The 300 Spartans

The 300 Spartans is a 1962 film depicting The Batlle of Thermopylae. It stars Richard Egan as Leonidas, Ralph Richardson as Themistocles and David Farrar as Xerxes. When it was released many saw it as an allegory for the Cold War. Nowadays it's probably best known as part of the inspiration for Frank Miller's famous graphic novel 300 and its subsequent film adaptation.

---

Tropes used in The 300 Spartans include:

• Badass: King Leonidas
• Badass Army: The Spartans, obviously
• Did Not Do the Research: The film tries to use Thermopylae as a Cold War allegory, with the Spartans being America, the Athenians probably Britain or the other members of NATO, and the Persians being the Soviet Union. It continually makes claims that the Spartans fight for freedom. What the writers obviously either didn't know or just left out was the fact that the Spartans were in fact Proto-Communists. Not only that, but they owned slaves, ironically much like the founding fathers.
  • Some elements seem to be, ironically, more anachronistic and less historically correct than the aforementioned ~300~, which had freaking Rhinos and Elephants
• The Hero Dies: King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, just like it happened in the real battle.
• Large Ham: Xerxes.
• Monochrome Casting: The Persians are all white.
• Rain of Arrows: How the Persians finish off the Spartans, with Xerxes not wishing to waste any more of his men in further attempts at hand-to-hand fighting.
• Sword and Sandal
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: As previously stated, the film is seen as a Cold War allegory.