According to The Internet Movie Database, Meet the Spartans, directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer and released in 2008 by 20th Century Fox, was a comedy war film. I cannot believe 20th Century Fox labeled this a comedy war film because after the first ten minutes of this film instead of laughing I got angry. Last time I checked a comedy is not supposed to make film goers mad. Charging $7.50 or more to see Meet the Spartans is a travesty. This film is not worth paying to see because of the far-fetched scenes and the lack of original artistic dialogue.
Meet the Spartans is another story of the historic war against Persia. The movie starts out with a Spartan inspecting babies to see which one is worthy enough to be accepted as a Spartan soldier. Leonidas (Sean Maguire) is chosen because of his six-pack, biceps, and beard as a baby. As a teenager Leonidas (Zachary Dylan Smith) is sent out into the wild to survive the brutal winter. While training, Leonidas is informed by a messenger (Phil Morris) sent by the Persians that Xerxes (Ken Davitian) wants the Spartan’s to surrender. Leonidas then leads an army of thirteen Spartans to battle Persia. One injured soldier (Jareb Dauplaise) is sent back to Sparta to order more troops while Leonidas and his soldiers go to war with the Persians in a dance contest with the Spartan’s winning the war. However, Xexeres trips on his extension cord, crushing the surviving Spartans. The injured soldier, who left before the last battle, returns to Sparta to tell the people what happened.
Meet the Spartans includes a lot of far-fetched scenes. For example, within the first five minutes a Spartan is inspecting babies to see which baby is worthy of being a Spartan soldier and the first baby checke...
... middle of paper ...
...agers to flock like sheep to the movie because of the popularity of other teenagers going to see it would more than likely attract more.
Feeling less intelligent for having viewed this steaming pile would be an understatement. Meet the Spartans was a very painful film to watch because I was desperately searching for laughs. The movie is barely an hour-long, even with the twenty minutes of alternate out-takes left out of the movies. I would not recommend this film to anyone over the age of 21 or anyone with some maturity for that matter. Although there are a few chuckles, they are hard to hear over the ear bursting groans. The shameless popular culture references wears thin very quickly. If nothing else, acting students watching this movie can feel very talented by comparison to anything on-screen because of the robotic voices that the actors use.
The Greeks, who were made up of only 300 Spartans under the rule of Leonidas and about 7000, allied Greeks these included; Arcadia, Mantineans, Arcadian Orchomenus, Orchomenians, Corinth, Phlius, Mycenae, Boeotia, Thespians and Thebans, noted by Herodotus. Persians waited 3 days to march up to the Greeks to start the battle; they opened the battle by shooting arrows. The Greeks took it in turn to be in the front line of their phalanx and fought off wave
Hellenic culture in the Spartan community was that of a humble elite. True Spartan culture is well captured in Xenophon’s work, Spartan Society, as he wrote of how this elitist society viewed not only themselves, but the other countries around them. This work shines light into the three-part worldview of the ancient, Hellenic Spartans of: humanism, idealism, and rationalism. As Xenophon begins to write over the whole of the Spartan society it can be seen how the Spartans lived out the worldview of this Hellenistic society. This living out of the worldview recorded in Xenophon’s, Spartan Society, illustrates their worldview through the noting of Lycurgus’ accomplishments and the contrast of the “other.”
Things are now different in our American culture, but in the core of the test for your manhood it is inherently the same. For example, young men and women who join the US Military have to undergo their own “agoge” which would be boot camp/basic training, the most rigorous of these would be the United States Marine Corps Boot Camp, the Marines go through the most grueling time of their life during their agoge.Which in turn gives them the ultimate sense of pride in who they are because of the hardship Marines face during their agoge they tend to emulate the Spartans, not only for their warrior pride but in their moral values.Other things the Spartans valued, respect for elders and more senior military members have also transferred over to our culture in the form of modern military respect and
The battle of Thermopylae was the Greek’s first stand against the massive army of King Xerxes, and was the most influential battle of the entire war. Up to this point, the Persian army was seen as too massive and powerful to be stopped. The once warring city-states of Greece knew they couldn’t stand against the Persians alone, and knew in order to defend their homeland they would have to unite. A unity of command was agreed upon; King Leonidas of Sparta was chosen to lead the Greek forces. He was chosen to lead because of the unsurpassed warring abilities the Spartans were so well known for made him perfect for the objective of stopping the Persians.
After his army's victory in Thermopylae, King Xerxes fervently wanted more information on the rare soldiers that confronted his limitless army, those reckless Spartans that faced insurmountable odds and refused to surrender even though their only alternative was gruesome death.
“A New Historicist article… teases out the many contributing causes that brought about disparate social elements in that way” (Mays, 2352). The movie shows the build-up to the battle of 300 Spartan soldiers against the armies of Persia, albeit in artistic and stylized manner. It covers the tensions and political drama that led to the clashing of men, as well as showing the historical context in which it took place. “..New Historicism doubts the accessibility of the past, insisting that all we have is discourse” (Mays, 2351). 300 doesn’t concern itself with trying to trying to access the past, but puts on an artistic representation of what happened that can be discussed in a modern
Leonidas was born in Greece Peloponnesian Peninsula in 530 B.C. (Leonidas I, par.1) Leonidas was the second son of Spartan King’s Anaxandridas first wife. Leonidas’ mother was his father’s niece. When he was a child, he received very strenuous physical conditioning for many years of military training, trying to reach to the top of the martial perfection to hone his warrior’s skills. One in a few Spartan kings received this harsh training. Attending the agoge was where all Spartans had to go in order to be suitable for their citizenship. He was not the heir to his father’s throne when his father Anaxandridas passed away, the throne came upon Cleomenes his half-brother. He also had another half-brother who was Dorieus (Leonidas 1, par.4) Cleomenes and Dorieus where Anaxandridas children from his second wife. Leonidas relationship with his brother was unknown, but he married Gorgo which was Cleomenes daughter before he came to the throne in 490 B.C. (Leonidas 1, par.5)
Firstly, the rejection of luxury and avarice invariably results in a focus on military pursuits. Secondly, the apparent equality belies a vast slave network (common in antiquity, but the unique brutality of the Spartan kind can only bring to mind the Gulag). Lastly, intellectual sterility sets in. Sparta, intellectually, seems to be only good at cracking jibes (Athenian: “I can imitate a sparrow” Spartan: “So what, I have heard the real thing” upon approaching the walls of a city, a Spartan said, "What kind of women live here?"). Their poetry is stale and militaristic; their women are absolutely free; children are encouraged to steal; sex is made to resemble rape; parents mourn when their children return safe from war, and celebrate when they die: this is the weirdest state ever. The book “On Sparta” is a well written book as well is most of Plutarch’s
...er apparently created successful persuasive appeals for the crowd to be attracted and enjoy a movie that will be funny, colorful, and full of adventures that eventually will teach a life experience to the public.
The Battle of Thermopylae began in 480 BC and was a product of the Greeks attempt help defend the Ionians from the Persians. This irritated the Persian Emperor, Xerxes, because he thought of Greece as a small kingdom that had no place revolting against the Persian Empire. The Athenians sympathized with the Ionians because the Persians had also tried to invade Greece on multiple occasions. The Athenians provided feeble help to the Ionians and in retaliation the Persians struck at athens (23B). Xerxes was known to be irrational with his temper, and may have thought of his invasion as retaliation for the fact that his father, Darius the Great, was defeated at the Battle of Marathon against the Greeks. His temper was so great that at Hellas Point he had the water whipped because it would not obey him (E49). One of several Greek war leaders in the Battle of Thermopylae was Leonidas, the second born son of King Anaxandridas. It was not until his half brother was killed under controversial circumstances that Leonidas rose to power (G72). Apart from misconceptions spread by the popular film “300,” the three hundred Spartans did not go into battle alone, and were accompanied by over eight hundred allies. Nevertheless, the Persians still outnumbered the Greeks ten to one, which is why it is incredible that the Greeks were able to hold them for three days before eventually losing that specific battle. Despite losing the battle in terms of soldiers and defending greece, the battle of thermopylae was somewhat successful in that it was a demonstration of the courage of greek soldiers, impressive battle tactics,
The first and most controversial was the subjects themselves, they were picked from a gene-candidate pool of boys all at the age of six years old. This narrowed the candidates down to children who would be raised and taught war and military values from basically birth, using such controversial means of is creating the perfect soldier meant that the project would be carried out under the extreme levels of secrecy at the highest level of security. That’s not the only thing that makes to Spartans so powerful other than being raised to be killing machines and trained in the art of war in the armor. Though conventional body armor had to protect soldiers for centuries, this would be no good for our super human friends, the SPARTAN-II project's second radical change in involved their shoulders would be integrating the subject with a new powered exoskeleton device, designed to help keep its user safe and provide a powerful means of combating enemy forces. This would enhance everything about that person. There are speeding, strength, stamina, reaction time, sprinting sniff joining ability’s. It would enhance every signal ability of that person. The drawback of this new armor is its ability to kill the host. Effectively turning the Spartans into human guinea pigs built for testing to make to perfect soldier. Before to project
According to the chapter: Life in Two City States, this painful and tough training would prepare the boys for war (battle). Also, this would prepare them to protect the city-state. In this training, the boys would live in barracks and were taught to suffer great amount of physical pain. In addition, the teachers would sometimes starve the boys to make them face hardship because it might be like that during war. Finally, when they became older (men) they would be giving a difficult military test of fitness and leadership skills. If they passed they became Spartan
Although the Spartans and Athenians fought for almost 20 years, there was a time when they lived in harmony. Almost 15 years before any disturbances the Athenians and Spartans fought together in the Persian war. During the Persian war, the Spartans were thriving in their fight against the Persians, however over time the Persians began to grow stronger. After being to lose their fighting streak, the Athenians came in to help the Spartans and bring an end to Persian dominance once and for all (The Delian League, 1). After defeating the Persians in 449 B.C., the...
For example when the Persians left there camp and went down a path that lead them behind the Spartans. The Spartans had a thousand troops set up right there waiting for the Persians to come down that way. But the troops left from there because they thought that the Persians would go to there homes and attack their families so the troops went home to protect their families. I don’t like how that’s all they told about those thousand solders I was wanting to know more about that happened when they went back home. Another thing that I didn’t like was how they didn’t really talk too much about the navy attacks on the Persians navy. They say that it was due to lack of information I just wish there could have been more because I found it quite interesting that they did defeat the Persian navy. Although I don’t think they would have been successful if that storm had not came the night before and whipped out part of the Persians
Stepping onto the field remember that you are a modern day Spartan no one can defeat you. And if anyone dares to step in your way you will make them wish that they didn’t step out of bed this morning.