is the gist of their story is more important than the details. That being said, I don't have a problem with someone mentioning that 300 isn't accurate and maybe giving a few details or link if someone wants to know more, but by to trying correct every inaccuracy you end up supplanting story with a documentary. And that's what 300 is, a story, a piece of art, and art can't be chained to mundane facts, not if you want to make a compelling story.
Richard Maurer
2022-12-04 20:46:42 +0000 UTC@Lamar, 3473 words, 19,816 characters, and nearly 5 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point)- I guessing almost everybody checked out on your screed about 3200 words ago. "Brevity is the soul of wit" - Shakespeare
Mike Lemon
2022-12-04 19:58:47 +0000 UTCCassie never fails to appreciate 'good' against 'evil' so even though I was a bit apprehensive here, I was confident how the final assessment would come down. And Cassie never fails to say the darnedest things - "The Gooshing Sounds!" Yet another great PiB reaction to the Battle of Thermopole!
Terry Yelmene
2022-12-04 19:16:26 +0000 UTCRocky, The unforgiven, The Godfather, now 300... Cass' have you gotten your honorary 'Bro' Degree or Dude Card yet? Because I don't know many women that take the time to watch these awesome movies.
Powers209
2022-12-04 18:23:09 +0000 UTCAs an internet user, the struggle you have is not pushing your job inappropriately on others in places where it isn't welcome to other users. I've been a firearms instructor for 20 years, but I don't post pages about how Hollywood doesn't get it when it comes to guns. You need to consider why you feel compelled to post this much information. Self aggrandizement? I'd seriously suggest therapy if your self-esteem is so low. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying to help you.
Sean Novack
2022-12-04 17:47:54 +0000 UTCalready have
zynjams
2022-12-04 17:24:17 +0000 UTCI thought the same thing the first time I saw it. Now I think of it as, it's a story being told. You know the kind of story that people might embellish and get things wrong in but accuracy is not really the point in these stories.
Jonathan Hall
2022-12-04 17:15:51 +0000 UTCWe get it! Some of you don't like the movie! Just move on to the next one.
Martin Skouboe
2022-12-04 16:49:47 +0000 UTCWhat a strange compulsion to project your own opinions of something onto another person
Martin Skouboe
2022-12-04 16:47:33 +0000 UTCcome back with your shield, (Come back to me a warrior.) Or on it, ( Carried on your shield a hero.)
Powers209
2022-12-04 16:44:18 +0000 UTCSparta Man! That was too funny.
Powers209
2022-12-04 16:16:02 +0000 UTCTotally understand your oppinion. It hasnt a rich or deep Story, even if it is, from a historical perspective, a very important point in Human history and it has a rich and deep history to it.There is zero to none Character Development as you said but its the Style, the Cinematography and its so different to Mainstream Hollywood, especially todays Hollywood. In some form its fascinating to watch and on another its boring and maybe that is his biggest positive,
Curaitis
2022-12-04 15:50:00 +0000 UTCI need a break from the gushing!🤣Think we have another t-shirt. Loved this reaction. Was surprised you liked it as much as you did, but you have come a long way since Shawshank redemption.
Steven Ashford
2022-12-04 14:15:19 +0000 UTCThe three days the Spartans held them off was ample time for the Athenians to evacuate their city. If you picture it, tactically, from the Persian side, 3 days makes sense. You open with your tried and true method that worked so well on the wide open spaces of the Persian Empire: you loose your arrow and javelin showers the morning of the first day. The Spartans’ superior armor counters that. Later in the day you try your numbers and smash the Spartans, bodily, out of the pass. Your men’s light armor and unfamiliarity with this tactic and the training, discipline and tight space makes this a very bad afternoon for Xerxes. So, your army is held up for a day. Not to worry, though, you call up your best, heaviest troops, your King’s guard, your ‘Immortals.’ They do have armor but it’s simple bronze scales sewn to a cotton padded tunic. No proof against the heavy bronze-tipped spears of the Spartans. By the end of the second day, you’ve got to realize your army will starve and die of thirst if held up much longer. To say that the Persian Army was held up for weeks is to claim that they were too lazy or stupid to find a goat path that was there to be found. When the Germans invaded Greece early in WWII a stand was tried by local Greek forces on the same spot and was overcome in the exact same way by German troops whose commander knew his history, delaying the German Army only 3 hours. It’s not that big of an area. If a path around the position exists, it’ll be found in days, not weeks.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 13:27:25 +0000 UTCGenerally the Persian shields were made of wicker and most wore no armor, just a sort of quilted pajama (a Persian word) getup. Perfect for the hot, wide open terrain of most of Persia. The Greeks were heavy infantry, equipped with a animate leather armor of layers of leather, glued to strips of linen then more leather. The composite design prevented arrows from penetrating. They wore heavy bronze helmets which was why they grew their hair long, to pad the inside of it. They wore bronze greaves or shin guards and their shields with the argive grip that secured to their forearm allowed them to put their entire body weight into the shield. Xerxes’ lightly armed and armored troops would have tried to use their usual tactic off standing off and showering arrows and javelins at the Spartans to no avail. Eventually they were going to have to bodily slam into this wall of wood, bronze, leather and muscle and had about the same success of pushing them backwards as a mob of elementary kids would have at moving a great NFL O-line. The way to defeat the position is how it was done, find a way around behind them. The existence of the goat path was known to the Greeks, generally, and Leonidas, specifically, because a Greek vs Greek battle had been waged in that spot within Leonidas’ lifetime. In an ironic historical note, when the Germans invaded Greece before invading the Soviet Union a stand of Greek forces was attempted there but the German commander, who had read his history, used the same path to force the Greek contingent to withdraw within 3 hours.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 12:26:26 +0000 UTCI am seriously surprised you liked it as much as you did. My point of view is, that it feels more like an extended music video or something, maybe a game trailer. Because it is very weak on story telling and has zero character development. It gets all its momentum from action and nudity and perversion. I see what they tried to do, but I think it doesn't quite work. It's definately worth watching once, just because there are few films like this, but I coouldn't rate it very high.
Dioskur
2022-12-04 12:18:33 +0000 UTCThe battle lasted 3 days.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 12:07:44 +0000 UTCAs a History teacher, the struggle we have is that broad audiences go see a movie like this and think they know the story. My job and passion is to take the interest piqued in people by this stunning visual display and pass on to those who choose to partake of the real history behind the actual events. Utterly boring and superfluous to many, granted but, I’d imagine, deeply personal to, for instance, the actual Leonidas and his men. He thought it important enough to do all in his power to guarantee the tale was told. Had he not, you’re right, this story would never have existed or survived.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 12:06:50 +0000 UTChttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
Björn Karlsson
2022-12-04 10:30:04 +0000 UTCI too say bless you, then feel a little silly.
Richard Maurer
2022-12-04 09:59:00 +0000 UTCA lot of people are writing about historical fact in this comments section. While enlightening, they would do well to remember that neither this film or the graphic novel it's based on were ever intended to be taken as historical fact. They are both meant to entertaining fiction loosely based on an actual event, that helps keep the heroism of the 300 alive in the minds of modern audiences. This is more important than historical accuracy to me because, let's face it, before the graphic novel and movie how many people worldwide had even heard this story?
Richard Maurer
2022-12-04 09:57:01 +0000 UTCShe liked it, just accept it. She literally said at the end she liked it.
Richard Maurer
2022-12-04 09:32:46 +0000 UTCTonight we dine in BED! :P Been waiting on this one for a little while, Cassie. Looking forward to see you tough through it. Gore and violence aside, the dark and grainy nature of the film and regular use of varying frame rates gives it such a unique feel.
Dave Hill
2022-12-04 08:40:15 +0000 UTCThat’s what happens when light infantry meet heavy infantry. The History channel (years ago) did a great job at explaining the battle of Thermopylae, before and after. I loved Cassie reaction, anyone else saying bless you, after Cassie sneezing 🤧 or is it just me. 😊
Larry
2022-12-04 06:40:24 +0000 UTCZack Snyder is The G.O.A.T. 🐐 he is such a visual storyteller this is the film that put him on map as far as top directors go. I loved this reaction Cassie i hope you watch more of zack snyder's filmography in the future like Man of Steel Batman V Superman Ultimate Edition Sucker Punch Extended Cut Watchmen Directors Cut and of course the masterpiece Zack Snyder's Justice League 🤞🙏✌️
Charles Briggs
2022-12-04 06:31:49 +0000 UTCOr WATCHMEN.
Stick Figure Studios
2022-12-04 06:05:29 +0000 UTCThe 300 Spartans held off the Persian army for several weeks. When they were led through the goat path, Leonidas told the Greeks to leave, as it would trap within the gates. This gave the other Greek city states and Spartans to gather their forces, to fight Zerxes and after another bad storm at sea, they were able to defeat them.
Duane B. Carl
2022-12-04 05:59:35 +0000 UTCI was surprised of your reaction... look up the story of the 300. Remember is propaganda but a darn good story.
ExploreWinnipeg
2022-12-04 05:36:05 +0000 UTCSpaaaaarta Maaaaan!
Jaccob Cortes
2022-12-04 05:13:54 +0000 UTCHi, what you need to understand, most of the Persian army had simple leather, or bamboo armor, and shields, the Spartans had bronze shields and amour. Also most of Zerexs army were conscript slaves. Also Leonidas was a genius tactician who knew how the Persian army would fight, and changed tatic based on who was sent. Also the very narrow channel kept the full might of the persian army out.
Duane B. Carl
2022-12-04 05:00:42 +0000 UTCTo be sure, Xerxes’ army was enormous for its day, most likely in the 85-100,000 range but lack of supply troops, lack of modern communication equipment and a whole host of other problems, an actual million-man ancient army is far, far more trouble than it’s worth.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 04:49:10 +0000 UTCExcepting, of course, the story-teller Leonidas dispatches back to make sure the tale was told. The histories tell us that he was so full of shame from having survived that he far outstripped his entire army at the Battle of Plataea that he, essentially, dove into the enemy force alone to ensure his own death the next time he faced the Persians. He was, again, according to the histories, the first Spartan to die in that battle.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 04:46:17 +0000 UTCI understand that was the number written….. by the Greeks….. long, long, long after the battle. I understand ancient writers wrote that this or that person lived to be in the many, many hundreds of years old, too. The land that is Greece today won’t support a million-man army in the field. Take your army that’s written ‘drinks the rivers dry’ campaigning in rocky, scrubby, mountainous terrain that barely supports subsistence herding of small flocks of goats and sheep, where the largest, scattered settled cities struggle to support populations in the very few tens of thousands, where the tiny plots of fertile soil are battled over summer after summer, where the economic life of the city-states REQUIRE them to become sailors and to trade for the very food-stuffs to feed local populations, do that at a time where ancient armies have precisely zero supply troops and are always forced to subsist off what they can beg, borrow, buy or steal off the local population and let me know how quickly your million-man army withers and dies. I would invite you to recall the reports to advance Union scouts from the stupefied inhabitants of the tiny hamlet of Gettysburg that “the entire Confederate army had marched through their town early on the first day of the battle” because they’d seen a column of men march 6 abreast for 6 whole hours through their town. The far more experienced Union officers, past stifled laughter, explained that what they’d seen represented only a small wing of one of Lee’s 3 Corps he’d brought on his invasion of Pennsylvania….. maybe 8-10,000 men, tops of the 75,000 total. 6 abreast on roads far superior to any in Greece at the time, backed up by supply wagons. Just do some simple calculations on how much space, just space, a million soldiers would require. Xerxes’ army had built a state of the art pontoon bridge across the Hellespont for his invasion of Greece. If he had had a million men, while the head of his army would have been delayed for the three days of the battle, a significant portion of his army would still be back in Asia, waiting their turn to cross the bridge, starving and blissfully unaware that the head of the column was involved in a fight at all. Xerxes burned an abandoned Athens to the ground less than a week after Thermopylae. Your million man army would still not have completely crossed the pontoon bridge and would be happily marching into a food and water desert after what the lead of your column would have done to the countryside just to stay alive. The Bible says that something on the order of 600,000 Israelites left Egypt but took 40 years in the desert to arrive in Canaan. 600,000 people could form a human chain holding hands from Egypt to Jerusalem with many miles to spare. You want to about double that in just soldiers and not even count the unmentioned but always present camp followers, prostitutes, armorers and others like them that always followed ancient armies on campaign yet took no active role in the fighting? Best of luck with that.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 04:40:44 +0000 UTCI am pretty sure you'd be interested to know that Xerxes is played by Rodrigo Santoro who played Karl in Love Actually. You know the one involved in the story with Laura Linney
Yann Laliberté
2022-12-04 04:27:39 +0000 UTCI am pretty sure that Xerxes depicted in this movie is the same king that is in the Book of Esther in the Bible. It is true that Spartan male babies with defects were killed. It is also true that when Spartans went off to war, they were told to come back carrying their shield or on it. I would like to make a pitch for Timeline which is a fictional movie about the 100 year war between France and England. It is partially a sci-fi movie because time travel is involved. There are battle scenes but not too bloody. Cassie and her sister would love it because there are two love stories in it. At least check it out. Happy holidays!
Roger Wayne Alms
2022-12-04 04:19:01 +0000 UTCGreat reaction to an intense movie. I know you wanted Leonidas to survive and go home to his wife and Queen. But, they couldn't do it because he really died there with his 300 men. I knew it would be a hard movie for you. But,you did it. An it brought out some of the harshest language I have ever heard you use. You said, Holy Crap at least 3 times. It was surprising. But, it is an intense movie. I enjoyed revisiting this great movie with you, Cassie.
Rick Williams
2022-12-04 04:03:55 +0000 UTCDo you recall the almost throwaway line between Leonidas and Xerxes about “…..might as well have marched our women up here,” to fight the Persian army? There’s more truth to this than you might realize. For all their men’s martial skill, oddly enough, amongst the other Greek city-states, Sparta was known as “the land of beautiful women.” Recall the most beautiful woman of the ancient world, ‘the face that launched 1000 ships,’ belonged to a woman known as Helen of Troy….. who wasn’t from Troy at all. She was a Spartan, married to a Spartan nobleman stolen or ran off with a Prince of Troy and the whole Trojan War was about getting her back. Here’s the deal, according to a sort of semi-legend an ancient king of Sparta decreed for some reason or other, that unlike every other important city in the ancient world, Sparta would build no defensive wall around it; neither earthen, wood or stone walls protected it. That’s the whole origin story of their brutal training regime. Sparta’s men were her walls. With her men so frequently away at war and no walls to protect her, Sparta required her women to undergo a military training regime. Not as brutal as the men but they had to run, train with weapons, learn to read well enough to read a map or receive messages and orders. This was at a time when most Greek women were, essentially, confined to their homes, forced to send household slaves to do their shopping for them. Spartan women were, for their time, surprisingly liberated and, had the question been invented back them, could have answered, “Why, yes, I DO workout, actually!” Spartan women had to be prepared to defend their city in the absence of the men, were more physically fit, had to run their own households, were better educated than every other Greek woman and the rest of the Greek world noticed. Remember, if you were going to teach someone of any gender to read back then, then they were going to read what was available to read and that meant Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and the same Greek philosophy that survives to us today. Those snappy retorts, like “….then we’ll fight in the shade!” are just the sort of thinking and economy of words that philosophy values: fewer words, deeper meaning.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 03:49:25 +0000 UTCNice reaction Cassie! Even though the imagery was highly stylized (The movie drew inspiration for it’s look from the 1998 graphic novel of the same name), I know it was still a little gory for you at times. Especially the slashing sounds. For which you had to remove your earbuds for a second to take a break from. But you powered thru. So kudos. 👍 But in spite of the blood, violence, and the ending. I think you were most surprised by the fact that you actually kinda enjoyed the movie. Who knew. 😀 Anyways, I enjoyed your reaction. Looking forward to what next week brings!
Robert da Spruce
2022-12-04 03:46:34 +0000 UTCLet’s not forget, He’s married to Alicia Vikander. Who Cassie reacted to in Ex Machina. 😀
Robert da Spruce
2022-12-04 03:33:42 +0000 UTCAll I can say is well done, wonderful reaction to an intense movie and you took it on the chin and kept pushing through. Thank you!
Andrew Rose
2022-12-04 03:23:51 +0000 UTC“Come home with your shield…. or on it!” Traditional goodby from Spartan mother to son or wife to husband…. Come home victorious in battle, carrying your shield proudly….. or come back carried on your shield by your comrades for burial…. Victory or death….. don’t you drop your shield and run away…. Don’t come home if you do! It’s, further, interesting to note: only two types of dead were given the honor of a tombstone in Sparta. Only two classes of dead are worthy of being remembered: men who had died in battle and women who had died in childbirth. Both were seen as giving your life for the State. Die in your bed an old man, even winner of numerous battles in your youth; no tombstone. Die in your bed, though, you’d, theoretically, birthed 6 sons to the State; no tombstone.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 02:56:05 +0000 UTCWe get it.
Mike Lemon
2022-12-04 02:43:18 +0000 UTC"After all democracy is worth a lot less without individual rights and protections. " Vlad Lenin was a big fan of democracy. The Founders (U.S.) were not (Federalist 10).
Mike Lemon
2022-12-04 02:41:58 +0000 UTCNow, the story of the Oracle at Delphi was an interesting one that played a huge role in the lives of ancient Greeks. The temple to Apollo sat above a fissure that was the joining of 3 tectonic plates. Noxious gasses emanated up from the earth and the priests placed a female, called the Oracle in a sort of harness thing suspended above the crack where the gasses got her quite high, significantly shortened her life and caused her to burble and mumble ‘answers’ to questions great and small offered from whole city-states down to individuals wanting to know their future…… for a price, of course. You paid for your sacrifice and a priest listened to the ramblings of the priestess and ‘translated’ or ‘transmitted’ her answer to you. At least the possibility for all sorts of shady dealings were rather high and the Oracle was famous for never giving a simple ‘yes/no’ answer. A king, once, sent a hefty sacrifice to ask if he should go to war with his neighbor. The typically cryptic response: “If you go to war a mighty nation will fall!” led him to declare war….. only to discover that it was HIS mighty nation that fell in that war. Look back to the post I wrote about the Persians burning Athens to the ground after the Battle of Thermopylae. The Athenians petitioned the Oracle for advice on how to handle the Persian onslaught. The cryptic response: “Look to your wooden walls to save you!” The Athenian statesman and general Themistocles convinced most Athenians that the Oracle meant the wooden walls of their sailing ships. Only by sailing away from the Persian army would the people of Athens survive. A few unlucky souls interpreted the Oracle’s words to mean seek shelter inside the wooden temples to the gods and wait for the gods to intervene. Remember that scene from ‘The Patriot?’….. the church? Yeah. That happened. With the Oracle, it wasn’t really about what the Oracle said…. Or what the priest SAID the Oracle said….. time and again it was demonstrated that how you INTERPRETED what the Oracle said was the important point.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 02:39:57 +0000 UTCSparta often cited by military college instructors as the classic example of geopolitics shaping culture. City states or countries protected by natural borders (Mountainous terrain or vast oceans) more easily develop representative democracy. Alternatively, a lack of natural borders and those surrounded by enemies tend to foster a fierce warrior culture like the one in Sparta. The battle of Thermopylae also often cited as an excellent example of how smaller numbers can defend natural borders such as narrow mountain passes effectively. Switzerland more difficult to conquer and hold so they have a much more peaceful history than neighboring countries. Certainly history would’ve been different without this legendary battle. Greece is often cited as the cradle of democracy. But the expansion of individual rights over centuries greatly contributed to our concept of democracy today. After all democracy is worth a lot less without individual rights and protections. Because if 2 wolves and a lamb vote on what’s for lunch….
Steve Holton
2022-12-04 02:24:59 +0000 UTC"What happened to the warriors at Thermopylae?" "Dead to the last man!"
KTVindicare
2022-12-04 02:23:57 +0000 UTCThis movie is great, I went with my father to see this me being a fan of the graphic novel and my father for Greek history and myths. He told me once when he went on a trip to Greece with my mom (I was little and didn't go) he drag my mom to these places the coast way were Thermopylae is he told there was a power there he felt in that area along with other parts of Greece he told me about. My dad always had a six sense of these things (I always joked it was the Native American blood in us) but he believed what he felt there was real. It's one of the best stories my dad told me and watching this movie reminds me of that.
Prophet2272
2022-12-04 02:17:41 +0000 UTCThis battle was referenced in The Last Samurai - Near the end when Algren (Tom Cruise) is talking with Katsumoto (Watanabe) about the impossible battle coming up (and during it too), he references the battle from this movie: "There was once a battle at a place called Thermopylae, where three hundred brave Greeks held off a Persian army of a million men... a million, you understand this number?"
Planner
2022-12-04 02:05:49 +0000 UTCAgreed; AND both Greek and Persian Historians agree that only Athens and Sparta refused to be Persian vassal states at the beginning; it wasn’t until the battle of Thermopoli that a majority of all the Greek City-States united in battle against the Persians. Secondly, It was Spartan Hoplites and Phalanxes that become the Greek form of battle and propelled Alexander of Macedonia to becoming "The Alexander the Great", Conqueror of the known world.
Uncle Phoenix
2022-12-04 01:59:44 +0000 UTCAlso something I find fun, despite this movie being wildly historically inaccurate the best line in the movie "Our Arrows will blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade" is pulled almost word for word out of what the Greek historian Herodotus wrote down about the battle it's the most historically accurate part of the whole movie.
KTVindicare
2022-12-04 01:53:54 +0000 UTCAfter Alexander’s death, the stage is set for a new city on the Italian peninsula to begin its rise to glory, a city with much more fertile land, much larger population, a city that conquers the territory of Greece, both Athens and Sparta, but always paid much respect to the accomplishments of those much older societies. Even before Rome conquered Greece, wealthy Roman families sent their kids there for ‘proper’ educations. Some scholars say Rome militarily conquered Greece but was always culturally dominated by it.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:51:20 +0000 UTCThe guy who plays Stelios the "Fight in the shade" guy, was played by Michael Fassbender. You'd probably know him from 12 years a Slave, or from the newer X-Men movies as younger Magneto. This was his first major film credit back in 2007, but you might also recognize him from an earlier TV role in Band of Brothers where he plays Burton Christenson.
KTVindicare
2022-12-04 01:49:47 +0000 UTCLeonidas never intended he or 299 of his men to return from this mission. Recall, he does send away the actor who played Faramir. This, too, happened in the historical sources. Leonidas sends the Spartans’ best story-teller and weakens his already small force by an experienced soldier. Why? Perhaps he wants to make SURE the story gets back to Sparta what has happened? He wants to make SURE all of Sparta goes to war to avenge him and the sons of the most prominent families. He never considered ‘winning’ the battle because he didn’t take even one more soldier than what was necessary to plug the pass. Every additional soldier he would have taken wouldn’t be available for the war he wanted after he was dead. He knew he could only delay the Persian army. Sources believe he knew Thermopylae had that weakness of a back way around the pass. Battles had been fought there in his lifetime and lost for that exact reason. If you study the subsequent history after the battle, Persia burns Athens to the ground. The Spartans only delayed them for 3 days. Now, that was long enough for the entire population of Athens to board Athenian ships and evacuate so the Persians really only burned an abandoned town. After burning Athens, Xerxes marched his army home leaving a much smaller occupation army under one of Xerxes’ generals. That army was soundly defeated by a coalition army nine years later, kicking the Persians out of Greece, never to return. A couple of generations later, after the victorious Athenians and Spartans turned on each other and fought The Peloponnesian War, a young Macedonian General you might have heard of, one Alexander the Great, led a Greek army into Persia and conquered it.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:44:24 +0000 UTCThe movie did not end at all like the way Cassie thought it would, she was not expecting that, and she said that she liked it and appreciated it. But I also know how Cassie likes to put the best face on things, however she might think about it later when she has more time to reflect. I salute her ability and willingness to give us a good reaction no matter the circumstances.
Mike LL
2022-12-04 01:39:54 +0000 UTCThis is a fun movie but also a little gross, considering at the time we were engaged in a horrific and pointless adventure in the Middle East ourselves and depicting Persians almost literally as perverse monsters was perhaps a bit, um, inflammatory. Also the ideas that Sparta, a city-state propped up by slavery, was fighting for "freedom" (some even think they fought for democracy!!), and that Spartans would mock Athenians as "boy lovers" when in Spartan society pederasty was pretty much mandatory, are pretty silly and ahistorical. But movie theaters can't always be classrooms.
Patrick Flanagan
2022-12-04 01:37:48 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/Hwz56hBW9KI Very interesting 😃😃
Björn Karlsson
2022-12-04 01:33:58 +0000 UTCSo brave and passionate, what a Shield-Maiden Cassie would have been. (Umm, obviously using that in the terms of LOTR, because Idk know anything about non-fictional Shield-Maidens.)
Uncle Phoenix
2022-12-04 01:33:50 +0000 UTCModern scholars think that Leonidas raised a force of 300 trained, experienced warriors who also saw the threat of Persia as Leonidas. Why 300? Well, fighting the way they do, shoulder to shoulder, it takes 300 men to block the pass at Thermopylae (‘Hot gate’ in Greek), the narrowest pass anyone walking to Athens must travel through if coming from the north. Scholars suspect, too, that Leonidas chose sons of the most prominent families in Sparta. In the movie, there’s a bit of a clue as to what Leonidas was thinking when he has a conversation with his captain just before meeting Xerxes. He says “If they assassinate me, ALL of Sparta goes to war! Pray they’re that stupid. Pray that we’re that lucky!” Well, there you have it.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:31:19 +0000 UTCNow, we know from the ancient sources that both Spartan kings were assigned a bodyguard of 200 men apiece but they were always chosen from the best looking men of the most recent class of the agoge, their military training system. This makes them 18-19. Over a decade too young, by Spartan law, to be allowed to marry, minimum age 30. They chose this group, fresh from training, for their looks and because having them do ceremonial guard duty and accompany the kings on overseas missions or trade delegations or whatever doesn’t cost the Army any actually experienced troops. Yet the sources about the battle are adamant, Leonidas had 300 and all had born sons to replace them. So, this is a mystery.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:24:51 +0000 UTCThe battle at Salamis was also very importent 🙂
Björn Karlsson
2022-12-04 01:20:03 +0000 UTCModern scholars, using clues from the texts, have the following as their working theory. Leonidas was one of actually two kings Sparta always had. Don’t remember why but they always had two kings at a time. Apparently, Leonidas perceived that Persia wouldn’t be content to just smash Athens but would, kind of since they’d already be there, go ahead and smash Sparta, as well. So, he thought Sparta needed to fight but support for taking on the unbelievable might of Persia, a super-power that dwarfed all of Greece, much less just Sparta in men, land, money and more somewhere to the tune of between 150-500 to 1. Again, the Spartan reputation for victory in battle was equal parts ferocious soldiers and careful selection of when to/not to fight.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:18:18 +0000 UTCShift+enter gets you a line break. I don't know how to do it on mobile though, but copy/paste from a text document works.
Mike Lemon
2022-12-04 01:13:43 +0000 UTCSparta had sat out the Battle of Marathon. It’s true their 11,000 man army was the best around and, on paper, never lost. Historians today reckon that has more to do with Sparta very carefully choosing to fight only when it was sure to win and that, rather quickly. The Athens had sent that same runner, Phiddipedes to beg for Spartan help before Marathon but the Spartans claimed a religious excuse, as they very frequently did. “Oh, no, can’t go to war now…. gods wouldn’t like it!”
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:11:12 +0000 UTCNow, the ancient historical sources always fudged with numbers. This story was written by the ultimate winners, the Greeks, so Xerxes’ Army was said to be a million men. There’s absolutely no way that’s true because the sources also report what one Persian character in this was true: Xerxes’ Army literally ‘drank the rivers dry.’ That whole area then and today is extremely rocky, arid and lacking much fertile soil or any large rivers. There’s not much food or fresh water to be found. The land simply would not support a million-man army long before the days of modern supply systems. Any ancient army lived off the land and the land didn’t support huge Greek populations. A large Greek city-state would support no more than about a 25,000 population.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:06:20 +0000 UTCThe Persian emperor Darius’ son, Xerxes, grew to manhood with a slave whispering in his ear at every meal, “Remember the Athenians!” Had some revenge in his heart, you could say. Not wanting to chance another amphibious landing, the whole of the Persian Army crossed the Hellespont at the bottom of the Black Sea where Constantinople, later Istanbul, would later stand. They marched their army through Macedon then down into Greece proper headed straight for Athens.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 01:00:42 +0000 UTCDearest Cassie, first off I’m buying McKenzie some PiB merch for Xmas. Second, I feel pretty strongly about nominating myself as one of your personal historians, so…. This is a rather fantastical retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae during The Persian Wars between ‘Greece’ and Persia. First thing to understand is that there was NO Greece. The modern country of Greece was a patchwork of independent city-states with Athens and Sparta as the two strongest. The city-states spent most of their time fighting each other. Athens had gotten cross-wise with the regional super-power Persia. Persia had sent an amphibious invasion to land on the plain of Marathon, you guessed it, 26.4 miles away from Athens to March on Athens. The Athenians defeated them. The Persians sent their empty fleet around the way to try to bluff Athens to open their defenses, an Athenian warrior and Athens’ best runner, Phiddipedes, after fighting all day, ran the 26+ miles to send word to the city not to let the Persians in. He ran all the way, climbed the hill of the Acropolis in the middle of town, raised his arms, declared “Victory!” in Greek (“Nike!”) and keeled over dead from the effort. The city remained shut, the Persians sailed home.
Lamar Smith
2022-12-04 00:56:07 +0000 UTCOr Sin City, that would make for an interesting reaction.
Tim Raths
2022-12-04 00:51:17 +0000 UTCIf you like that style, maybe put Sucker Punch (2011) on your list. Same director, and an...odd...story I really like.
Mike Lemon
2022-12-04 00:44:37 +0000 UTCSparta was the preeminent land power of Greece for a very long time. They were very good at warfare. This story is based on a comic book but the root of the battle is true. 300 Spartans led anywhere from 3 to 11 thousand other Greeks in a battle that lasted 3 days and killed roughly 30 thousand Persians. They were betrayed by a goat herder who led the Persians down a path behind them. The Spartans along with around 400 to 1000 other Greeks stayed after that and fought one last battle before all of them died. This story is also told by the other Greek city states that participated. To say that their military power was highly overstated is laughable. Sparta did not lose and "dissolve". Their downfall came when a massive earthquake destroyed the city and tens of thousands of helots used that opportunity to start an uprising. That and being isolated along with their stubbornness to change tactics militarily over time led to their ultimate end.
Corey
2022-12-04 00:36:23 +0000 UTCSparta-man, Sparta-man, Does whatever a Spartan can! Kicks a guy down a well, Dines tonight inside Hell. Look out! Here comes the Sparta-maaaaan!!!
Stick Figure Studios
2022-12-04 00:10:29 +0000 UTCRegardless of ones opinion of the film, you can't deny how much of an impact this movie had on the film industry, for better or for worse. Not only stateside, but around the world, especially in the action genre
Sahitya
2022-12-04 00:10:25 +0000 UTCAn epic tale, this much is true. Now excuse me, I'm just gonna file this one away in the "Not a Carly Movie" drawer, lol.
Dave
2022-12-04 00:01:08 +0000 UTCwoah!!
Cassie
2022-12-03 23:56:38 +0000 UTCthe graphic novel and movie are well done. keep in mind that the spartans greatest weapon was propaganda. creating a reputation of martial prowess that would intimidate any enemy. so much so that the romans reestablished sparta as a tourist destination. it was probably true they had great military skill, but the city state of sparta eventually lost and dissolved. this should tell you that their military power was highly overstated and their greatest skill was spinning a great story. even this story is an exaggeration of an exaggerated comic of the spartan legend, a giant game of telephone. very well done, granted
Wu Sha Ling
2022-12-03 23:55:52 +0000 UTCI’m probably in the minority on this, but I do not like this movie. I know they were going for it looking like a comic but, it looks fake to me. It kind of took me out of the movie
James1035
2022-12-03 23:44:25 +0000 UTCFunny how Michael Fassbender as Stelios stole the movie for me. 'Then we'll fight in the shade.'
Matt Rose
2022-12-03 23:44:07 +0000 UTCThats faramir from lord of the rings doing all the narration and whatnot btw.
LightsCameraJake
2022-12-03 23:38:20 +0000 UTCI can’t wait. The main character played the phantom in Phantom of the Opera!
Steven Ashford
2022-12-03 23:37:03 +0000 UTCOUR KING LEONIDAS!!!!!! 🤟🤟🤟🤟
MatthewBrown74m
2022-12-03 23:36:59 +0000 UTCThe thing I find most interesting about the Battle of Thermopylae is that if the Spartans hadn't held the Persian Army off for as long as they did giving their cities time to evacuate, Xerxes would have swept through Greece and utterly annihilated it. This was before the concept of democracy had really taken hold anywhere around the Mediterranean Sea (in real life). It's entirely possible the United States and other democratic and representative republics of today wouldn't exist if the Spartans hadn't held...
Aaron
2022-12-03 23:36:30 +0000 UTC"Give, thanks, men! To Leonidas and the brave 300. TO VICTORY!!!!!"
Zane From Canada
2022-12-03 23:35:39 +0000 UTCThanks for enduring this one. I promise Highlander will leave you much happier whenever you do get around to it.
Christopher Smith
2022-12-03 23:34:41 +0000 UTCGlad you enjoyed it. Now those who said it was a dumb choice can eat their words! :D
Connor P
2022-12-03 23:34:16 +0000 UTC
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