"300" Movie Review (Advanced Screening Focus Group)(Some Spoilers)

[Mistwell]

By the way, I was just informed that the sword-like weapons used by the Spartans in this movie are neither scimitars nor falchions, but are called Kopis.

However, to me, they looked a bit more curved than the pictures I have seen of the Kopis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kopis.png

 

[Seonaid]

Perhaps we could return to talking about how cool this movie is going to be, before this thread is poli-jacked.

I, for one, am psyched. As I may have mentioned before, massive battle scenes = good.

 

[Klaus]

By the way, I was just informed that the sword-like weapons used by the Spartans in this movie are neither scimitars nor falchions, but are called Kopis.

However, to me, they looked a bit more curved than the pictures I have seen of the Kopis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kopis.png

Could it have been a Makhaira?

 

[Storm Raven]

By the standards of the day was the key part of that sentance; I realize it was far from being a true democracy.

Not even by the standards of the day was Sparta a democracy. No one was elected. The ruling elders controlled everything. The homioi had no voice, and they only represented a iny fraction of the populace to begin with.

I suggest you read Donald Kagan's On the Origins of Wars. It explains that the causes of the Peloponesian War were very complex, and only a small part of them was the difference in political systems.

certainly there were several reasons for the war, but the conflict of ideology was a major sticking point. Sparta had limited economic interests, the need of the homioi were taken care of by the helotes for the most part. Spartas allies were economic rivals of Athens, which dragged them into the war, but Sparta's primary motivation was protecting their insular and conservative culture, by exporting it to the other greek city strates.

It is true the war ended Athenian democracy, though it also fatally wounded the Spartan social system. It would be innacurate to say that Spartan ethics were forced onto the Athenians; rather, the war destroyed their way of life.

Sparta's social system was dying before the war, and that circumstance was a big part of what caused the war to begin with. Sparta could not exist in the long haul with an economic rival like Athens outperforming it so dramatically

Addmittedly true, but it's proably just a case of the film marketers playing up the story for modern audiences. It doesn't necesairly translate over to the film itself.

All it really does is make the filmmakers look uneducated.

 

[Mistwell]

All it really does is make the filmmakers look uneducated.

You had me up until that statement.

I already explained that the film itself doesn't portray it as a Democracy, just the PROMO description.

I also mentioned that it is based on Frank Miller's 300, which itself is an artistic reinerpretation based on the events of the battle, and not meant to be an accurate retelling of the story.

And yet, given those facts, you claim the filmakers (a broad brush statement) look uneducated (another broadbrush statement), without regard for the fact that it's a promo descriotion that isn't actually in the movie, and it's based on a book not actually supposed to be directly historical to begin with.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

But the connection between democracy and the Spartans is very tenuous.

On the other hand, they were FAR more of a democracy than, say, the Persian Empire.

Brad

 

[Sugarmouse]

On that note...

I heartily recommend (for those interested, but have not yet done so) attaining 'The History of the Peloponnesian War' by Thucydides.

I decided to purchase, and read this book from cover to cover, after studying excerpts at school. (Oh, so long ago.)

Hmm. It's been a while. Time to break it out again.

 

[Storm Raven]

On the other hand, they were FAR more of a democracy than, say, the Persian Empire.

The differences between the Persian Empire and Sparta were primarily degrees of scale. The Persians had a ruling elite (and, of course, a hereditary emperor) and millions of subjects with few, if any, rights. The Spartans had a ruling elite, and tens of thousands of subjects (helotes) who, not only had no rights, but against whom the Spartans declared war once per year to justify killing any of them they wanted to. Sure, the Spartans had checks against the excercise of power by their government, but those checks only applied to those in the ruling elite, and not to those downrange.

 

[Mark CMG]

Thanks for the scoop, Mistwell! Looking forward to seeing this!

 

[Dire Bare]

All it really does is make the filmmakers look uneducated.

Dude, it's a movie based on a comic based on MYTHOLOGY, not history texts . . . and there is obviously various viewpoints on the actual history anyway (since none of us were actually there at the time) . . .

Didn't the spoiler bits above regarding goat-headed men and dudes with swords for arms kinda clue you in?