Official Synopsis
The 300 Spartans, the iconic action classic about the epic 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae! Richard Egan stars as Spartan King Leonidas, who commands a small band of fearless Greek warriors in their defense of the civilized world’s last bastion of freedom. Impossibly out-numbered by the marauding forces of the totalitarian Persian Empire, these brave heroes will take no prisoners and never surrender—even unto death!
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Had I not watched Frank Miller and Zach Snyder’s 300, I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more. What’s amazing about The 300 Spartans is that it’s basically the same story that you’ll find in the most recent, slow-motion, big-muscled manly 300 film (also full of beards), but without all those elements. You get a pure story that is driven not by blue screens, special effects, powerful music and shouting individuals rather driven by a solid story and decent acting. That’s not to say that you won’t be sort of affected by the toned down nature of the film, but I think you’ll end up appreciating more.
The 300 Spartans does a great job with explaining who everyone is in the story. You understand the Persian power-monger Xerxes (David Farrar) a bit more. You have a healthy explanation of why he wants to do what he wants to do, and in what way he wants it done. You get that strong impression of what type of king/God he truly is in the eyes of the people he has conquered. Opposite of him, you get the ‘let’s do this’ King Leonidas (Richard Egan), who has all the elements that Snyder and Miller took and turned into their version of Leonidas played by Gerard Butler. Egan creates a strong, tough, confident Leonidas, just like he was in the 2006 movie, but with more garb and less beard (no beard — also, no big muscles).
Outside of characters, everything you would expect from the 300 film you know, which includes story and whatnot, is still retained and detailed a bit more with this 1962 classic. You get some good time with the different folks who want to align with Sparta to fight the Persians, you understand why they don’t immediately pull the trigger with the Spartans, you get all of these things that were sort of glossed over in the 2006 film. Those things are vital when your goal isn’t to just show the death of armies.
With that said, the action is sadly not the driving force behind this movie. There are times in The 300 Spartans where the film is over-dramatizing or over-explaining itself. Granted, it’s something you would expect from a 1962 film, but it still does occasionally mess up the flow of what’s happening. Most of what the movie does is just creating padding so it’s not what the 2006 300 became — “Hey, let’s talk, now let’s fight for 85% of the film”. Honestly, the 2006 film was a bit short in the tooth in terms of depth. The 300 Spartans is a bit long in the tooth in this area. Maybe Rise of an Empire will be somewhere in the middle. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not.
Anyway, if you want to see some solid storytelling, minus everything you know/love from the 2006 300 film, then pick this up. It’s a good film, but try to accept it for what it was back in 1962.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the movie, I’ve seen better. It’s cleaned up in some areas, especially once the sun starts shining towards the end of the movie during the climactic battle scene, as you can really see the red/gold/yellow stand out. For rest of the time, there is a fair amount of graininess occurring in the picture. It’s pretty noticeable, which makes it a poor transfer. I’ve seen older films with better transfers, such as the Mutiny on the Bounty (1933), which was gorgeous. Anyway, it’s definitely better than DVD quality, but not quite the greatness that some older Blu-rays contain.
Finally, as for features, you get some television spots and trailers, but nothing else. Not bad for a film that is this old, though.