The Spartan strategy at Thermopylae is still taught in military academies today. By choosing a narrow mountain pass as the place to make their stand, the Spartans made the Persian's numbers count for almost nothing. Choosing a battleground that suits your own strengths (or exploits an enemy's weaknesses) is still of utmost importance today.
like a concept, maybe, or if you fighting like a 5-gen army (like US one) with some mountain goat-f--ers in Afgan sure, but this will not work in today's reality when 2 armies of similar proportion are fighting imo.
@@Mrfailstandstil - It still works... you force an enemy into a position that exploits your strengths and exposes their weaknesses. It doesn't necessarily mean you need a mountain pass or a physical constriction point. It is a lesson in choosing your ideal battlefield (or an enemy's worst-case scenario), and luring them into it. If you're stronger in air power, then lure the enemy into open spaces where you can bring that power to bear. If the enemy has weak supply chains, then you draw them farther afield and stretch those chains to the breaking point.
@@Mr.Ekshin doesn't work that way bud, armies move in weeks not hours, you cant lure a fokken ARMY into a killbox or whatever, maybe a squad - sure, russia has like supreme airpower over Ukrainians and Ukraine is a plain with nowhere to hide, yet i don't see any russians dominating the sky, it's a lot more complicated, again on a tactical level it can work but on a strategic level with like 400k troops on each side.. come on bro..
I love the little part where Leonidas tells Ephialtes "May you live forever." Not only is this the greatest insult a Spartan can give to someone, considering that a Spartan's greatest honor is to die in battle, but he also made Ephialtes realize that the thing he betrayed the Spartans for (pleasure, leisure, a long pampered life) proves that he truly wasn't a Spartan, and he bows his head in shame.
A guest went on maneuver with the Spartans. Ate their horrible rations (barley and pigs blood) ... and said "Now I know why Spartans are not afraid to die".
Their rations weren't really _that_ bad. What that was is actually a form of blood sausage, which had some vinegar, salt, and herbs like marjoram, thyme, and rosemary mixed in before cooking. Grilled over an open fire, they also (like all expeditions at the time) foraged for fruits and berries whenever it was convenient. But yeah, not everyone's into blood sausage and the like. He was probably hoping for some fish, maybe a roast pheasant.
The Spartans faced an army estimated to be close to 250,000 men. There were several hundred warriors besides the Spartans that died on the final day. At Platea the combined Greek army, led by Sparta defeated the Persian army.
That "may you live forever" Leonidas said to the betrayer was a curse. Spartans found their greatest glory in dying in battle and Leonidas said he didn't want the betrayer to ever have that glory. That's why the guy kinda teared up. Because it was a curse.
Being Swedish and hearing him explain what a glorious death was puts a smile on my face every time, since the vikings (or Norse) also lived by the same mindset..
All primitive tribes lived by this. The spartans were no different, they were the most barbaric city/state of ancient Greece. This is also why unlike the rest of the ancient Greeks, they left absolutely nothing behind and made zero contributions to human civilization.
It was literally a religion, they believed if they didn't die in battle they wouldn't make it to Valhalla.. And that's why people feared them.. They spent their lives longing for death
@@seanharris8419Okay, but there is a historical inacuracy there. It wasn't 300 Spartans that stayed behind to die, it was 1000 Greek soldiers from various city/states. They stayed behind to cover the retreat of the rest. Also much more knowledge in military tactics can be derived from ancient Athens than from Sparta. Actually, afaik, any military knowledge we have from that time comes only from Athens. They were the ones who bothered to write things down.
And well, it was very loosely based on history. So it was a great story line. Because the battle did happen, more or less how depicted. The Spartans had more or less about 300 left at the last stand of the battle. They had the yell of about 5000 other Greek city states, as far as anyone can tell, most of them from Athens. And they did in fact win the war, dod take awhile, but that battle got all of Sparta fully invoked. And United the Greek city states for the first time as a whole, short lived, what you could call a “nation” and took them awhile. But they stomped the Persians down, then slowly faded and fell about the time the Roman’s started to come to true power, then Alexander’s line came into power, with like his grandpa or great grandpa…obviously very simplified, lots of other things happened, but that’s among the top ones, besides Sparta losing against the rest of Greece before the Greek city states fell as a power. Before Rome. Or Macedonia after that. It took all of Greece basically to beat Sparta. But they eventually conquered them, and fun fact from Greece fighting Persia. That’s where the marathon in the Olympics came from and most of the Olympic events for like the first 2000 thousand years of them existing. That’s why the marathon is 26.2 miles long, the distance the messengers ran to deliver the message in war. To the city of Marathon. Hence its name.
I'd like to point out what I'd consider to be the crucial part of the conversation between the Persian emissary and Leonidas, where he mentions that the Athenians had fervently refused to bend the knee to Xerxes. Spartans maybe the cream of the crop in all of Greece, but the philosophers and "boy lovers" of Athens were no slouches either. They too were a force to be reckoned with.
in the end spartans are still the strongest, even the winners couldn't make themselves stronger in old texts. no one cares about second best at all lmao
@demsandlibsareswinecancer4667 true they had a good army, but a fair amount were the weekend warriors. Still they were better, but the Persians far out numbered them, which why they did so well up until then. They never had to contend with navel battles
I think the way they tell the story with a narrator keeps it firmly out of the horror film category. Despite the horrific things, he remains calm. Which makes sense at the end.
Herodotus was the father of journalism. His accounts have a forced narrative which make them inherently bias. But they are the best documented literature we have in modern history so he got to determine what happened.
In 530-480 B.C.) was a king of the city-state of Sparta from about 490 B.C. until his death at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian army in 480 B.C. Although Leonidas lost the battle, his death at Thermopylae was seen as a heroic sacrifice. Leonidas, (died 480 bc, Thermopylae, Locris [Greece]), Spartan king whose stand against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece is one of the enduring tales of Greek heroism, invoked throughout Western history as the epitome of bravery exhibited against overwhelming odds.
This is a heavily stylized movie about a graphic novel (comic book) adaption of a real historical event. So there’s a lot of creative licenses, but a lot of the major plot points are true. The Battle of Thermopylae really was a battle of 300 Spartan Warriors holding a chokepoint along the coastline against the Persian army of several hundred thousand strong. The Spartan civilization was eventually beaten, overrun, and wiped out, but not before massive loses to the Persian army.
Wrong..... yes eventually they were conquered but not by the Persians. The Persian invasions stopped in 479 BC and the Spartans were conquered in 192 BC nearly 300 years later by the Achaea league which was an alliance of Greeks. They repelled the Persians and were strong for another 100 years when they got into another war with other Greek States and then lost the Battle of Leuctra to Thebes who was under Spartan rule and even then they still lasted another 200 years as a civilization before they fell.
Leonidas couldn't let the imperfect cast-off Spartan fight with his army because his army and their lives were pledged to their gods. To give an imperfect sacrifice would have been sacrilege. He did offer to let the man die with the army as a non-combatant, which shows he understood the depth of the man's conviction and dedication to a home that had shown him nothing but pain and neglect, and would have meant he could die with his countrymen, which would have been an honorable death.
I’ve seen this countless times and only just realized during your reaction that young Leonidus used the same battle tactic in the beginning when he lured the wolf in the funnel formation of the rocks.
The Spartans where like the equal of todays Special forces, Seals l, green berets. Sas. Top level warriors bred for battle. True story also. Except the monsters.
You should watch the behind the scenes videos for 300. Gerry Butler & the other actors did some hard core training to look like they were training since childhood. My son learned that tv/film isn't real at about the age of 2 or 3 - his dad liked the martial arts type films. The behind the scenes videos show that nothing is real in 300 - lots of CGI & the actors basically performed in a huge building with generic props that were changed in post. My son is why I initially watched the film - that & because Gerry Butler was in it 😉 my son had the graphic novel & got the DVD with the helmet statue, he really liked the story. It's possible that the fact that my parents lived in a community named Sparta here in Northeastern Minnesota & Leonidas (we pronounce it differently) is another nearby community had an impact too. Training kids to be warriors really isn't that ancient of a practice. It's just the way it was in some places. The stories are legendary for a reason.
Some films are easier to watch once you accept that it's not real. Nobody got hurt, nobody died, no weapons are actual weapons, etc. It's pretty much all choreography as far as fighting on film. The "blood" is only food coloring in corn syrup or a different combo of products to appear like blood - lots of it is CGI too. Makeup, illusion, etc creates a realistic picture. But it isn't real.
I think when Leonides said to the traitor may you live forever you missed how great an insult that is to a spartan man. The greatest honor is to die for sparta, if you live forever you dont get that honor. It wasnt a blessing, it was a curse.
The only thing I wish they had shown, was Leonidas military strategy. He set up his men based on how Xerzes attacked. Also Spartans had broze armour, while Persians had sraw, or leather armour, and most of the army were conscripts from concord cities, with very little military training.
Being told "May you live forever" is ultimately the worst thing a Spartan can hear... it's the most dishonorable, because the most honorable thing for a Spartan is to die in battle
It wasn't just the festival of the Carneia that prevented Leonidas from taking the full army, but it was also the time of the Olympic Games. In Ancient Greece, you DID NOT go to war during the Olympic Games, as this was the ULTIMATE insult to the Gods. But what the Oracle actually told Leonidas was that Sparta was only allowed to go to war if it was prepared to suffer terrible losses, and if its king was prepared to die, because the death of a Spartan king would be required for the ultimate defeat of Persia. So as a result, Leonidas took only his 300-man personal guard instead of the full Spartan army so that he wouldn't offend the Gods and bring any bad luck to Sparta. But this 300-man force was leading a total force numbering about 7,000, and though they were still vastly outnumbered, there weren't a million Persians. It was more like a quarter-million to half a million, which is still a MONSTER-sized invasion force.
This is a great realization of a graphic novel come to life, as was the first Sin City, but much less so the sequels The Spartans mastered the culture of creating fanatics, and it’s still being copied today The Queen is Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones If you ever watch the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise, this battle is explicitly brought up.
You know this is based on a true story, right? All the major plot points are historically accurate. Leonidas' sacrifice gave the rest of Greece (all the city states, not just Sparta) time to raise their armies and defeat the Persians. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
I love y'all's reactions. 🙂💓👍🏻 This is one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Forrest Gump, the Dark Knight, and 300. I love each movie for different reasons. Each movie teaches me something different. Forrest Gump taught me to be humble and compassionate. The Dark Knight taught me to think outside the box and expect the unexpected. And 300 taught me to be courageous even in the face of overwhelming odds. 💓👏🏻🙂
I’ve talked about the esthetics of this movie so many times but I just realized how much it reminds me of Dark Souls and other games made by FromSoft. Everything’s just cranked up to another level. It’s surreal, it’s supernatural, it’s mythic, it’s got the right color gradient haha. Also, things like big “boss” characters have wild physical features and affectations. Like, I can see the guy whose arm was cut off while he was swinging his whip as a boss. “The Emissary.” It’s just so well done.
Although the film takes significant creative liberties, the historical Battle of Thermopylae remains a remarkable and astounding event. The Greek forces, consisting of approximately 7,000 soldiers under the leadership of King Leonidas, included a formidable contingent of 300 Spartans. They faced an overwhelming Persian army numbering at least 120,000 soldiers. Despite the overwhelming odds, the Greeks valiantly held off the Persian forces for a remarkable seven days. The Persians were eventually shown a pathway leading behind the Greek lines, King Leonidas, realizing the perilous situation, made the strategic decision to release the majority of the Greek army. He himself, along with his 300 Spartans, chose to stay behind and safeguard the Greek retreat. It's one of the most famous last stand in history.
The reason you are seeing this on a dark yellowish screen, seeing strange-looking beasts, abnormal humans, a deformed traitor, and a huge Persian King is due to the narrator telling the events to the Spartan Army. They are seeing it in their imaginations as you see it on screen. There were actually two messages sent by the Spartan King. They both were accused of cowardice for leaving the battle. One committed suicide while the other proved himself in battle. Took the Greeks over a year to remove the Persians from their lands. The immortals ( the personal guards of the Persian king) always had a force of 10 thousand soldiers. As some fell in battle they would be replaced given the illusion of never dying. This battle gave the Greeks a fighting chance and is credited for saving democracy.
The stand of the 300 Spartans allowed rhe city states like Athens to evacuate most of their citizens before the Persian armies arrived. Each of the city states of Greece were democracies. And so Democracy lives today.
First off this movie is fantastic. What follows will be more of a reality check of what the REAL Sparta was like, and what the real war was like. Spartans were raised exclusively for war. The reason for this is: the land of Sparta was first populated by a group called the Helots. The Spartans moved in and enslaved all the Helots and the Helots did all the farming and such and this allowed the Spartans to focus on war to the level which they did. The Spartans did not love or fight for freedom, as is expressed in this movie. Nobody that wants freedom for everyone keeps slaves. Plus out of the 100,000 or so Spartans in Sparta only 100 or so had any voice in the political system. I reality the Persians were much more free than the Spartans. The Persian Empire was the most massive area in the ancient world and the Persians were exceptionally tolerant (for their time) of other peoples and other religions. Sparta WAS ahead of its time in regards to women. If a woman's husband died, she got the land and the husband's money and not his sons. This led to women of wealthy families being incredibly wealth and influential (for their time). The Ephors were normal people who carried out the decrees of the council. They were not required by law to be disfigured perverts. Leonidas was king and is the one that fought at the hot gates, but Sparta always had two kings. The Persians didn't have mutated people, wild and fantastic beasts, gunpowder, or any of that. Their army was massive (historians have estimated between 120,000 to 300,000 The Spartans aren't stupid, they used armor. Ephialtes was real. He was not disfigured. He just thought the Persians were going to win, and wanted to be loved by whoever was in charge.
15:50 you must understand, the Spartans, like the Vikings, believed that the best most glorious thing they could achieve was to die in battle to the service of Sparta. As a Viking would say “The only way into Valhalla is death in battle”.
There’s a second part to this Movie also a look into history and Greece as a whole country United to defeat the Persians most of the second movie is a water battle and runs into a land battle and all the new hero’s win , the final Victory ❤ 300:Rise of a Empire !! ⭐️🏴☠️🌷🫶
Ephialtes was born of Sparta and he wanted to be accepted as a Spartan, and nothing else. I suspect if he joined the amateurs that it would be not that much different than tending the wounded, as Leonidas suggested. I don't think Leonidas had much say in who fought with the amateurs, anyhow. Ephialtes could have if he wanted to.
Exactly. While it would have been a major coup to actually kill Xerxes, Leonidas did something arguably worse: he proved that Xerxes isn’t an untouchable god. That puts fear into Xerxes, and more crucially, doubt into his army. It’s just like Ivan Venko said in Iron Man 2: “If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him.”
Gerousia = Senatus = old men ... I have held actual Persian coin from this time. The Spartans rejected money. A later Spartan king who took bribes, was lynched ;-)
It’s mind boggling that people don’t learn this in school!🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️. Learned this in 4th grade. People react that they legit don’t know of this event. Education system at its best 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
THIS IS SPARTA!! lol this is mostly true, they purged kids then and Sparta was a warrior society and fought with 300 at that pass giving the rest of the people time to hold them off
Loved both of y'all accents...so glad you guys enjoyed the movie instead of trying to over analyze it unlike other reactions channels...I'll be a subscriber soon... Loved this movie...this was an actual event battle of thermopylae.... merely a defense strategy to hold Persian army's advance while the Greeks prepping for war. ..
The scene after the wolf incident is mistakenly interpreted as him becoming king because of it. In reality, he was the hair all along. Passing the test means he is no longer a kid and has become a man, therefore can thereafter also assume the title of king.
I wonder how people being familiar with the concept of a boarding school are surprised when children are taken from their parents for education at a young age. :D The Agoge is basically Sandhurst only that you combine it with a boarding school.
ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς , (Ḕ tā̀n ḕ epì tâs): “Come with (your shield), or on (it). ” This ancient Greek phrase was said by their mothers or wives giving them the shield. It was a wish of victory, because either he would return victorious holding his shield, or his victorious companions would bring him dead on his shield.If they lost the battle no one was to return alive. The Spartans were famous for the condensed meanings (Laconize ) expressed with few words. There is the ancient saying: "Laconize is philosophy". The Lacedaemonians (Spartans) and the rest of the ancient Greeks, considered death as the door to the underworld (ADES) and had unwavering faith in its existence.
The guy at 27:46 is Paul Maillett. He stands at 7 foot even, and was a WWF wrestler under the name Kurrgan. He was in "Sherlock Holmes", and accidentally punched Robert Downey Jr. in that film. Made Downey bleed. Maillett felt "10 times upset it" than Downey was.
I've always wished the spear thrown was a bit more impactful. Maybe like made Xerxes stumble backward and off the platform. Something embarrassing. It doesn't have to kill him. But maybe like take an ear off or blind him in one eye.
A little less than 100 years later and thebes would defeat sparta in a series of battle that would finally end with the occupation of sparta and the destruction of what sparta was as we knew it
I much prefer the older version from the '60s, in that the people, including the soldiers, acted dignified, whereas in this movie, they do aerial gymnastics to take an enemy out--nothing but show for the audience, like as if it was a video game. I'm sorry, but battles aren't fought like video games, and their facial expressions are like raving maniacs.
And on that day boys & girls, Johnny learned that babies have rib cages. 😂🤣 Fn' what bruh!? What do you think babies are when they're born... gelatinous like gummy bear?
Real battle of platea. 300000 persians agaist 10000 spartans anf 30000 other greeks. 250000 persians were killed. An left them to rot. Even to this day. The valley is known as The Valley of Vulcures
Fun fact: Leonidas was 60 at Thermopylae. Pretty bad@$$ for a senior, huh? But then again, he’s the old guy in a profession where you typically die young. Not to be trifled with.
These Are All BASED On Actual Eventful WARFARE!! 300 Spartans vs 1,000,000 Persians..... And, Well, Spartans Lose, but The PERSIANS Had Lost So Many Of Their ARMY, They Quit & WALKED Away!!!! If One Persian had JUST One Person to Check How Many SPARTANS Were LEFT, Maybe They Would of STAYED???
I don't understand (maybe the problem is my bad English), in the UK you don't study (also) the classical world at school? So even the Greek city states (ie Sparta and Athens for example), the Greco-Persian wars? I thought that (at least in Europe) everyone knew who the battle of Thermopylae it was something historical.
No offense, but I'm a bit older and it really shows that history is no longer taught in school. Some of your comments show that. This is based, very loosely, on a historical event.
The Spartan strategy at Thermopylae is still taught in military academies today. By choosing a narrow mountain pass as the place to make their stand, the Spartans made the Persian's numbers count for almost nothing. Choosing a battleground that suits your own strengths (or exploits an enemy's weaknesses) is still of utmost importance today.
Canallize and force them into a kill box. Get them mortars pre-aimed. Get your target reference points picked out!
like a concept, maybe, or if you fighting like a 5-gen army (like US one) with some mountain goat-f--ers in Afgan sure, but this will not work in today's reality when 2 armies of similar proportion are fighting imo.
@@Mrfailstandstil Russia is learning that the hard way.
@@Mrfailstandstil - It still works... you force an enemy into a position that exploits your strengths and exposes their weaknesses. It doesn't necessarily mean you need a mountain pass or a physical constriction point. It is a lesson in choosing your ideal battlefield (or an enemy's worst-case scenario), and luring them into it.
If you're stronger in air power, then lure the enemy into open spaces where you can bring that power to bear. If the enemy has weak supply chains, then you draw them farther afield and stretch those chains to the breaking point.
@@Mr.Ekshin doesn't work that way bud, armies move in weeks not hours, you cant lure a fokken ARMY into a killbox or whatever, maybe a squad - sure, russia has like supreme airpower over Ukrainians and Ukraine is a plain with nowhere to hide, yet i don't see any russians dominating the sky, it's a lot more complicated, again on a tactical level it can work but on a strategic level with like 400k troops on each side.. come on bro..
I love the little part where Leonidas tells Ephialtes "May you live forever." Not only is this the greatest insult a Spartan can give to someone, considering that a Spartan's greatest honor is to die in battle, but he also made Ephialtes realize that the thing he betrayed the Spartans for (pleasure, leisure, a long pampered life) proves that he truly wasn't a Spartan, and he bows his head in shame.
As a history buff. This is always my favorite fact about the battle of Thermopylae!
I thought it was him saying may you be remembered forever for what you done. A bit of a curse if you will.
@@secondchance6603 either way it’s still cool!
@@romanlovera427 Oh absolutely.
Also, a third meaning is that he is crippled, and Leonidas wishes he stays that way forever. "Forever tortured"
A guest went on maneuver with the Spartans. Ate their horrible rations (barley and pigs blood) ... and said "Now I know why Spartans are not afraid to die".
Their rations weren't really _that_ bad. What that was is actually a form of blood sausage, which had some vinegar, salt, and herbs like marjoram, thyme, and rosemary mixed in before cooking. Grilled over an open fire, they also (like all expeditions at the time) foraged for fruits and berries whenever it was convenient.
But yeah, not everyone's into blood sausage and the like. He was probably hoping for some fish, maybe a roast pheasant.
The Spartans faced an army estimated to be close to 250,000 men. There were several hundred warriors besides the Spartans that died on the final day. At Platea the combined Greek army, led by Sparta defeated the Persian army.
That "may you live forever" Leonidas said to the betrayer was a curse. Spartans found their greatest glory in dying in battle and Leonidas said he didn't want the betrayer to ever have that glory. That's why the guy kinda teared up. Because it was a curse.
Being Swedish and hearing him explain what a glorious death was puts a smile on my face every time, since the vikings (or Norse) also lived by the same mindset..
Müslims will take over europa
All primitive tribes lived by this. The spartans were no different, they were the most barbaric city/state of ancient Greece. This is also why unlike the rest of the ancient Greeks, they left absolutely nothing behind and made zero contributions to human civilization.
It was literally a religion, they believed if they didn't die in battle they wouldn't make it to Valhalla.. And that's why people feared them.. They spent their lives longing for death
@@JohnDoe-dn9ezThey left a timeless legacy and military tactics that are still studies at military academies today. That’s something.
@@seanharris8419Okay, but there is a historical inacuracy there. It wasn't 300 Spartans that stayed behind to die, it was 1000 Greek soldiers from various city/states. They stayed behind to cover the retreat of the rest. Also much more knowledge in military tactics can be derived from ancient Athens than from Sparta. Actually, afaik, any military knowledge we have from that time comes only from Athens. They were the ones who bothered to write things down.
And well, it was very loosely based on history. So it was a great story line. Because the battle did happen, more or less how depicted. The Spartans had more or less about 300 left at the last stand of the battle. They had the yell of about 5000 other Greek city states, as far as anyone can tell, most of them from Athens. And they did in fact win the war, dod take awhile, but that battle got all of Sparta fully invoked. And United the Greek city states for the first time as a whole, short lived, what you could call a “nation” and took them awhile. But they stomped the Persians down, then slowly faded and fell about the time the Roman’s started to come to true power, then Alexander’s line came into power, with like his grandpa or great grandpa…obviously very simplified, lots of other things happened, but that’s among the top ones, besides Sparta losing against the rest of Greece before the Greek city states fell as a power. Before Rome. Or Macedonia after that. It took all of Greece basically to beat Sparta. But they eventually conquered them, and fun fact from Greece fighting Persia. That’s where the marathon in the Olympics came from and most of the Olympic events for like the first 2000 thousand years of them existing. That’s why the marathon is 26.2 miles long, the distance the messengers ran to deliver the message in war. To the city of Marathon. Hence its name.
I'd like to point out what I'd consider to be the crucial part of the conversation between the Persian emissary and Leonidas, where he mentions that the Athenians had fervently refused to bend the knee to Xerxes. Spartans maybe the cream of the crop in all of Greece, but the philosophers and "boy lovers" of Athens were no slouches either. They too were a force to be reckoned with.
In the end they Defeated Sparta and were the Most Powerful Greek City State!
in the end spartans are still the strongest, even the winners couldn't make themselves stronger in old texts. no one cares about second best at all lmao
When facing the Athenians would they have not been facing a hoplite army? They were quite skilled Warriors from what I understand.
@demsandlibsareswinecancer4667 true they had a good army, but a fair amount were the weekend warriors. Still they were better, but the Persians far out numbered them, which why they did so well up until then. They never had to contend with navel battles
I've always loved the irony in that line, the Spartans were some of the biggest boy lovers around as a written military strategy 😂😭
I think the way they tell the story with a narrator keeps it firmly out of the horror film category. Despite the horrific things, he remains calm. Which makes sense at the end.
Herodotus was the father of journalism. His accounts have a forced narrative which make them inherently bias. But they are the best documented literature we have in modern history so he got to determine what happened.
In 530-480 B.C.) was a king of the city-state of Sparta from about 490 B.C. until his death at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian army in 480 B.C. Although Leonidas lost the battle, his death at Thermopylae was seen as a heroic sacrifice. Leonidas, (died 480 bc, Thermopylae, Locris [Greece]), Spartan king whose stand against the invading Persian army at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece is one of the enduring tales of Greek heroism, invoked throughout Western history as the epitome of bravery exhibited against overwhelming odds.
Thermopylae is under Mt Ota. Mt Ota is where Hercules immolated himself. King Leonidas is a direct descendant of Hercules.
Based on an important true story.
GIVE THEM NOTHING…BUT TAKE FORM THEM, EVERYTHING!
41:25 Ephialtes of Trachis does live "forever". Ephialtes is the Greek word for Nightmare.
Our arrows will block the sun...Then we shall fight in the shade!!!
Some of all of Leonidas' one liners and quotes were actually said by the real King Leonidas.
This is a heavily stylized movie about a graphic novel (comic book) adaption of a real historical event. So there’s a lot of creative licenses, but a lot of the major plot points are true. The Battle of Thermopylae really was a battle of 300 Spartan Warriors holding a chokepoint along the coastline against the Persian army of several hundred thousand strong. The Spartan civilization was eventually beaten, overrun, and wiped out, but not before massive loses to the Persian army.
Then Alexander the Great took Persia.
@@npc2153he was a show off 😂
wtf persians retreated and never conquered Greece or sparta. Dont spread missinfo.
Wrong..... yes eventually they were conquered but not by the Persians. The Persian invasions stopped in 479 BC and the Spartans were conquered in 192 BC nearly 300 years later by the Achaea league which was an alliance of Greeks. They repelled the Persians and were strong for another 100 years when they got into another war with other Greek States and then lost the Battle of Leuctra to Thebes who was under Spartan rule and even then they still lasted another 200 years as a civilization before they fell.
Leonidas couldn't let the imperfect cast-off Spartan fight with his army because his army and their lives were pledged to their gods. To give an imperfect sacrifice would have been sacrilege. He did offer to let the man die with the army as a non-combatant, which shows he understood the depth of the man's conviction and dedication to a home that had shown him nothing but pain and neglect, and would have meant he could die with his countrymen, which would have been an honorable death.
They were called immortals back then because they were so many as soon as 1 died another men replaced him so it looked like they were immortal ^,^
Also the fact that the "God King" was shown to bleed reveals his mortality to all.
I’ve seen this countless times and only just realized during your reaction that young Leonidus used the same battle tactic in the beginning when he lured the wolf in the funnel formation of the rocks.
Wow, I totally missed that😮
The Spartans where like the equal of todays Special forces, Seals l, green berets. Sas. Top level warriors bred for battle. True story also. Except the monsters.
You should watch the behind the scenes videos for 300. Gerry Butler & the other actors did some hard core training to look like they were training since childhood.
My son learned that tv/film isn't real at about the age of 2 or 3 - his dad liked the martial arts type films. The behind the scenes videos show that nothing is real in 300 - lots of CGI & the actors basically performed in a huge building with generic props that were changed in post. My son is why I initially watched the film - that & because Gerry Butler was in it 😉 my son had the graphic novel & got the DVD with the helmet statue, he really liked the story. It's possible that the fact that my parents lived in a community named Sparta here in Northeastern Minnesota & Leonidas (we pronounce it differently) is another nearby community had an impact too.
Training kids to be warriors really isn't that ancient of a practice. It's just the way it was in some places. The stories are legendary for a reason.
Some films are easier to watch once you accept that it's not real. Nobody got hurt, nobody died, no weapons are actual weapons, etc. It's pretty much all choreography as far as fighting on film. The "blood" is only food coloring in corn syrup or a different combo of products to appear like blood - lots of it is CGI too. Makeup, illusion, etc creates a realistic picture. But it isn't real.
44:43 Greatest monologue is film.
He grazed the persian king on purpose to show he is a fake god and he can bleed.
I think when Leonides said to the traitor may you live forever you missed how great an insult that is to a spartan man. The greatest honor is to die for sparta, if you live forever you dont get that honor. It wasnt a blessing, it was a curse.
The only thing I wish they had shown, was Leonidas military strategy. He set up his men based on how Xerzes attacked.
Also Spartans had broze armour, while Persians had sraw, or leather armour, and most of the army were conscripts from concord cities, with very little military training.
Being told "May you live forever" is ultimately the worst thing a Spartan can hear... it's the most dishonorable, because the most honorable thing for a Spartan is to die in battle
It wasn't just the festival of the Carneia that prevented Leonidas from taking the full army, but it was also the time of the Olympic Games. In Ancient Greece, you DID NOT go to war during the Olympic Games, as this was the ULTIMATE insult to the Gods. But what the Oracle actually told Leonidas was that Sparta was only allowed to go to war if it was prepared to suffer terrible losses, and if its king was prepared to die, because the death of a Spartan king would be required for the ultimate defeat of Persia. So as a result, Leonidas took only his 300-man personal guard instead of the full Spartan army so that he wouldn't offend the Gods and bring any bad luck to Sparta. But this 300-man force was leading a total force numbering about 7,000, and though they were still vastly outnumbered, there weren't a million Persians. It was more like a quarter-million to half a million, which is still a MONSTER-sized invasion force.
This is a great realization of a graphic novel come to life, as was the first Sin City, but much less so the sequels
The Spartans mastered the culture of creating fanatics, and it’s still being copied today
The Queen is Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones
If you ever watch the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise, this battle is explicitly brought up.
They didn't let 300 die. They had 2 front lines. One in the battlefield, and one back at home dealing with corruption.
You know this is based on a true story, right? All the major plot points are historically accurate.
Leonidas' sacrifice gave the rest of Greece (all the city states, not just Sparta) time to raise their armies and defeat the Persians.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae
Sparta was a hardcore socitey you wouldn't be weak or anything they wanted nothing but these best.
I love y'all's reactions. 🙂💓👍🏻 This is one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Forrest Gump, the Dark Knight, and 300. I love each movie for different reasons. Each movie teaches me something different. Forrest Gump taught me to be humble and compassionate. The Dark Knight taught me to think outside the box and expect the unexpected. And 300 taught me to be courageous even in the face of overwhelming odds. 💓👏🏻🙂
"Go, stranger, and the Spartans tell, that here, obedient to their law, we fell." - epigraph carved in a stone at the Pass of Thermopolea.
I’ve talked about the esthetics of this movie so many times but I just realized how much it reminds me of Dark Souls and other games made by FromSoft.
Everything’s just cranked up to another level. It’s surreal, it’s supernatural, it’s mythic, it’s got the right color gradient haha.
Also, things like big “boss” characters have wild physical features and affectations. Like, I can see the guy whose arm was cut off while he was swinging his whip as a boss. “The Emissary.” It’s just so well done.
Still get chills from the part when he says that they stare across at 10,000 Spartans. So badass
literally the entire Spartan army
TO victory: Where Free men stood up to TYRANNY.....Today, we need these MEN.
Although the film takes significant creative liberties, the historical Battle of Thermopylae remains a remarkable and astounding event. The Greek forces, consisting of approximately 7,000 soldiers under the leadership of King Leonidas, included a formidable contingent of 300 Spartans. They faced an overwhelming Persian army numbering at least 120,000 soldiers. Despite the overwhelming odds, the Greeks valiantly held off the Persian forces for a remarkable seven days.
The Persians were eventually shown a pathway leading behind the Greek lines, King Leonidas, realizing the perilous situation, made the strategic decision to release the majority of the Greek army. He himself, along with his 300 Spartans, chose to stay behind and safeguard the Greek retreat. It's one of the most famous last stand in history.
The reason you are seeing this on a dark yellowish screen, seeing strange-looking beasts, abnormal humans, a deformed traitor, and a huge Persian King is due to the narrator telling the events to the Spartan Army. They are seeing it in their imaginations as you see it on screen. There were actually two messages sent by the Spartan King. They both were accused of cowardice for leaving the battle. One committed suicide while the other proved himself in battle. Took the Greeks over a year to remove the Persians from their lands. The immortals ( the personal guards of the Persian king) always had a force of 10 thousand soldiers. As some fell in battle they would be replaced given the illusion of never dying. This battle gave the Greeks a fighting chance and is credited for saving democracy.
The stand of the 300 Spartans allowed rhe city states like Athens to evacuate most of their citizens before the Persian armies arrived. Each of the city states of Greece were democracies. And so Democracy lives today.
Spartans, what is the chemical symbol for Gold?! AU! AU! AU!
Fact: King Leonidas was around 60 years old when he fought this battle..!! 🔥⚔
First off this movie is fantastic. What follows will be more of a reality check of what the REAL Sparta was like, and what the real war was like.
Spartans were raised exclusively for war. The reason for this is: the land of Sparta was first populated by a group called the Helots. The Spartans moved in and enslaved all the Helots and the Helots did all the farming and such and this allowed the Spartans to focus on war to the level which they did.
The Spartans did not love or fight for freedom, as is expressed in this movie. Nobody that wants freedom for everyone keeps slaves. Plus out of the 100,000 or so Spartans in Sparta only 100 or so had any voice in the political system.
I reality the Persians were much more free than the Spartans. The Persian Empire was the most massive area in the ancient world and the Persians were exceptionally tolerant (for their time) of other peoples and other religions.
Sparta WAS ahead of its time in regards to women. If a woman's husband died, she got the land and the husband's money and not his sons. This led to women of wealthy families being incredibly wealth and influential (for their time).
The Ephors were normal people who carried out the decrees of the council. They were not required by law to be disfigured perverts.
Leonidas was king and is the one that fought at the hot gates, but Sparta always had two kings.
The Persians didn't have mutated people, wild and fantastic beasts, gunpowder, or any of that. Their army was massive (historians have estimated between 120,000 to 300,000
The Spartans aren't stupid, they used armor.
Ephialtes was real. He was not disfigured. He just thought the Persians were going to win, and wanted to be loved by whoever was in charge.
“Go, tell the Spartans
stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to Spartan law,
we dead of Sparta lie"
I love how i can always skip the first 2 mins of every video before the actual video starts
The immortals look like monsters because this is from the perspective of the Spartans, the story is being told from a spartan
15:50 you must understand, the Spartans, like the Vikings, believed that the best most glorious thing they could achieve was to die in battle to the service of Sparta. As a Viking would say “The only way into Valhalla is death in battle”.
Based on the actual 3 day Battle of Thermopylae. How could Hollywood resist?
It's the Ancient Greek version of The Alamo!
There’s a second part to this Movie also a look into history and Greece as a whole country United to defeat the Persians most of the second movie is a water battle and runs into a land battle and all the new hero’s win , the final Victory ❤ 300:Rise of a Empire !! ⭐️🏴☠️🌷🫶
4:48 the realest thing I've ever heard James say.
Ephialtes was born of Sparta and he wanted to be accepted as a Spartan, and nothing else. I suspect if he joined the amateurs that it would be not that much different than tending the wounded, as Leonidas suggested. I don't think Leonidas had much say in who fought with the amateurs, anyhow. Ephialtes could have if he wanted to.
Leonides didn't miss. He just wanted to prove the "god king" could bleed.
Exactly. While it would have been a major coup to actually kill Xerxes, Leonidas did something arguably worse: he proved that Xerxes isn’t an untouchable god. That puts fear into Xerxes, and more crucially, doubt into his army.
It’s just like Ivan Venko said in Iron Man 2: “If you could make God bleed, people would cease to believe in Him.”
Gerousia = Senatus = old men ... I have held actual Persian coin from this time. The Spartans rejected money. A later Spartan king who took bribes, was lynched ;-)
Can't you figure it out that 300 is nothing but a fraction of the spartan army. That there are tens of thousands of warriors in Sparta.
The last words said by This King of Sparta for his Queen was an order... "Marry a good man and bare good children" That is Love
A Spartan narrator would never credit the Athenians. No storm, it was the Athenian Navy.
It’s mind boggling that people don’t learn this in school!🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️. Learned this in 4th grade. People react that they legit don’t know of this event. Education system at its best 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
That was awesome! Thanks!
THIS IS SPARTA!! lol this is mostly true, they purged kids then and Sparta was a warrior society and fought with 300 at that pass giving the rest of the people time to hold them off
Loved both of y'all accents...so glad you guys enjoyed the movie instead of trying to over analyze it unlike other reactions channels...I'll be a subscriber soon... Loved this movie...this was an actual event battle of thermopylae.... merely a defense strategy to hold Persian army's advance while the Greeks prepping for war. ..
Synchronized shield wall. Roman legionaries to Anglo-Saxon housecarls.
I have been to Thermopoly .... There are Monuments there to the 300 Spartans!
i real life jerjes was also a great warrior
The scene after the wolf incident is mistakenly interpreted as him becoming king because of it. In reality, he was the hair all along. Passing the test means he is no longer a kid and has become a man, therefore can thereafter also assume the title of king.
I wonder how people being familiar with the concept of a boarding school are surprised when children are taken from their parents for education at a young age. :D
The Agoge is basically Sandhurst only that you combine it with a boarding school.
It's history in comic book format.
Most of human history is a horror movie.
ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς , (Ḕ tā̀n ḕ epì tâs): “Come with (your shield), or on (it). ”
This ancient Greek phrase was said by their mothers or wives giving them the shield.
It was a wish of victory, because either he would return victorious holding his shield, or his victorious companions would bring him dead on his shield.If they lost the battle no one was to return alive.
The Spartans were famous for the condensed meanings (Laconize ) expressed with few words.
There is the ancient saying: "Laconize is philosophy".
The Lacedaemonians (Spartans) and the rest of the ancient Greeks, considered death as the door to the underworld (ADES) and had unwavering faith in its existence.
Teaching kids violence was a path to being a Sparta warrior. So, that part was hard to watch, but very much historically accurate.
The guy at 27:46 is Paul Maillett. He stands at 7 foot even, and was a WWF wrestler under the name Kurrgan.
He was in "Sherlock Holmes", and accidentally punched Robert Downey Jr. in that film. Made Downey bleed. Maillett felt "10 times upset it" than Downey was.
THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
5 months later than on your Patreon channel 😂😂 all about the money.
"i didnt know it was gonna end like this." LMAO
Leonidas could not have Ephialtes fight with his Spartans like he wanted and had no right to make the Thespians and Thebans take him into their ranks.
I've always wished the spear thrown was a bit more impactful. Maybe like made Xerxes stumble backward and off the platform. Something embarrassing. It doesn't have to kill him. But maybe like take an ear off or blind him in one eye.
A little less than 100 years later and thebes would defeat sparta in a series of battle that would finally end with the occupation of sparta and the destruction of what sparta was as we knew it
Masculinity. Let's go 💪
This is definitely proof that toxic masculinity has been saving pussies from extinction for centuries..
Yall must see the sequel. 300 Rise of an Empire.
Also overly dramatized but true in spirit. The Spartans invented Army, the Athenians invented Navy.
Kind of but millie won’t like that
Yes they should! If they liked this one they’ll love Rise of an empire.
@@williambranch4283 I think they were invented before the Greeks lol
Trash
You should react to the second 300 move next it's also pretty good.
after 300 you must see Meet the Spartans
Lol Millie seems to be taken with these spartans.
Next reaction film Troy (2004) Spartan vs Troy 👍🏻👍🏻
you two should turn up the movie volume to make it easier for us to understand your context of your comments.
The real story is pretty interesting its said they killed 20000 Persians in 3 days
Played like a Carry on film
I much prefer the older version from the '60s, in that the people, including the soldiers, acted dignified, whereas in this movie, they do aerial gymnastics to take an enemy out--nothing but show for the audience, like as if it was a video game. I'm sorry, but battles aren't fought like video games, and their facial expressions are like raving maniacs.
And on that day boys & girls, Johnny learned that babies have rib cages. 😂🤣
Fn' what bruh!? What do you think babies are when they're born... gelatinous like gummy bear?
Real battle of platea. 300000 persians agaist 10000 spartans anf 30000 other greeks. 250000 persians were killed. An left them to rot. Even to this day. The valley is known as The Valley of Vulcures
Next Reaction film Troy (2004) Spartan vs Troy 👍👍
Both Xerxes and his father Cyrus, are mentioned by name in the Bible. Cyrus more importantly due to Jewish prophecy. Quite interesting.
This is a Zack Snyder masterpiece
Fun fact: Leonidas was 60 at Thermopylae. Pretty bad@$$ for a senior, huh? But then again, he’s the old guy in a profession where you typically die young. Not to be trifled with.
Ephialtes was one of the first snitches known to men 😂
People don’t believe she used to look like that lol
Ya need to do the warriors movie review it’s a old movie it’s really really good one of the best movies ever done
The wolf battle with the young king foreshadowed the battle. Thin passway and sharp spears
These Are All BASED On Actual Eventful WARFARE!!
300 Spartans vs 1,000,000 Persians.....
And, Well, Spartans Lose, but The PERSIANS Had Lost So Many Of Their ARMY, They Quit & WALKED Away!!!!
If One Persian had JUST One Person to Check How Many SPARTANS Were LEFT, Maybe They Would of STAYED???
I don't understand (maybe the problem is my bad English), in the UK you don't study (also) the classical world at school? So even the Greek city states (ie Sparta and Athens for example), the Greco-Persian wars? I thought that (at least in Europe) everyone knew who the battle of Thermopylae it was something historical.
No offense, but I'm a bit older and it really shows that history is no longer taught in school. Some of your comments show that. This is based, very loosely, on a historical event.
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