I bought into the hype and went to see “300″ this weekend.  I rarely go to the movies, and as I forked over my $7.00 for a MATINEE, I remembered why.  Still, the movie matched the hype.  There’s really no way it could miss, with the true story of a few who stood against thousands.

The term 300 is somewhat misleading, since King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans were joined by others from Arcadia, Thespiae, Thebes, and other Greek city states.  Still, even the lowest estimates of forces put the Greeks at approximately 3,000 to 6,000, against King Xerxes of Persia with a force estimated to be anywhere from 200,000 to 2 million.  In the end, the Spartans held the pass of Thermopylae for 3 days.  On the third day, Leonidas and his men fought to the death.  Their sacrifice mobilized the rest of Greece to resist Xerxes and push him back. 

The movie was awesome, with Gerald Butler as King Leonidas and sexy Lena Headey as his queen.  Many have tried to read into the movie a modern analogy to the U.S. and Iraq.  All that can be gleaned from the film, in my view, is that there are some things worth fighting and dying for. 

Zach Snyder’s direction of “300″ stays close to the graphic novel by famed comic book writer Frank Miller upon which the film is based.

Still interested?  Check out these books:
The Histories (Oxford World’s Classics) Known as the “father of history,” Herodotus’ telling of the battle is the most contemporary
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae The best historical fiction of the battle of Thermopylae
300 Frank Miller’s graphic novel, seen above.