George Taylor
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.
chaswe-28402
Dialogue, direction, performance, incredible. Beyond belief. Dreadful, dire, dismal, abysmal. Egan looks good, but the script and his accent defeat him. Richardson does his unsuccessful best to cope. The teen-age love-interest is repeatedly cringe-worthy, the dancing girls worse.Xerxes, by Farrar, triumphs as the pantomime villain. What exactly was Artemisia playing at ? Suddenly a lot of women were massacred; luckily off-screen. Oh no you don't ! You evil tyrant! Where precisely were the narrow fiery gates ? Why didn't the arrows darken the sun ? What happened to Phylon ? What happened to Ellas ? Who cares ? Why was charismatic Kieron Moore cast as Ephialtes ? Lucky the wounded Spartan had his life saved, by Phylon and the doctor. Or else he wouldn't have been able to die later. Have I got that right ? The battle scenes were one ghastly chaotic lifeless mess.This film's sole merit is that it was seen by Frank Miller when he was in short pants, and inspired his comic version, followed by the far superior and much more entertainingly controversial 300, by Snyder, with excellent Butler and Headey. My only excuse for the extra star.
gavin6942
A small army of Greeks spearheaded by 300 Spartans do battle with the whole invading Persian army.When it was released in 1962, critics saw the movie as a commentary on the Cold War, referring to the independent Greek states as "the only stronghold of freedom remaining in the then known world", holding out against the Persian "slave empire". This is interesting, as I absolutely do not see it. What is the parallel? Comic artist Frank Miller saw this movie as a boy and said "it changed the course of my creative life". His graphic novel "300" is about the Battle of Thermopylae, and in 2007, was adapted into a successful film. What I like about this is that it might be assumed that the movie "300" is a remake of this film (albeit a very different one). But, in fact, "300" comes from a graphic novel that was inspired by the original movie... so there's that extra step, giving it a more interesting lineage.
Blueghost
Sayeth the Persian King.This is a moderate and mediocre epic regarding the Persian invasion of Greece. This was one of two actions that helped decide the fate of the western free world, because otherwise the Persian invasion would not have been held off, and the rest of the world would have looked radically different today.The acting is on par for other films of this type for the time. It's nothing spectacular, but passing. The costumes are on the mark, but the location doesn't quite resemble the battlefield upon which the Battle of Thermopylae took place, but it's close.I certainly like this more than the modern "300" that hit the theatres in 2007. In essence this film is a vanilla flavored classic era epic with lots of sword play, some chariots with of course, bows and arrows.I don't have too much to say about it. There's no real profundity here. It was an event that took place, and thanks to Sparta's martial tradition, they had the warriors fit to hold off the avante garde of the Persian military.See it once. Check out the letterboxed edition DVD. It's something to watch on a lazy weekend afternoon.
AD
