300 (2007) on Netflix
King Leonidas refuses a Persian demand for earth and water and throws the herald into a pit. Forbidden to march during the Carneia, he leads 300 Spartans to Thermopylae's narrow pass.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb7.6/10921,859 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes61%
Trailer
Plot summary
Dilios, a Spartan hoplite, tells of Leonidas, who grows up in Sparta's child-rearing system and becomes king. When a Persian herald demands earth and water in submission to Xerxes, Leonidas and his soldiers refuse and throw the herald and his envoy into a bottomless pit. Leonidas asks the Ephors to block the Persian advance at Thermopylae, but they warn that Sparta cannot make war during the Carneia, and the Oracle agrees. Taking 300 soldiers, many of whom leave sons behind, Leonidas defies the politician Theron and the Council and marches for the Hot Gates. Arcadians under Daxos and other Greeks join them. At the narrow pass, Ephialtes, a deformed Spartan seeking to restore his family name, asks to fight; Leonidas declines because Ephialtes cannot raise a shield in the phalanx.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 300 (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Iran banned 300 as American propaganda. The Iranian Academy of the Arts complained to UNESCO that the film attacked Iran's historical identity, and Iranian embassies protested its screening in France, Thailand, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
- Warner Bros. acknowledged that a number of the music cues for the score of 300 were, without the studio's knowledge or participation, derived from music composed by Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal for Titus, and said the matter was amicably resolved.
- 300 was an intensely physical shoot for its cast, and star Gerard Butler pulled an arm tendon and developed foot drop.
- Because few records survive of the martial arts the Spartans actually used, stunt coordinator and fight choreographer Damon Caro built the film's fights from a synthesis of weapon arts, with Filipino martial arts as the base.
- Visual effects supervisor Chris Watts and production designer Jim Bissell created a process dubbed "The Crush", which allowed the Meteor artists to manipulate the colors by increasing the contrast of light and dark.
SPOILER
The scene of Leonidas kicking the Persian herald into a pit spawned the "This is Sparta!" internet meme during the late 2000s.- The lambda sign on the Spartans' shields in 300 became the inspiration for the official symbol of the far-right Identitarian movement.
