One of the players from my PSCS game here tried to watch 300, but had to stop the movie the third time the character of Leonides started spouting off about freedom. See, he knows to much about the actual history of Sparta, and believe me, 'freedom' wasn't high on their list, since they'd enslaved a whole people, the Helots.
I never expected Hollywood's adaptation of a comic book to be historicly accurate beyond three or four names used, so I liked it, but I also see his point.
Of course;
- 300 couldn't show a Spartan's real graduation from training to full citizen-warrior: sneaking out at night and murdering a Helot.
- The fact Athenian fleet won half that battle kind of takes away from the whole "heroic last stand", since they didn't stick around.
-So does the fact that the 300 Spartans brought about 1000 slaves with them, who were forced to stay.
-As many Greek city-states sided with the Persians as fought them, but boy doesn't that look bad.
Also;
- No movie about Pocahontas will ever show her getting sick and dying in England.
- No Hollywood depiction of the American Revolutiuon will ever mention the Cherry Valley Massacre, the starvation campaign against the Iroquois, Shay's rebellion, the Rent Wars, or anything else that makes the revolutionaries, or wealthy landowners, look bad.
- Nazis are always evil (OK, they were), but by extension that means all Americans are always good guys. (ummm, even the ones making a proffit off the Nazis, like George W. Bush's grandfather? His company supplied the Luftwaffe with jet-fuel addatives during the war .))
#$%^@ Hollywood. Seriously, I like foreign film. At least then you get to, one in a while, see a villian with more motivation than "I like doing Evil things because I'm an Evil person."
Fact is, I like history, I like inconvienient truths and I like characters with a little substance. Yes, even the bad guys. In fact my favorite movies are ones in which you can't point to one person and say "He's the villain."
Then again, any movie where they're shooting Nazis is OK by me too. 
{EDIT} BTW I liked 300. The cinematography was awesome, and the end credits are the best part of the movie.
, just so you know...
, at least, the magical version, that is, so...
OK, my internet searching indicates that "300" showed gunpowder being used in the Battle of Thermopylae.
In, like, 480 BC. ~1200-1300 years before it was invented in China.
Ahahahahah hahahahah ahahaha heehehe ahaha.
Also, while the six-packs, naked chests, and loincloths are pretty to look at, I assume that the historical Spartans wore cuirasses.
:oops:
BoGr Guide to Missile Combat:
1) Equip a bow or crossbow.
2) Roll a natural 1 on d20.
3) ?????
4) Profit!