300

Yeah, I know. Two months late and $100 short. I only last week saw 300 the movie. I'd read the graphic novel years ago.

As an amateur classicist I found Miller's view of the Spartans to be sappy. They weren't simple family men defending all of Greece from slavery. Having the famously gay Spartans call the prostitute addicted Athenians "boy lovers" was bass awkward.

Here's another blogger commenting on Spartan culture:

"Fact: Sparta was about as romantic as North Korea. Give or take a little egalitarianism, Sparta WAS North Korea. Spartan laws did everything they could to break down the family. Sparta was more anti-nuclear family than any Hollywood liberal could ever be.

Wanna know what a Spartan wedding night was really like? It's pretty hilarious, in an insane way. As soon as a Spartan girl got her first period, they grabbed her, shaved her head, dressed her as a boy, threw her down on her new husband's bed, and then, well, he had his way with her. What way was that? Since hubby had been in an all-male dorm since age seven, I'm betting that that night of lovin' was more like a skinny white boy's introduction to San Quentin after lights-out than it was like a chick flick. So when this movie shows the Spartan hero saying to his wife, "Goodbye, my love," I just had to laugh." [My emphasis, gh]

Sparta was a totalitarian city state that enslaved its neighbors. Conquered neighbors i.e. Helots became communally owned slaves. Spartan men lived in dorms where pedophilia was part of military training. Women ran the Spartan household and slept more with their slaves than their husbands. Sounds like the ads the GOP attacks Nancy Pelosi with, no?

Some folks hate gays. I wouldn't say they're homophobic (fear of gay people), they're hateful. Frank Miller is homophobic. He also has long running issues about tall muscular dark skinned men. He likes stories about half naked white guys fighting big black guys.

That said, 300 is a spectacular action comic and movie.