300 Redux

In the Star today there is a much more comprehensive article about the historical Spartans and how 300 does not depict them. From what I'm reading, the movie essentially sets up the Spartans as supermen and everyone else is either a freak, or gay, or both.

Thinking about this further, it should tell you something though about the Spartans that the only legacy they left was a fearsome reputation. While the Spartans were creating a warrior state, the Athenians were building, thinking, and writing - in addition to having a superb military.

I don't want to do this to slam 300 or ruin your movie-going experience generally, as a rule I try not to let historicity ruin historical fiction for me. Gladiator had more than a few embarrassingly bad historical interpretations of ancient Rome, but I'll still tell you that I enjoyed the film. Why? It was (I thought) a well-told story with decent actors and superb visuals. Just don't use it as a study aid.

How (not) to watch 300

I've read mixed reviews of the new Frank Miller adaptation. The truth is, I liked Sin City enough that I'll probably go to see 300 anyway. One of the things that some people are reading into the film is that it is a sort of apology for the Iraq war. This is anachronistic, as 300 was written in the 1990s. I hope that 300 is compelling historical fiction, but I would urge (particularly neocons) to treat it as nothing more. Here are a couple points that I remember from sundry history classes of my past:

The Spartans were slave-owners
I don't know if the film will mention the Helots, but they were an ethnic group that was subservient to the Spartans. As part of military training I seem to recall that Spartan boys had to kill a Helot. The "free men" and the "freedom" that Sparta fought for was of a rather limited sort. (I suppose if you're one of those types that get all warm-and-fuzzy about the Confederacy, this won't bother you).

The Persians were not all bad
They allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their religion and culture a generation before . By contrast, later Hellenic powers attempted to ban Judaism.