The 300 Spartans

The 300 Spartans is a 1962 CinemaScope epic film depicting the Battle of Thermopylae. It was directed by Rudolph Maté and stars Richard Egan, Ralph Richardson, David Farrar, Diane Baker and Barry Coe. Produced with the cooperation of the Greek government, it was filmed in the village of Perachora in the Peloponnese. When the film was released in 1962, some critics perceived it as a commentary on the Cold War. Plot King Xerxes I of Persia leads a vast army of soldiers into Europe to defeat the small city-states of Greece, not only to fulfill the idea of “one world ruled by one master”, but also to avenge the defeat of his father Darius I at the Battle of Marathon ten years before. Accompanying him are Artemisia, the Queen of Halicarnassus, who beguiles Xerxes with her charm, and Demaratus, an exiled king of Sparta, whose warnings Xerxes does not heed. Xerxes releases a captured Spartan soldier, Agathon, and tells him to inform the Greeks of their impending doom.