300 (2006)

King Leonidas and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

Director:

Zack Snyder

Writers:

Zack Snyder (screenplay), Kurt Johnstad (screenplay),

Stars:

Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, David Wenham

11 wins & 30 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gerard Butler	...	King Leonidas
Lena Headey	...	Queen Gorgo
Dominic West	...	Theron
David Wenham	...	Dilios
Vincent Regan	...	Captain
Michael Fassbender	...	Stelios
Tom Wisdom	...	Astinos
Andrew Pleavin	...	Daxos
Andrew Tiernan	...	Ephialtes
Rodrigo Santoro	...	Xerxes
Giovani Cimmino	...	Pleistarchos (as Giovani Antonio Cimmino)
Stephen McHattie	...	Loyalist
Greg Kramer	...	Ephor #1
Alex Ivanovici	...	Ephor #2
Kelly Craig	...	Oracle Girl

Storyline

In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian army in the mountain pass of Thermopylae. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks held back the enemy in one of the most famous last stands of history. Persian King Xerxes lead a Army of well over 100,000 (Persian king Xerxes before war has about 170,000 army) men to Greece and was confronted by 300 Spartans, and several hundred Arcadians. Xerxes waited for 10 days for King Leonidas to surrender or withdraw left with no options he moved. The battle lasted for about 3 days and after which all 300 Spartans were killed. The Spartan defeat was not the one expected, as a local shepherd, named Ephialtes, defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae, which the Persians could use to outflank the Greeks.

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Plot Keywords:

persian immortals | ancient world | number in title | persian | army | 

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Taglines:

Spartans, tonight, we dine in hell!

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | War

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Certificate:

18A

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [Finland]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 March 2007 (Canada)

Also Known As:

300

Filming Locations:

Icestorm Studios, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$65,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£4,746,071 (UK) (23 March 2007)

Gross:

$210,592,590 (USA) (6 July 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, Virtual Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Sonics-DDP (IMAX version) DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The character of Dilios (David Wenham seems to be, in part, based on the actual, historical figure of Aristodemus - according to historian Herodotus, he was the sole Spartan survivor of the battle of Thermopylae, having been dismissed from the force by Leonidas on account of an eye infection (not a wounded eye). Rather than returning to lead any Spartan force, however, Aristodemus was considered a coward until he redeemed himself by fighting, partially blind, and dying in the battle of Plataea a year later (the battlefield on which Dilios is seen delivering his rousing speech that is the narrative of the movie), where the Persian invasion was finally crushed.

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Goofs

When Queen Gorgo and the Loyalist meet for the first time, they speak against a backdrop of torches. We see their shadows as they talk on the sand. However, when we see them speaking again, the floor beneath them is all stone. It is not possible that their shadows could have reached all the way from where they speaking, down the steps, and out into the sandy courtyard.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Dilios: When the boy was born, like all Spartans, he was inspected.

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Crazy Credits

The opening Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures and Virtual Studios logos are made of stone and appear in front of a brown, cloudy sky.

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Connections

Featured in Tosh.0: Phil Davison (2011)

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Soundtracks

To Victory
Composed by Tyler Bates

User Reviews

Awesome, breath-taking film.

I somehow missed the hype on this one, and the trailer really didn't excite me, but I got a chance to see an advance screening and the other reviewer here who said "It blew me away" hit the nail right on the head.

I generally hate going to the cinema - preferring to wait until the DVD or HD-DVD are available because I'm fed up of shoddy prints, poor sound systems, ignorant members of the public with their ringing phones, late arrivals, noisy popcorn etc. My home system is so much better. But not for this movie! It needs to be seen on the big screen (preferably an Imax - I'm hoping to catch it a second time on IMAX) with a good sound system. The images are consistently breath-taking, the sound is staggeringly good and note-perfect throughout, and Gerard Butler is barely recognisable as the guy from "Dear Frankie" (a great, under-rated movie) and "Phantom of the Opera".

Highly recommended. I've given it a 9, and I don't think I've given a movie that high a score for over a year (and I average about 6 movies a week). This makes "Gladiator" look like a cheap kid's cartoon.