Tagline for the movie posters:
This has to be the best movie involving half-naked [gay] men I’ve seen all year.
Okay, I’m a history buff, and I’ve reviewed Other works about Thermopylae before. In many ways the Pressfield book (and, I’m assuming, Frank Miller’s graphic novels) were better interpretations of Thermopylae, but the movie was interesting.
Some advisories:
- Yes, it’s that gory. It’s about a battle waged hand-to-hand over three days, and it gives you precious little time to forget that. It doesn’t exactly glorify battle, but it does remind us that modern warfare is much more antiseptic than its ancient forebear.
- For the Homophobes: No there is no frontal male nudity. Thankfully. Yes, there are naked male behinds (lit for a night scnene). There are no openly gay references, but it is hinted at in a couple of exchanges on the battlefield.
- Equal opportunity: Yes, lots of breasts on display.
- Irony alert: Yes, the Spartans fought bravely to save their way of life, a way of life that included slavery for the tens-of-thousands of Messenian Helots that they terrorized on the Pelloponesian peninsula. How else did you think they could spend ALL their time training for war? Their economy was entirely based upon slave labor.