Stars: Richard Egan, Sir Ralph
Richardson, Diane Baker, and David Farrar
Writers: Rudy Mate and George St.
George
Director: Rudy Mate
Feature length: 114 minutes
Extras: Trailers and TV Spots
Languages: English Stereo Sound
and English and Spanish Language Monaural Sound
Subtitles: English Captions and
Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging: Amaray Keep Case
Chapter Stops: 32
Sound: Stereo Sound and Monaural
Sound
Year of Theatrical Release: 1961/DVD
Release: 2004
Theatrical Distributor: Twentieth
Century Fox
Home Video Distributor: Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera
The filmmakers endeavored to give
a sense of realism and respect with regard to the honor the three hundred
Spartans soldiers earned on the battlefield against the invading forces of
Persia’s King Xerxes in the Battle of Thermopylae. Against overwhelming odds
and using brilliant fighting techniques, the three hundred Spartans under the
command of Greek soldier Leonidas (Richard Egan) successfully kept the Persians
at bay long enough to set an example that would unite the rest of the City
States of Greece and eventually lead to the defeat of King Xerxes.
“The 300 Spartans” is a
beautifully shot film with lavish costuming and well-choreographed battle
scenes. Looking back at the film produced approximately 40 years ago, I found it
to be quite interesting and entertaining, but what struck me the most about it
is that essentially “The 300 Spartans” is a propaganda film hidden behind a
historical backdrop and costumes. I mean no disrespect to the filmmakers and to
those who sacrificed their lives for a greater good, but ideologically speaking,
this is a great film to impress young people and maybe get them to enlist in the
armed forces and depending where one stands on that issue, a film like this can
be a scary thing. I suppose I’m a bit jaded, but I can’t help but imagine
some naïve young men going to see this film back in 1961 and then going out
into the world and wanting to enlist in the Army or Marines with visions of
glory on their mind. Again I might be wrong because my generation has grown up
with a lot of antiwar films in the last thirty years at least. I guess the big
difference between modern warfare and the war depicted in “The 300 Spartans”
is that the Spartans were fighting to defend their land and way of life while in
the last few wars, it seems as though the soldiers are fighting with an ideology
in mind, but they are not always given a clear-cut tangible reason beyond that.
I could go on and on about this, but I feel that I have already typed enough and
do not want to turn this DVD review into something else.
Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment’s widescreen DVD release of “The 300 Spartans” presents the
film in a gorgeous anamorphic (2.35:1) aspect ratio with lush colors and nice
detail. The English Stereo Soundtrack is only slightly fuller than the English
Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack, but both options are quite clear and free of
analogue background noise. A Spanish Language Two-Channel Monaural Soundtrack
and English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired as well as
Spanish Language Subtitles are also encoded onto the dual layered DVD as well.
Three black and white TV spots,
the theatrical trailer (2:37), and Spanish Language trailer (2:37) as well as
trailers for “Cleopatra” (4:38), “Demetrius And The Gladiators” (3:12),
and “The Robe” (2:03) are included too. The menus are all standard
interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
“The 300 Spartans” is
available on DVD now at retailers on and offline from Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment.
© Copyright 2004 By Mark A.
Rivera
All Rights Reserved.