Is the Movie 300 Historically Accurate?
I found this article… you all might like it… Crowds are flocking to see the film “300” about the ancient Spartans’ last stand at the pass at Thermopylae against an invading Persian army. Yet many critics, in panning “300,” have alleged that the film is essentially historically inaccurate. Are they right? Here are some answers. But, first, two qualifiers. I wrote an introduction to a book about the making of “300” after being shown a rough cut of the movie in October. And, second, remember that “300” does not claim to follow exactly ancient accounts of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Instead, it is an impressionistic take on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, intended to entertain and shock first, and instruct second. Indeed, at the real battle, there weren’t rhinoceroses or elephants in the Persian army. Their king, Xerxes, was bearded and sat on a throne high above the battle; he wasn’t, as in the movie, bald and sexually ambiguous, and he didn’t prance around the killing fiel
