Essay --

Liam ConnellyFinal ProjectGolden Age of GreeceThermopylae and the 5,200 an analytic thinking of Creative License in FilmThere is perhaps no last stand than the famous three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae who held the vast Persian army for three days in a specify mountain pass, nearly two and a half millennia ago. When the movie 300 premiered, I was beginning to appreciate military hi yarn and I make the story of these hopelessly outnumbered Greek patriots absolutely riveting. I had known that more than than a little creative license was taken after comprehend some of the more fantastic scenes just now some of the important historical nuances were lost in the depiction. My objective today is not to pedantically nitpick every anachronism and erroneous fact, moreover simply to discover why the filmmakers augmented the history with them. My primary source for comparison is Herodotus Book vii of The Histories, in which he describes the background and facts known to him about t he battle itself. The declivity of the 5,200 from which this project takes its name is the fact that Herodotus counts not only 300 Spartans but at least a full 4,900 otherwise troops from other Greek regions who fought against overwhelming odds to hold the Persians at bay (Herodotus, 511). period the Spartans may stir earned the lions share of the corona for their self-sacrifice, the 4,900 or so other soldiers deserve a place in this epic tale of courage and discipline. The primary formation of Greek understructure is the hoplite phalanx. Each hoplites hoplon, or shield, protected the man to his left and wide spears gave the ranks behind the first allowed them to bring to bear a wall of tan spears in front of them. The phalanx is a strong formation but it is vulnerable to flanking maneuvers, ... ...eks doesnt need any tweaking or embelishments its already extraordinary on its own. Indeed, nearly every genre of film audiences bang today can be found in the stories of Greek dramatists, myth, tradition, and history, from day-dream to comedy and war. Theres a rich cultural rise waiting to be drawn upon by other filmmakers to tell the story of Greece in her finest hours. I hope more directors discover that. Until then, Ill mark the 300 as they were, not what Id like them to have been.Works CitedHerodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey De Selincourt. Ed. Betty Radice. Middlesex Penguin, 1954. Print.Miller, Frank. Interview by Steve Daly and Entertainment Weekly. 13 Mar. 2007.Snyder, Zack, dir. 300. Prod. Gianni Nunnari, Bernie Goldman, Mark Canton, and Jeffrey Silver. 2007. Warner Bros, 2007. DVD.