Rating of
1.5/4
It's only 114 minutes yet feels like 300 minutes.
Indyfreak - wrote on 12/03/18
People forget that there was once a much earlier dramatization of the heroic Spartan's last stand during the Battle of Thermopylae than Zack Snyder's memetic rendition 300 (2007). And it's not hard to figure out why. The 300 Spartans (1962) is a paint-by-numbers epic. It has the expected elements: battle scenes, grand speeches, chaste romances, dastardly villains, courageous heroes, etc.
But it is unexpectedly dull and uninteresting. Ralph Richardson is not bad as the wise Greek politician and David Farrar (in his last role) is amusing as the evil Persian king Xerxes. Unfortunately, the main actor Richard Egan does not have the chops to carry a big budget epic like this.
It does look expensive and may yet prove of interest to enthusiasts of classical history.
