Reviews of The 300 Spartans (1962) and related work
The 300 Spartans (1962
)
Layers of misdirected glamorization from the only detailed source on the real war, which is book 7 of The Histories (440 BCE): a high point of Herodotus’s work, but already glamorized in his telling. If you see this film, which I do not recommend, see it to experience continuous adaptation decay from a lost historical reality. For example, Spartans had to be warriors to suppress slave revolts. This could possibly be seen as subtext in the darker 2006 remake via Frank Miller’s comic, inspired mainly by this film, but it undermines The 300 Spartans, which has a poor romantic subplot, sterile fights, and negligible accuracy.
‣ “300” (1998
) – previously
Frank Miller (writer-artist).
Lynn Varley’s colours are magnificent. It’s a pity Ephialtes is caricatured with such contempt, and in this version, Leonidas insults Xerxes for having slaves, as if Leonidas did not.
sequential art text spin-off fiction series
‣‣ 300 (2006)
All in good fun.
References here: Man of Steel (2013).