One of my all time favorites.

Instant Favorite.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

While the budget to this is probably a fifth of that of the better known 300 (which was influenced by this movie when Frank Miller saw it as a child), this is, even with the Spartans wearing Roman gear, the more faithful adaptation. The 300 march to thermopylae and die there, as commanded. But in doing so they save Greece. A really well done low budget film, well worth seeing. And it is available on Blu Ray.

An excellent epic adventure movie, retelling the tragically heroic defence of the Strait of Thermopylae by the Spartan king Leonidas, his bodyguard of 300 men and supporting Greeks. From what I've read, Hollywood for once stays fairly true to the actual historical story, only to my mind contriving a romance between the young son of a disgraced former Spartan king and the daughter of another high-ranking Spartan officer and the subterfuge of a Greek-sympathetic queen within the camp of the Persian king Xerxes.In the early part of the film, there's lots of exposition as different characters get to explain the then-current political situation passed off as dialogue just to make sure the audience understands the historical context. Another minor criticism I might make is that the physical location of the Strait in the movie failed to convey to me its narrowness and hence terrible danger of their defence. While the battle scenes lack the realism of what you might see in a modern-day feature and you never really get the sense of the overwhelming numbers of the Persian army, it's impossible not to get caught up in the spirit of the Spartans futile but heroic resistance and there's real pathos in the ending as death rains down literally, at last, on them.Ralph Richardson is the big name classical actor brought in like Olivier in "Spartacus" to add gravitas to proceedings and this he does capably but Richard Egan, as the noble Leonidas, is particularly good in a performance which makes you wonder why he didn't go on to become a major leading character actor of the 60's. David Farrar, as the mood-swinging Xerxes is perhaps too pantomime-villainy in the part however.I was first taken to this movie with my classmates by a school-teacher as a history lesson many years ago and it made a big impression on me then. Revisiting it today, I got more this time of the history as well as the adventure, but in both ways this is a sword and sandals epic of the best type. A great story, well told, in short.

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.

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!