A new film is crowned "Best Comic Book Movie."
Brothers and sisters, lend me your eyes so I may share with you the tale of brave Leonidas I, King of Sparta, son of King Anaxandridas II, descendant of Heracles, who led 300 Spartan warriors against the seemingly unending forces of Emperor Xerxes of Persia at The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - Marcus
This movie is AWESOME. It's going to be a blockbuster. The only people who won't like it are gays and muslim terrorists. Get a load of Xerxes, a gay middle-eastern despot!
27 - Joe
I just saw this movie today and I have to say it was the best movie I have seen in years!! I loved it and cool thing is that the real story behind this movie is just as amazing.
28 - El Bicho
BRB, were you under the mistaken impression that the film was a documentary because I don't know anyone who expects accuracies in a film based on a comic book? If you paid attention, the story was being told to others, so it's possible that hyperbole entered into the telling of the tale to motivate the soldiers.
DFN, don't bring that idiotic nonsense around here.
29 - jason
I jsut saw this movie and was pleased. persia was and still is the land dictarships, persians even don't have their own alphabets, arabic and turkish languages make up approx 80% of persian language and still they claim they have a language delightful as suger, I think persians never had emperes, their history is mostly based on poems and myths, all the historical documensts are in Sumer or Akedian languages and it has nothing to do with persians.....persains claim to have had 2500 years of history, out of these years, arabs rulled them for 1000 years,and turks rulled them another 1000 years, they history is as dark as dark faces in the 300 movie
30 - perspolis
go educate yourself before making assumptions. persians created the human rights,system of taxation. dont make any comments when you have no education. history shows that alexander was a gay leader who was Barbaric not the king of persia. the truth is out there go and research and educate yourself.
31 - Mom
I have a 14 year old boy that wants to really see this movie. Any Moms out there that have seen this? What do you think?
32 - kelly
perspolis says in his comments that persians created human rights, he/she must be kidding, persians have no clue what human right is. listen, the era of pan-farsism is over. don't belive me? ask the azeris, kurds, baluchis, arabs, turkmans....living in Iran. all these nationalties know about persians is how persians put them down, what a culture these persians have,a nation that established human right now puts down its own people. take your blindfoled off. we know what's happinging in your country
33 - Kaonashi
Mom- I'm not a mom, but I'll tell you that your son will definitely be able to handle it, since he's 14 and has probably seen worse in movies.
There is some nudity, but mainly from the men. You see a man's bare butt at one point. Women's bare breasts are shown briefly, but the men spend most of the movie wearing nothing but loincloths.
There's a suggested rape scene, but the characters are still fully clothed, and the scene cuts before it gets any worse.
There's lots and lots of violence. Heads and limbs are chopped off, lots of impaling by spears. But then again, Saving Private Ryan and Starship Troopers was bloodier.
34 - El Bicho
perspolis, i don't know if bragging about recreating the system of taxation is going to help your cause.
Sodagar, I'm not sure why your comment got erased. It wasn't my choice, especially considering what gets left around here. With that being said, I will state again that the film isn't being presented as historical fact and the story is being narrated by a Spartan, so it's no surprise that he would paint his enemies in a bad light.
Mom, it's stylized violence, but it's not gorey. The sex scenes include a loving couple and not a rape scene as K suggests, but a woman giving herself to a man in exchange for something. It wasn't done against her will. You know some of what your son has already seen and how mature he is. I'm sure if I was his age, I would want to see it. If you go, I would be curious in your reaction.
35 - perspolis
300 is a great movie full of visual effects and graphics which made it different and much better. Acting was great, director did a wonderful job and chose great actors, full of action, and it is based on a true story.
Unfortunately, the only negative point of this movie is that they made it so different and untrue because of showing the Persian Empire and Xerxes like monsters (Persian Empire and Xerxes were Heroes too), and it lost all the History points. I prepared to watch a movie closer to the History style, and characters should be based on their true appearance (I'm sure Xerxes wasn't that Ugly, and he had beard).
Except the negetive point, they made an amazing movie, and you'll love it. Hope everyone enjoys it.
36 - Jigsaw hc
It was a good movie, but it is plenty violent and bloody (not gory though).
37 - sara
the movie 300 is big lie . America always afraids of iran and iranian always defeat the america.USA i a gig liar
38 - pete
This movie fails in every way.
1- Historically it is completely wrong. Just Goolge Xerxes or the Persian empire.
2- It is trying hard to be theatrical but fails.
3- It cinematography fails, you can actually hear the audio reverberating in the warehouse it was filmed in. LIsten carfully and you'l see what I mean.
4. It fails at being virtual. Just look at the monsters in it and the animation.
While some of the photgraphy is good, this movie is really a grand failure. I am amazed anyone would give themselves this much liberty to completely misrepresent history.
39 - Rami
Kiss my persian ass. And Fuck you Ms.Director, Cheers to the truth.
40 - El Bicho
"This movie fails in every way."
Apparently not at the box office.
Unless you can show where anyone connected with the film claimed it was historically accurate, your charge against fails.
Again, it was a story narrated by a Spartan as troops gathered for war. What did you expect him to tell people? It was a quick slaughter and Xerxes is really a nice guy?
That's fine if you don't like the film, but don't make up stuff to be upset about.
41 - Kaonashi
It wasn't done against her will.
Yeah, technically it wasn't against her will and she agreed to it, but she still didn't enjoy it. I guess a better term would be "unpleasant sexual situation."
sara- Oh brother, just spare me from your crap.
pete- I guess the 10 foot tall Xerxes or the 20 foot elephant must have tipped you off that it wasn't historically accurate. It's a COMIC BOOK MOVIE. Get over it.
Rami- a man directed the film. I'm sure he could care less about your Persian ass.
42 - Parastoo
Some of you say the movie is depicting a real historical event, and some say that it is nothing but a comic.
To those who believe it is historically true, I strongly recommend to read and learn more. Kelly, I am an Iranian, and I’m proud of my nationality. I am proud of being a descendant of Great Cyrus. Why don't you ask me to share ideas?
I have a word with Jason. Why do you judge a culture’s literature and history when you have no information about it? Persian literature is a rich literature filled with PERSIAN poems, epics, novels… which are far different from Arabic or Turkish. If 80% of Persian language is derived from these languages, why don’t I, as an educated Iranian, understand neither Arabic or Turkish?! If Iran’s history is based on myths, how were the ancient monuments of Perspolis along with their Persian inscriptions built? By poets’ imagination do you think?!!
And to those who think it was a comic not history, did you enjoy the film neglecting the nationality of Xerxes and his men? Ok, let’s imagine a similar film was made about American people. Would you still enjoy seeing your countrymen as monsters? Think more on how it must have affected Persians’ feelings.
:(
43 - jaz
Story originally told by the historian Herodotus, first time as a movie as "300 Spartans"
it's a movie, fer fuck's sake....get over it
44 - El Bicho
For those Persians who feel mistreated, join the club. I am German and Italian. Should I feel bad and insulted every time Nazis and the Mob show up in film, books, and television programs? Unless it's a movie about you it's not about you. I would think there are more pressing problems to deal with in the real world.
45 - Proud Persian
As a proud Persian/Iranian, I have to agree with Parastoo and several of the others who point to the invalid perception of Persians.
If you believe that Persians are so evil, then why is there a life size replica of Cyrus the great of Persian empire human rights declatration at the U.N.?
Also, Pesians are the first to believe in ONE GOD unlike Creeks who had many mythical gods. In addition that Creeks practiced salvery where as Persians fobiden it.
I strongly advise for the mislead ones to educate themselves.
Cheers.
46 - tommyd
"300" is the movie version of "24".
I saw it and was disgusted, not at blood and gore and tits but by the producer's insertion of vile American Empire neocon propaganda.
There was something about "Spartan are reluctant to fight", like Bush said about America while along the war on Iraq was planned years before.
I mean, there's a "freedom isn't free" line in the goddam movie!! Also, the Persians are dark and black!! Mmmmm, the timing of the movie wouldn't have anything to do with the current American hate propaganda campaign towards Iran today, would it? Nevermind that Persians are NOT and NEVER were BLACK.
WTF!! Isn't anything safe from the Empire's influence? The movie's technical achievements mean diddly-squat because the message of the film is total junk propaganda.
47 - jaz
for the love of JuJu...
repeat after me...
"it's a comic book movie!"
48 - iraklis
well,this how i put it..
Iam Greek,Athenian and iam an accountant not a philosopher and definately not a boy lover.I have lots of Spartans friends down in Peloponesus who are
not warlords ,but ordinary people like you and me.And some persians who live now in Athens they are neither gay rulers nor ugly beastie faces.
And you know why not..because we are living in 2007, not in year 480 bc or on some movie screen.
My point is that 300 its just a movie like the dozens that hollywood produces everyday,excellent for some people,junk for others,historiclly uncorrect in several aspects(leonidas never threw a spear aiming xerxes since xerxes was never in the battlefield..etc),a propaganda film against persians ,too much blood,two tits(hehe),heroic(come back with it or on it)and whatever.
Personally,i agree with all the above and thus i enjoyed it!.If i wanted to know about this story of my ancestors i'd have read Herodotus and not Frank Miller.And since i have done that i know that its all about empires.There were the Greek city states fighting one another and there was the persian empire(starting with Cyrus the Great),an empire concisting of above a hundrend diferrent tribes(Lydians,medeans..not only persians) and that empire did as all empires do.. Conquer..
Yes,i'am proud of leonidas and the 300(there also were 700 thespians who stayed with the spartans and died)but should i'd be proud with Alexander who did exactly what the Persians tried to do with
the Greeks , but they failed whilst he succeeded to conquer all of the Persian empire..but he didnt destroyed it?
And some of you that call persians tyrrants,terrorists or whatever,what if greeks had failed to stop persians in the naval battle of salamis and Greece was conquered by themce...maybe then there was not a western civilazation as we know it today, but only eastern.So spare us ,persians are not uncivilazed and monsteroids as much as americans are not Buch or i might say Bushoids:)
About the movie itself,its a story of a three hundred men who were born and raised to be warriors,(the first well trained army in history)who decide to die fighting against an inumerous enemy army.Leonidas is a hard trained commando, but not just a killing machine(he has an excellent relationship with his wife,he treats efialtis with the grandeur of a King...)and his companions are young warriors who tease each other,who are not afraid to die for their country and King and when they die ,they die laughing in a boyish way.So they are the good guys and this story is about them not about xerxes.Regarding this,they must be presented as fearless, handsome, great bodied warriors, whilst the persians must be legions of ugly,fat belly,wealthy eye shaded humanoids who dared to march against our heroes.
If you put some comic exagerating point of view on that(the wolf that leonidas killed as a boy never lived in the greek coyntryside ,but most likely in Howling II:)you have 300,a movie describing a bloody(kill em all) heroic justified battle which steers up your adrenaline and makes you after leaving the hall to start screaming< ha-hu> ill eat your throats bastards!!Thats for the boys,for girls....go play with your doll sweetie.....:)))
49 - sara
this movie will have a horrible effect on persian mentallity, persians live in the past, think in the past and die in the past. persiann are not modern and don't have the capacity to comprehend modern times, to me, this movie will put them in even deeper sleep... you can't name a modern persain elite, a modern persian scientist. I had 4 persian neighbours and all of them were obssessed about past. no wonder persians can't move on
50 - ted
sara, I agree with you to some extend, to me, persians are given (( not gained or won )) a totally false history, to me, they never had empires. just picture it, a nation that never had the ability to build an empiree, is told that they once had empires, now todays persians unable to achive what once they had (( not even in their dreams )) find themselves obsessed with their past because it gives them what they long for. so like you said, they end up living in the past becasue they re-creat that false given-history.**** take a lool at their region, persian speaking regions are the most uncivilized, backward and undeveloped area's of the world, from tajikestan to afghanistan, and todays persia or Iran. culturly, economicly and technologicly they are dead in today's world, all the neighbouring countries are fast improving thir situation, but the farsi-speaking region even can't separate itself from it's false stupid past.
51 - maria
sara I had few persian neighbours, they come across as way too judgmental, nosy and just can't mind their own business
52 - stop it
sara, ted, and maria, I think you are commenting on your neighbors not the movie! keep your fucking ideas for yourselves
53 - samantha
I saw the movie last night. I thought it was okay. But it wasn't as great as I was expecting it to be. I saw some historical inacuracy as well. My dad saw it with me..he said it was awful. My friends who have seen it already thought it was awesome.
54 - spear
I thought it was a great movie in its type. It was not intended as a historical documentary but as a narrative from the Spartan perspective.The fight scenes reminded me of Gladiator, only better.
If Persians are offended, they should put themselves in the position of other peoples ( Germans,Italians, Japanese) who have endured years of insult about their more recent heritage from Hollywood films.Getting insulted about something that happened 2500 years ago is a it immature in my book.
55 - human right
breaking news - Iranian persians treat non-persian nationalities living in Iran the same way that they were treating their own soldiers and their enemies in the movie "300". In todays Iran, all the money goes to persain-living provinces. provinces or stats such as baluchistan, kurdestan, lorestan, azerbaijan, turkman sahara, oil-rich al-ahvaz or " khuzestan" which has iran's arab populatin get noghing from iran's oil-dependent economy, a new survey show non-persian call persians * persian shauvinists* due to persians ill-treatment of them.
56 - Very proud Persian
I called myself very proud persian as I am really. These people that they have been shown as beasts in this movie and in realty have written "the first charter of human right" and "discover electricity 2500 years" ago and digged Suez channel 2500 years ago and many other sevices to the science and humanities. That is a shame for us that instead of appreciating them showing these noble people as beasts.
57 - keb
i thought it was great =]
58 - cry humanity
The Persian chauvinist rule is absolute and oppressive in all aspects. The Baloch have challenged Persian rule in western Balochistan in several occasions.
59 - cry humanity
The region's autonomy ended in 1925 with the imposition of Persian rule over... but little is heard of their struggle against Persian chauvinist
60 - cry humanity
systematic prejudice and persecution by the Persian chauvinist Tehran regime. Other maltreated minorities include the Balochis, Turkmen and Azeris.
61 - siyamak
Note to the Dummies:
To all the morons who saw this piece of sh-t movie and who now think they have a PHD in Persin History.......-while in realty flunking 6th through 12th grade history class-kindly go back to playing your 7 hour daily Nintendo games. Please go back to playing dungeons and dragons or watch a re-run of Star Wars episode 5!!!!
Also, a note to all the people who say "hey its just a movie" well F--k you!! let me see your heratige portrayed as animals and creatures while being pissed on and see how calm you sit? think about that for a secound and then look me in the eye and say you would not be ready to punch someone in the mouth. So Fu-- you.
62 - El Bicho
siyamak, if you are going to suggest people go back to school, you should really pay attention to your writing skills as it's a tad ironic.
Either you didn't see the movie or you didn't understand what you were watching. Both disqualify you from discussing it any further.
63 - Parastoo
Last time I visited this site, I was so astonished and annoyed about the comments posted about Iran that I couldn’t just sit and watch people misapprehend my homeland. I tried to tell some of them that they were wrong about Iran. But now I see the lies that the American media have told Americans all through their life can not be removed from their minds by hearing some Iranian’s words.
Remain in your oblivion about Iran. This time I don’t bother myself to answer “sara”, “maria”, “human right” and “cry humanity”. To me and the others who live in Iran, what these people say is nonsense.
64 - Lumi
You know, it really is quite astonishing how narrow-minded most of the people in the world are nowadays. It used to be you watched a movie for the sheer entertainment value of it. Now, for some reason or another, everyone thinks every movie is based on fact and should be 100% historically accurate. All this movie is is just that, a movie. It is loosely, and I highly emphasize the word loosely, based on actual events. It was never advertised as a documentary. If you want documentaries, go see something from Michael Moore (though some of his documentaries are actually questionable as well).
This movie is based on a graphic novel by the same name. It is only an artist’s rendition of the story, nothing more, nothing less. At best, it will make you want to go out and learn history and find out what really happened. At worst, you believe everything put in front of you on a screen. And that, my friends, is not just sad, but pretty damn scary, because it just shows your complete ignorance of what’s going on around you. Writers and storytellers have embellished their tales for as long back as history goes. That’s what makes the stories captivating and entertaining. If they all stuck to actual events in the way that they happened, then they would have to find other professions, because actual events are never as glorious as they may sound otherwise.
For you who are persons of Persian descent, get over yourselves, please. I’m pretty sure there are stories in your culture that some of us would take offense to because of how we would be portrayed. I personally wouldn’t be because it is nothing more than another culture’s perspective of one different from theirs, and we all have differing opinions on each other anyway whether we like it or not.
What it all boils down to is, you enjoy the movie for what it is, great acting, good CGI effects, and great fight scenes. Or, you don’t enjoy it, for whatever reason, and look through your local movie listings for something else.
65 - megan
It seems this movie has a message after all, since non-persian Iranian nationallites such as Balouchis, turkmans,arabs, lores, kurds, azeris..are denied their every existence by persian chauvinists. today every kurd, every azeri, balouch, turkman, arab...must become a Spartan to break persian chauvinists back.I'm sure victory is near as everybody has come to realize persian language, history,,,is a big lie.
66 - Noah
Hey guzy i've just seen the trailer n trust me with all the muscles n visuals ..i would certainly like 2 go have a look n tell'yall howz the movie...n ya the music in the trailer is simply mind blowing....
67 - El Bicho
Noah, the music is Nine Inch Nails "Just Like You Imagined" off "The Fragile" album.
68 - Kenny
For those of you offended by this movie, welcome to the year 250 B.C.
...er, I mean, welcome to 2007!
Hmm, I guess that is easy to confuse.
I loved the movie; it really got my adrenaline going: "This... is... Sparta!!!"
:)
69 - richard burton
Persian chauvinism in Iran has hurt significantly the economic and social well-being of South Azerbaijan. Chauvinism as a policy has been practised implicitly by the Iranian regime and has targeted at its core the national culture of Azeri's in South Azerbaijan. The Azeri language had been removed from official use in all areas, including, schools, courts, government structures, and the army. Specific forms of Azeri cultural expression are prohibited as well.
70 - richard burton
take a look at iran's populatin make-up. persians are not the majority of the country but the chuavinistic system is pro-persian. the system defines iran as persian land and the languatge just persian. I can't belive persians are crying and whining like babies over a movie but totally ignore to what's happining to their country men/women in the present time. .........why should I care for what happend over 2 thousands ago but not to care for what's happing in the present?
71 - Nima
Richard,
You've got some facts right about the Azeris, but the rest is your imagination. Suffice it to say that the Iranians Supreme Leader and a significant number of people in the regime are Azeris themselves.
This is not Persian Chauvinism. Some people have distorted the historical image of the Persians, and Persians aren't happy with it.
This applies to anti- Islamic Republic Persians, including myself.
72 - Nima
Megan,
Is this what you're getting at?
Do you work for the CIA?
73 - A thinking Person
Americans always have been the least learned about other cultures and history of others for variety of reasons. Therefore, incorrectly portraying a historical event is a disservice to Americans first.
To those of you who say this is just a movie! This movie could have had all its adolescence appeal of heroes and villains, war and victory as a fiction without depicting any particular historical event. However, when some facts are mixed with fictions then you wonder why! What is the motive? The first declaration of human rights by the Cyrus the Great whose name is in the bible (Old Testament) because he helped and freed the Jews is kept in a museum in London.
Although recent history of the Iran’s regime and their human rights violations are undeniably shameful, it has hurt Iranian people who find themselves helpless in dealing with a dictatorship more than anyone else. What the government of Iran who is not elected democratically does however, has nothing to do with the rich history of that country. I Think about why every regime in that region (south of Soviet Union) is made up of fanatic religious governments. That is what West wanted as a deterrent against the threat of Soviets Union and to preventing the progress of communism during cold war. After all, if you are very religious you could not easily accept atheisms. Always try to think for yourselves rather than following what governmner, media, or religious leaders tell you.
74 - raymond
Nima, Joseph Stalin was from Georgia,and he killed tens of thousands of georgies, Does it mean he was a true georgian? ofcourse not. Iranian azeris make up approx 30% of Iran's population and it's obvious that some of them are inside iran's regim's. but the fact is """The System "" is pro persians, and azeris or kurds...work for the system which is pro-persians...like Stalin that was working for pro-russian system.....don't deny the facts, it'll catch up with you.
75 - sleeptastic
It's great that the Persians created all these wonderful things. But uh, that doesn't mean that Xerxes wasn't trying to conquer the Greek city-states. Why doesn't the movie go into the great things that the Persian Empire did? Probably because those things have nothing whatsoever to do with the movie. This movie wasn't called "The History of the Persian Empire" was it? It's about a certain event and guess what, the Persians were defintely the bad guys during that event, and had the Persians won the overall war then Western Civilization would have been snuffed out right there.
Now obviously the Persians weren't all undead looking guys, monsters, or bisexual metrosexuals. But this was a movie based on a comic book. There is something called "artistic license." The Persians were depicted that way to make them seem more like alien invaders. The non-Persian Persians (the black guys for example) were there to make the Persian Empire look more powerful; they imply that the Persian Empire is so vast that it spreads deep into Africa and Asia. Is there anyone over the age of 10 that really thinks that there were Persian half-human monsters running around during the real battle? Of course not.