March 9, 2007: The Film “300” Premieres

I'm not sure anything could properly prepare a viewer for this film.

March 9, 2007: The film 300 premieres, based on the 1998 graphic novel by Frank Miller, and directed by Zack Snyder -- who should have been thrown over a cliff, because his style is sickly.

In 490 BC, the Persian Empire invaded Greece under King Darius I, but an Athens-led force beat them at the Battle of Marathon. Ten years later, Darius' son, King Xerxes I, brought 120,000 soldiers to try again. Athenian general Themistocles suggested that the pass of Thermopylae by land, and the Straits of Artemisium by sea, both be blocked.

Contrary to legend, it wasn't just 300 soldiers from Sparta, whose strict military culture gave us the adjective "spartan," facing off against thousands upon thousands of Spartans in a suicide mission. King Leonidas I of Sparta had his 300, but commanded an All-Greek army of about 7,000. It was, indeed, a last stand for them, 7 days of heroism ending with their annihilation on September 10, 480 BC. But the actions at Thermopylae and Artimisium made possible the victory at the Battle of Salamis on September 29, and the Persians had to go back home all over again.

There had previously been the film The 300 Spartans, in 1962, filmed on location in Greece. Snyder's 300 was focused not on the available historical facts -- which, given a gap of over 2,500 years, aren't as many as history buffs would like -- but on making the film look like the graphic novel, with chroma-key superimposition.

In this version, Gerard Butler played Leonidas, who epitomized Spartan courage by fighting and dying with his troops. Lena Headey played his wife, Gorgo, a far nobler queen than she later did on Game of Thrones. The film is typical Snyder: Full of death, and very long. It runs just under 2 hours, so, to paraphrase Gorgo, while you might enjoy this, it will not be over quickly.

The film helped deepen the image of the Spartans as ultimate warriors, not caring if they die as long as the war is won. Edith Hamilton, who wrote extensively on ancient socities, and the mythology and other literature they produced, said that this made them unusual among Greeks: "The Romans thought it was a great thing to die for your country. The Greeks didn't think it was a good thing to die for anything."

In 2008, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who specialized in parodies, having already done Spy Hard, Scary Movie, Date Movie and Epic Movie, released Meet the Spartans. It was trash. But then, so was the movie it was lampooning. In 2014, 300: Rise of an Empire premiered, serving as both prequel, telling of the Battle of Marathon, and sequel, telling of the Battle of Salamis. Headey returned as Gorgo, and Rodrigo Santoro returned as Xerxes.

The battlefield of Marathon is slightly more than the 26.2 miles, to the northeast, from downtown Athens than the modern marathon race is. The battlefield of Thermopylae is about 120 miles to the northwest of Athens. The monument for Salamis is just 15 miles to the west.

*

March 9, 2007 was a Friday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 8 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Houston Rockets, 112-91 at the Toyota Center in Houston. Tracy McGrady scored 34 points.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 118-103 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-92 at the Wachovia Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 106-105 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Miami Heat beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 105-91 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Shaquille O'Neal scored 32 points for the Heat.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets, 95-82 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, 104-103 at the US Airways Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 99-89 at the Oracle Arena (as the Oakland Coliseum Arena was then known).

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* The Minnesota Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-1 at the HSBC Arena (now the KeyBank Center) in Buffalo.

* The Dallas Stars beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Los Angeles Kings, 3-2 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. Mikael Samuelsson scored the winning goal with 1:34 left in overtime.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

* And the Vancouver Canucks beat the San Jose Sharks, 2-1 at the HP Pavilion (now the SAP Center) in San Jose. Henrik Sedin scored the winning goal with 1:30 left in overtime.