Comments on: The 300 http://www.huggin.net/blog/2007/03/13/the-300/ Mon, 13 Oct 2008 20:10:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Brother http://www.huggin.net/blog/2007/03/13/the-300/#comment-59935 Brother Fri, 04 May 2007 02:24:21 +0000 http://www.huggin.net/blog/2007/03/13/the-300/#comment-59935 I heard there was another, more historical movie account of the battle in production at the same time and it got canceled. That is the real tragedy of this kind of movie. It is, from the historian's point of view, a lost opportunity to learn something. Of course, a good historian can turn even this movie, which I found great as a comedy, into an opportunity by getting students to compare. The greatest irony of the movie was having the Spartans become heroes of freedom. There are several points in the movie where we are led to believe that Spartans are trained as warriors to defend freedom... This is considerably different than what I had heard (and I am no historian of Greece): That the spartans were trained as warriors primarily to defend slavery, or rather, defend Sparta against their own slaves/serfs (Helots). I heard there was another, more historical movie account of the battle in production at the same time and it got canceled. That is the real tragedy of this kind of movie. It is, from the historian’s point of view, a lost opportunity to learn something. Of course, a good historian can turn even this movie, which I found great as a comedy, into an opportunity by getting students to compare.

The greatest irony of the movie was having the Spartans become heroes of freedom. There are several points in the movie where we are led to believe that Spartans are trained as warriors to defend freedom…

This is considerably different than what I had heard (and I am no historian of Greece): That the spartans were trained as warriors primarily to defend slavery, or rather, defend Sparta against their own slaves/serfs (Helots).

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