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The 300 Spartans (1962)
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Overview
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Release Date:
August 1962 (USA)
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Plot:
Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300...
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User Comments:
And the one mildly entertained reviewer...
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Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Richard Egan | ... | King Leonidas | |
| Ralph Richardson | ... | Themistocles of Athens (as Sir Ralph Richardson) | |
| Diane Baker | ... | Ellas | |
| Barry Coe | ... | Phylon | |
| David Farrar | ... | Xerxes | |
| Donald Houston | ... | Hydarnes | |
| Anna Synodinou | ... | Gorgo | |
| Kieron Moore | ... | Ephialtes | |
| John Crawford | ... | Agathon the Spartan Spy | |
| Robert Brown | ... | Pentheus | |
| Laurence Naismith | ... | First Delegate | |
| Anne Wakefield | ... | Artemisa | |
| Ivan Triesault | ... | Demaratus | |
| Charles Fawcett | ... | Megistias | |
| Michalis Nikolinakos | ... | Myron (as Michael Nikolinakos) |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
Lion of Sparta
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Parents Guide:
Runtime:
114 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
USA:Approved (certificate #29936) |
Australia:G |
West Germany:12 (nf) |
Malaysia:U (DVD) |
Singapore:PG |
Germany:12 (DVD rating) |
Finland:K-12 |
UK:PG |
UK:U (cut)
Filming Locations:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The film is listed in the annual "Screen World" for 1961 releases as "The Lion Of Sparta", but reappears with full photo coverage for the next issue (for 1962 releases) as "300 Spartans".
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Goofs:
Continuity: Phylon was ordered to use torches to light the hay by pretending to be dead. He was clearly given 4 torches, however, when we cross to him later, he only has 2 torches.
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Quotes:
Leonidas, Spartan King:
Why were you not in council?
Agathon the Spartan Spy: Because I'm not a good liar. I don't want to frighten them.
Leonidas, Spartan King: Then the army is as enormous as they say?
Agathon the Spartan Spy: Leonidas, it is bigger than anything you can imagine. For six days, I watched them pass. Six days! I ran out of numbers and still more of them came. They're drinking the rivers dry. And at night there are more of their campfires than there are stars in the sky!
Leonidas, Spartan King: Good. When I was a boy, I always wanted to reach the stars with my spear.
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Agathon the Spartan Spy: Because I'm not a good liar. I don't want to frighten them.
Leonidas, Spartan King: Then the army is as enormous as they say?
Agathon the Spartan Spy: Leonidas, it is bigger than anything you can imagine. For six days, I watched them pass. Six days! I ran out of numbers and still more of them came. They're drinking the rivers dry. And at night there are more of their campfires than there are stars in the sky!
Leonidas, Spartan King: Good. When I was a boy, I always wanted to reach the stars with my spear.
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The true story of the stand made by 300 Spartan soldiers against an entire army of invading Persians is given the Hollywood Cinemascope treatment here in a lushly mounted production featuring a solid if unspectacular cast. Second-string leading man Richard Egan stars as Leonidas, King of the Spartans, who marches his personal bodyguards to Thermopylae to repel the invading Persian hordes. He expects to be joined by the rest of the Spartan army but, when he is betrayed by a Council decision, he and his faithful soldiers decide to make a stand.
This is quite an inspirational story, and the battle scenes if a little tame by today's standards are impressively staged. Unfortunately, we have to sit through an hour or so of turgid politics and a romantic sub-plot that stubbornly refuses to be even slightly involving, before we reach the main thrust of the story. Many of the characters are strictly one-dimensional, their words describing the mindset of a culture rather than the thoughts and feelings of individuals, which I guess is why they fail to engage the viewer. On the plus side, the Spartans' final stand is poignantly handled, there is some stunning location cinematography from Geoffrey Unsworth, and the remastered DVD offers a beautifully crisp and clear picture.
This is one of those films that, if you saw it as a kid, sticks in your memory because of the climactic battle scenes and, because of that, some might have a mistakenly high opinion of the film as a whole.