A very expensive video game made for people who have never been to war, without any basis in true historical facts, and which almost insults the history of Greece.
A few years ago, I wrote a short text for the movie “300”, which I found repugnant and an insult to anyone who knows the slightest bit about Greek history. Unfortunately, Frank Miller's graphic novels show that, for him, History is not important. I didn't expect these films to be documentaries, but the amount of exaggeration and absurd anachronisms is unbearable. When I studied Greek History in college, I had to read a very complete book on the subject (among others, but this one particularly impressed me). I would love to be able to use it to slap Miller and the producers of this movie.
The great – and only – redeeming quality of this film is its visual exuberance, achieved at the expense of colossal amounts of CGI to great effect, which amplify the fight scenes to the extreme and give the film the appearance of an extremely expensive video game. The use of slow-motion and some sound effects serve to amplify the battle and give it a glorious, choreographed, fake look. I usually say that only those who have never had to participate in a war will like war... after seeing such homoerotic attraction for war, and for naked athletic bodies spurting blood, I am pretty sure that, in this film, very few went through a real war.
Sullivan Stapleton and Eva Green are the only two actors who deserve some attention here, and this is due to the protagonism of their characters, fictional and carnivalesque versions of two historical characters: Themistocles and Artemisia. Lucky for both actors, there wasn't much concern to be historically accurate: Themistocles and Artemisia were older than these two actors. He was, above all, an Athenian politician with a lot of public experience at the time of the events of this film, while she was a queen, the widow of the Satrap of Caria. And contrary to what the movie says, she didn't command the Persian fleet, although she was one of the main commanders.
As I said, the film is full of historical inaccuracies: the Persian Wars began with the annexation of Lydia by Cyrus the Great, Persia's first Achaemenid monarch. Included in the conquest were the cities of Ionia, culturally Greek and subject to Lydia. They tried to separate with the support of Athens, but Emperor Darius won them, going against the Athenians. It is then that Themistocles appears, defending the creation of an Athenian fleet capable of facing the Persian, and that Marathon is won, the work of his political rival Miltiades. Darius dies (of natural causes, forget the movie) and Xerxes succeeds him. This was followed, as is known, by the Battle of Thermopylae, where more than 1,400 Greeks died (and not just the famous 300). At the same time, the Battle of Artemisium was fought on the seas, in which Themistocles stopped the Persian fleet. Xerxes makes his way to Athens, which is hastily evacuated by sea before the Persians sack and burn the city. It is Themistocles who then decides to pretend to be a traitor and suggest to Xerxes a decisive attack on the Greek fleet in the Bay of Salamis. There, under cover of a tight bay, the quality of the Greek ships proved decisive.
What gave the Greeks victory was not glory, empty heroism, muscles or six-pack abs. What gave them victory was intelligence, choosing able leaders when it was vital, and choosing military tactics that well balanced the invader's numbers. There were many Persians, but their troops were no match for the Greek phalanx covered in steel (they didn't fight in underpants, as the film shows!): unlike the Greeks, the Persians didn't wear metal armour, they had shields made of plaited wicker and carried, essentially, archers, slingers, short-spear spearmen and a lot of cavalry. Likewise, the Persians had a lot of ships, but their quality was very poor when compared to the Athenian and Corinthian galleys. The Greek victory was essentially a triumph of technique and intelligence over brute force and numbers. And this movie doesn't tell us about that.
