May 27, 2007 11:57 PM
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Historic movies have always remained as a public favorite, no wonder many are
blockbusters. Moving from the not so interesting History books to these all
time favorite blockbusters we wonder, what is it that makes them more
interesting? When one looks closer, one can find these Stories moving from
facts and to fiction. If it is in the right place between these two ends it is
History by itself. 300, the latest movie from WarnerBros is based on the Battle of
Thermopylae. An overview of this movie will let us know if its blend of reality
and fiction is beautiful or not.
Let us start with a little interesting history. The battle of Thermopylae
is fought between the Greek (Spartans) and the Persians. The Persians attacked
with a army size of around a million men. The Greeks resisted with a 100
thousand men and won the war. The Greek strategy was attacking in narrow areas
where the fight will be fair or giving a surprise attack. The weapons of
Persians being short range swords are inferior to the long range spears of
Spartans and Spartans knew a lot of war tactics that added to their victory.
When the Persians started loosing, they planned to attack the Spartan capital
directly avoiding their army. But Spartans learning this made their women and
children wear amour and stand around the city. This made Persians flees and
marked a glorious victory for Greece.
Coming to 300, it is a fictitious story, is actually a prologue to the actual Thermopylae war. Spartans believed that they cannot fight
a war in that part of the year. So their King and 300 of his body guards hold
the Army as it is something like a personal protection of the king. They make a
really good fight but make the Persians alarmed. But with a little Treachery of
a Spartan the 300 men are killed along with their king. This is the broad outline of the story and there is this screenplay that turns the story into a beautiful reality......er.....i mean a movie.
Moving away from the story and into the finer detail we can see that the movie is not
deviating from its story line even a bit. When you see the Persians depicted as
some demons don’t conclude that the movie is some fantasy. At the end you will
see that the movie is as such a narration of a commander in the Thermopylae war to his army. It is natural that any enemy
is being depicted as a demon.
On the whole this movie is a fiction that is beautifully blend with the reality of the
Thermopylae war and created, keeping in mind
the finer historic details of the war. This is a movie that is worth watching.
