MovieChat Forums > 300 (2007) Discussion > Sparta must have been a Dantescan hell o...

Sparta must have been a Dantescan hell on earth


If this is even 10% accurate as to how Spartans were brought up.

Sure the rest of the world back then wasn't much better, but Sparta sure is depicted like proto Nazi Germany on crack as to being obsessed with breeding perfect killing machines:
- Eugenics: I have never read of any other people throwing their own sons and daughters down cliffs like garbage if they didn't have a 6 pack upon birth (even the Nazis didn't go that far).
- The women: while they sure must have had great bodies (exercised regularly) they must have spent their entire fertile life breeding one kid after another to allow at least population replacement, never mind growth, if all non perfect kids were discarded (take your pick what percentage was killed).
- The men: being raised like animals since childhood, bet every single one of their warriors (those whom made it that far) were 100% sociopaths if not outright serial killers (murdering helots for fun).
- The slaves: since the men were busy all day playing soldier, and the women were busy all day popping kids (at least the kids looked after themselves after age 7), lucky them they had slaves left and right to do the cooking, cleaning, farming, you name it. Take a guess if these helots could ever dream of being emancipated or being allowed top buy their freedom like they were in Rome.

I guess western civilization can thank its lucky stars the Athenians came up on top at the end and not them (their agoge system not being sustainable outside their city state)...

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The movie is self-contained mythology, not history.

Yes it generally seems to portray events that actually did take place and many of the people are called by names of actual historical people. But there is where it all ends.

I think a person would have to be very stupid to think this movie at all represents any version of reality at all.

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Well they sure had Iran fooled since they protested quite a bit about them being depicted, well, less than accurately and nobly...

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The movie has rhinos charging at Spartans and Tree-men, and men with swords instead of arms and 10 feet tall men.

Yeah Iran was fooled.

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You forgot the mutants inside Xerxes's tent (something that looked like a humanoid with a deer's head).

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