The 300 Spartans (DVD, 2004)

One of the classics-this is the ORIGINAL 300 Spartans movie. Starring Richard
Egan as King Leonidis of Sparta who upon learning of the invasion of Greece
by King Darius and his Persian army asks the Senate of Sparta to allow him to
take the professional and best army of the Country to aid other Greecian city-states in stopping the Persians. Like all politicians the Spartan Senate can
not get their act together and vote on allowing the freeing of the army- so
Leonidis in frustration takes his own Palace Guard of 300 men to try to delay
the Persians. The great battle at Themopoly (sp) ensues and while the 300
Spartans lose the battle-they succeed in getting the Spartan Senate to free
the Army which later with the other Greek armies defeat the Persian forces.
Great movie with lots of action.

The 300 Spartans is not the movie The 300. I enjoyed this movie for many years on VHS,now on DVD. This version of The 300 Spartans is more of hollywood trying to bring history to life dramaticly. I recommend this movie to all who like the movie spectacles from the 1950-60s.

My 10 yr. old son got caught up in the excitement of the recent "300" movie. However, having seen it myself there is no way that I am letting him watch it for several years. I remembered watching this movie as a kid with my Dad so we bought a copy. It tells the same story, but on a PG level of violence. It gets a little slow at times though. I thought it was a good substitute until he is ready to see the other movie. I'm not sure if my son would agree, but hey I'm the Dad...

Good movie showing the history of the battle with the Spartans where King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, along with other soldiers from other city states try to hold off the invading Persians. After the Spartans discover there will be no reinforcements, they choose to stay and fight to the death.

This is a much more realistic treatment of the story of the Spartans holding on for a lost cause, but for their love of honor and country. Here, unlike the recent flick, Xerxes is all too human, and his frustrations all too real. The film itself is a bit mediocre, its main atractions are in the huge armies gathered to do battle, and its main fault in that it doesn't quite build to any great tension point, but rather, it slowly, way too slowly, builds to its inevitable climax. That was very dissapointing for me, perhaps its simply too dated to be compared to modern SPFX loaded cinema. The film does the job, but its simply too slow and meandering to recomend very much at all.