FILM
REVIEW – THE 300 SPARTANS
Those who loved the 2006 film 300 will appreciate this 1962 take on the same story, which is a very under-rated sword and sandals drama, with some spectacular battle sequences.
Richard Egan is a young King Leonides, leading the 300 against the mighty Persian army of King Xerxes, (in reality nowhere near the battle) who is played by scenery chewing David Farrar, joyful to watch as his plans go awry and he ends up wasting more and more men on the small band of defiant Spartans. He orders men to be buried alive for betraying him. He invites two men to fight to the death at his banquet feats and then finds himself put off his food when one of the men slaughters the other for his entertainment.
The first half of the film is rather lacking in action as the Greeks call on Sparta for aid, and Leonides offers it, only to find that his people would mostly rather celebrate their religious festival. With his immediate bodyguard, he sets out to fight anyway. Ralph Richardson is among the Greek advisors here.
One soldier, Phylon, played by Barry Cox, is denied the right to fight, due to his father being a wrongly suspected traitor. He goes anyway, accompanied by his girlfriend, though the long march exhausts her and he leaves her at a farmhouse to recover. There, Phylon learns of a path that the Persians could use to cut off the Spartans and surround them (a real situation, also covered in the later film). A spy, a shepherd at the farm, who immediately reports the news to Xerxes for financial reward, also discovers the path’s existence.
The marching scenes and battles are tremendous. The Spartans allow a cavalry charge right into their ranks, and then surround the riders, cutting them off from their back up forces, before driving them into the sea.
Some of Leonides’s one liners as noted by historian Herodotus, are used in both films, including his famous reply to the Persian declaration that their arrows will block out the Sun – “Then we shall fight in the shade.’.
The final decimation of the Spartans is touching, with Phylon alone allowed to survive, but his father, who has now proved loyal to Sparta, stays with Leonides to die.
The Spartans were role models for the Klingons. They lived and died for the honour of warfare. Hopefully, the spectacle and success of the later film will not make too many people forget this modest classic earlier version.
Arthur Chappell
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