Rate 300

[AdmundfortGeographer]

While in historically it may be true that both Athenians and Spartans condoned homosexuality and pederasty, the movie doesn't go there. And the movie doesn't go there simply because American audiences, as a whole, are not ready for that level of candor.

There was a distinct difference between Spartan pederasty from how the rest of ancient Greece practiced it. Most accounts from the period describe the Spartan method it as a chaste sort, no sexual contact involved. Of course Athenians joked that the relatively stuck-up Spartans weren't really that chaste at all, and in fact did all sorts of debauched things in private. Most historians today chalk that up as trash talk from their rivalry.

And to the matter of Spartan wives being teh hawtness, well, there is a particularly famous story about one Spartan woman so beautiful she set off a major war.

 

[RigaMortus2]

I'm not sure what you mean by this...

The movie made it a point to portray Xerxes as a hyper-effeminate Goa'uld, and mention that other Greeks were "boy-lovers", unlike, say, the proud men of Sparta, who were like a well-oiled, mostly naked branch of the Promise Keepers...

The script didn't have to go there... but it did... and I can't help but find that telling.

LOL, they made one joke about greeks being boy-lovers, and you think they whole film was about gay bashing?

 

[Particle_Man]

Heh, thanks for the fix! I didn't know Frank Miller's comic was based on an earlier film. Heck, I haven't even had a chance to read the comic yet! What film is it based on?

The 300 Spartans (1962), which Miller remembered seeing as a kid, apparently.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055719/

 

[Sir Brennen]

Heh, thanks for the fix! I didn't know Frank Miller's comic was based on an earlier film. Heck, I haven't even had a chance to read the comic yet! What film is it based on?

Although, really, this just further proves my point. It's a movie based on a comic based on a movie based on a myth based on history. Quite a bit removed from a "historical drama" type of film!

Yeah, but I think Miller's comic was inspired by him seeing that movie, it wasn't neccessarily based on the movie. I think he also went back to the source material for his stylized retelling of the tale.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

A solid 8.

Which is something the Spartans institutionalized in their military training program for young boys...

Because 300 was all about historical accuracy?

 

[sckeener]

This is more-or-less correct and I was going to post something to the same effect when I got the chance.

Dang...I took that class back in 1995, so I'm just glad I remembered all I did. Professor Holt was a blast though....he was the kind of teacher that you wanted to sit in on even when you weren't in his classes.

It was in his class that I came to admire Alcibiades. I wish I had Alcibiades' diplomacy knack.

 

[Mallus]

Because 300 was all about historical accuracy?

Of course not. That was never my point.

Someone (Eric?) was claiming that the Spartans were depicted as being anti-pederast, not anti-gay. I merely brought up the fact that this is slightly ironical.

Imagine a WWII film set in a Europe in which the German government was the only one which wasn't anti-Semitic... wouldn't that seem a little, you know, strange?

(Note my canny avoidance of Godwin's Law...)

 

[Mallus]

LOL, they made one joke about greeks being boy-lovers, and you think they whole film was about gay bashing?

LOL back at you... I mention that one small element of the film stood out like a sore --insert roughly cylindrical appendage of your choice here-- and you somehow read that as 'it's all about gay bashing', a term I don't recall using...

I thought the whole film was about slow-motion CGI action scenes, which was my central complaint.

 

[Mallus]

Most accounts from the period describe the Spartan method it as a chaste sort, no sexual contact involved.

That's debatable. Check out these other articles...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agoge

The consensus seems pretty clear that a sexual element was present. Enough of one to land any would-be modern day practitioner in jail...

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

It is actually not debatable. Most (not all) accounts of the era do depict it as a chaste sort. How most historians today seek to interpret it is another issue.

Most (not all) accounts of the era do agree there was an erotic or emotional element, as to whether there was commonly encouraged sexual contact most (not all) accounts of the era assert that it was strongly looked down on and discouraged... unlike the rest of Greece. Which puts some context to the derisive comment by Leonidas on the pederasty of Athens.