The 300 Spartans
| The 300 Spartans | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Rudolph Maté |
| Produced by | Rudolph Maté George St. George |
| Screenplay by | George St. George |
| Story by | Gian Paolo Callegari Remigio Del Grosso Giovanni d'Eramo Ugo Liberatore |
| Starring |
Richard Egan Ralph Richardson Diane Baker Barry Coe David Farrar |
| Music by | Manos Hadjidakis |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Edited by | Jerry Webb |
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Production
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| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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114 min |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8,500,000 |
| Box office | $76,520,000 |
The 300 Spartans is a 1962 CinemaScope film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. Made with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was shot in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese. It starred Richard Egan as the Spartan king Leonidas, Ralph Richardson as of Athens and David Farrar as Persian king Xerxes, with Diane Baker as Ellas and Barry Coe as Phylon providing the requisite romantic element in the film. In the film, a force of Greek warriors, led by 300 Spartans, fights against a Persian army of almost limitless size. Despite the odds, the Spartans will not flee or surrender, even if it means their deaths.
When it was released in 1962, critics saw the movie as a commentary on the Cold War, referring to the independent Greek states as "the only stronghold of freedom remaining in the then known world", holding out against the Persian "slave empire".
Xerxes I of Persia leads a vast army of soldiers into Europe to defeat the small city-states of Greece, not only to fulfill the idea of "", but also to avenge the defeat of his father at the Battle of Marathon ten years before. Accompanying him are Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus, who beguiles Xerxes with her feminine charm, and Demaratus, an exiled king of Sparta, to whose warnings Xerxes pays little heed.
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Wikipedia