Despite its $9m budget this film lacks a sense of scale and grandeur whilst its effectiveness is weakened by too many plot threads that lead nowhere, under-written characters and undeveloped relationships. There has of course to be an obligatory love interest and that between the Spartan lad and lass is both feeble and superfluous.
There are some positives however. The heroic stand to hold the narrow pass at Thermopylae against the Persian hordes which accounts for the Third Act of the piece, is brilliantly conceived and edited whilst the hand-to-hand fighting, at which the Spartan army traditionally excelled, is truly visceral. We are treated to a larger than life megalomaniacal portrayal of Xerxes by David Farrar, whose last film this was to be and as a bonus we have the superlative Ralph Richardson as wily statesman Themistocles, surely one of the most fascinating characters in Hellenic history who certainly fulfilled his tutor's prophecy that he would be 'nothing small' but who was eventually to be exiled by an ungrateful Athens and spend his last years in Persia! Geoffrey Unsworth is behind the camera and there is a fabulous score by Manos Hadjikakis, probably best known for 'Never on Sunday'.
Unsurprisingly derided by the critics it proved to be buffo box office, raking in roughly eight times its cost. Some observers have viewed it as an allegory of the Cold War with the invading Medes representing the Red menace. That would be the ultimate irony of course as Sparta was the least democratic of states, run on the principle of military supremacy, rigid discipline and unquestioning obedience whilst maintaining a standing army so as to subdue its massive slave population. Although Sparta and Athens are here united in the face of a common enemy their intense rivalry would lead to an attritional war that lasted over twenty years and result in the subjugation of Athens.
Capably directed by Rudolph Maté this is basically a Sword and Sandals movie aspiring to be an epic.
There are some positives however. The heroic stand to hold the narrow pass at Thermopylae against the Persian hordes which accounts for the Third Act of the piece, is brilliantly conceived and edited whilst the hand-to-hand fighting, at which the Spartan army traditionally excelled, is truly visceral. We are treated to a larger than life megalomaniacal portrayal of Xerxes by David Farrar, whose last film this was to be and as a bonus we have the superlative Ralph Richardson as wily statesman Themistocles, surely one of the most fascinating characters in Hellenic history who certainly fulfilled his tutor's prophecy that he would be 'nothing small' but who was eventually to be exiled by an ungrateful Athens and spend his last years in Persia! Geoffrey Unsworth is behind the camera and there is a fabulous score by Manos Hadjikakis, probably best known for 'Never on Sunday'.
Unsurprisingly derided by the critics it proved to be buffo box office, raking in roughly eight times its cost. Some observers have viewed it as an allegory of the Cold War with the invading Medes representing the Red menace. That would be the ultimate irony of course as Sparta was the least democratic of states, run on the principle of military supremacy, rigid discipline and unquestioning obedience whilst maintaining a standing army so as to subdue its massive slave population. Although Sparta and Athens are here united in the face of a common enemy their intense rivalry would lead to an attritional war that lasted over twenty years and result in the subjugation of Athens.
Capably directed by Rudolph Maté this is basically a Sword and Sandals movie aspiring to be an epic.