The 300 Spartans
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| The 300 Spartans | |
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| Directed by | Rudolph Maté |
| Produced by | Rudolph Maté George St. George |
| Written by | George St. George |
| Starring | Richard Egan Ralph Richardson Diane Baker Barry Coe David Farrar |
| Music by | Manos Hadjidakis |
| Release date(s) |  August 1962 |
| Running time | 109 mins. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The 300 Spartans is a 1962 film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. Made with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was shot in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese. It starred Richard Egan as the Spartan king Leonidas, Ralph Richardson as Themistocles of Athens and David Farrar as Persian king Xerxes, with Diane Baker as Ellas and Barry Coe as Phylon providing the requisite romantic element in the film.
The picture was noted for its Cold War overtones, repeatedly referring to the independent Greek states as "the only stronghold of freedom remaining in the then known world", holding out against the Persians 'slave empire', an ironic historic error since slavery was also very common among the Greeks. Also, while most of the Greek states had a limited form of democracy (only for a selection of free males), Sparta was a miltary monarchy, not a democracy.
Frank Miller saw this movie as a boy and said it "changed the course of my creative life."[1] His graphic novel 300 is about the Battle of Thermopylae, as is its 2007 film adaptation.
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