Tagline: Prepare for glory!
“300” is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s epic graphic novel. Using hyper-real renderings similar to Miller’s own graphically stylized illustrations, the film tells the true story of 300 elite Spartan warriors led by their fearless king Leonidas (Butler), who thwart the charge of Xerxes and his massive Persian army at the battle of Thermopylae. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian foe, leading to the origins of democracy.
Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, “300” is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army.
Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite against their Persian enemy, drawing a line in the sand for democracy. The film brings Miller’s (Sin City) acclaimed graphic novel to life by combining live action with virtual backgrounds that capture his distinct vision of this ancient historic tale.
300 is a 2006 American epic war film based on the 1998 comic series 300 by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley. Both are fictionalized retellings of the Battle of Thermopylae within the Persian Wars. The film was directed by Zack Snyder, while Miller served as executive producer and consultant. It was filmed mostly with a super-imposition chroma key technique, to help replicate the imagery of the original comic book.
The plot revolves around King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), who leads 300 Spartans into battle against the Persian “god-King” Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his invading army of more than 300,000 soldiers. As the battle rages, Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey) attempts to rally support in Sparta for her husband. The story is framed by a voice-over narrative by the Spartan soldier Dilios (David Wenham). Through this narrative technique, various fantastical creatures are introduced, placing 300 within the genre of historical fantasy. The events are revealed to be a story told by Dilios, the only one of the 300 Spartans to survive the battle.
300 was released in both conventional and IMAX theaters in the United States on March 9, 2007, and on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and HD DVD on July 31, 2007. The film received mixed reviews, receiving acclaim for its original visuals and style, but criticism for favoring visuals over characterization and its depiction of the ancient Persians in Iran, a characterization which some had deemed racist; however, the film was a box office success, grossing over $450 million, with the film’s opening being the 24th-largest in box office history at the time. A sequel, entitled Rise of an Empire, which is based on Miller’s unpublished graphic novel prequel Xerxes, was released on March 7, 2014.
Here We Fight
Mysterious. Fierce. Formidable. Spartans are among the most enigmatic cultures in history. Taught never to retreat, never to surrender, they are the perfect warriors. “The Spartans remain a mystery to everybody,” says Frank Miller, who wrote the graphic novel 300 which inspired the film.
“They are arguably unique in that they are completely a battle culture, absolutely dedicated to warfare. They have a code of honor on what it means to be Spartan, and out of that arises a heroic class like the world has never seen before.”
Co-writer/director Zack Snyder adds, “Spartans live for battle. They love it,” he says. “They fight as one, creating a phalanx in which each warrior’s shield protects the man beside him. It’s an awesome and intimidating sight, even for the masses of Persians. Though the Spartans face insurmountable odds in terms of numbers, a true Spartan warrior is always willing to die for freedom—they consider it a ‘beautiful death.’ They define themselves by sacrifice and freedom.”
Frank Miller first encountered the Spartans when he saw the film “The 300 Spartans” as a kid. He remembers, “I was quite shaken and inspired by it because it taught me that heroes aren’t the people who necessarily get a medal at the end of the story, that heroes are people who do what is right because it is right, even making the ultimate sacrifice to do it. All my life I wanted to tell this story because it’s the best story I’ve ever encountered. And, eventually, I gained the skills as a cartoonist, such that I thought I could finally handle it.”
To illustrate 300, Miller synthesized his substantial research—which took him to the cliffs of Thermopylae itself—with the trademark style he brought to such legendary graphic works as Sin City and The Dark Knight Returns. He pared down the Spartans’ uniform (roughly half his body weight in uniform and weapons) down to its most essential and symbolic features and peppered the story of the historic 480 B.C. battle of Thermopylae with elements of prior and subsequent clashes between Xerxes and the Greeks.
“Frank took an actual event and turned it into mythology, as opposed to taking a mythological event and turning it into reality,” says Snyder, who blended Miller’s bold vision with his own to make the feature film. “That’s the refreshing thing about it. He wanted to get at the essence, as opposed to the reality, of what a Spartan is. If you go to Thermopylae, the statue of Leonidas is a nude; he’s got a shield and spear and a helmet and that’s it. Frank went to Thermopylae and I’m sure he saw that and went, ‘Okay, this is how we have to do it.’”
Walking through the underbrush of Thermopylae had a profound effect on Miller. “It’s a place where great and glorious things happened,” he describes. “We are talking about the crucible, the epicenter of the battle for everything that we have, for everything that is Western civilization. There’s a reason why we are as free as we are, and a lot of it begins with the story of 300 young men holding a very narrow pass long enough to inspire the rest of Greece.”
300 became a best seller and won Miller numerous industry awards. “The story sold itself,” he comments. “I just did my best to do justice to a great moment in history. It was very important to streamline the appearance of characters to make them more dynamic and to lose the sense of this being an old story. It’s not an old story; it’s an eternal story.”
The book gained a legion of fans, counting among them the co-writer/director and producers of the feature film. “The beautiful thing about Frank’s book, and about any of Frank’s work, is the prose that goes along with his drawings,” notes Snyder. “It is not just an illustration; there is this poetry. The way that he structures the prose is as important as the drawings to me. I wanted to think of a way to preserve and honor his prose, as well as his imagery in the film.”
Five years ago, producer Gianni Nunnari and Snyder were discussing future projects on which to collaborate when Snyder noticed Nunnari’s copy of the graphic novel on his desk. Nunnari championed the project solo for several years. He was able to reach out to convince producer Mark Canton to get involved with him and develop the project in earnest with Snyder as director and co-writer.
“300 is an incredible work and Zack came to this project with such love for the material itself,” Canton enthuses. “He also brought such an extraordinary vision for what it could be as a film that we became tremendously excited about the possibilities.”
Nunnari adds, “The property itself just opened his imagination. He saw every ingredient clearly – from the visualization of the fighting to the characters themselves. We knew that what he wanted to make would be a seminal film.”
“Gianni’s persistence and Mark’s dedication to this project convinced me,” recalls Miller. “First Gianni, then Mark, were so determined and so believed in the story that they won me over. Zack really wanted to make this movie. He’s really charming and was so completely focused on this project that it was very difficult to say no…so I didn’t.”
Snyder found his process in conceiving the feature film similar to what Miller had experienced. He wanted to eschew the precepts of realistic filmmaking and instead find a way to “make it live on screen,” he explains. “I didn’t want to make a film that looks like a photograph but, rather, to put you inside the world Frank created in the graphic novel. This is not an historical drama. It’s not a linear story. Nor is it meant to be entirely historically accurate. Our goal was to create a true experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.”
A core team of filmmakers coalesced around “300” from the moment it crystallized. Producers Canton, Nunnari and Bernie Goldmann were all captivated by the story. “Zack was so specific about how he wanted this film to look and feel,” comments Goldmann, “and as the project began to take shape, there was great satisfaction in knowing that Zack would be bringing this story to life in a way that audiences have never seen before.”
Snyder, in the interim, made his directorial debut with “Dawn of the Dead” and then immediately returned to the project, working on the adaptation with his writing partner Kurt Johnstad, infusing the story with additions that sprang naturally from the clarity of Miller’s original vision (Michael B. Gordon had written a previous draft of the screenplay). Producer Jeffrey Silver joined the team to work closely with the physical production and visual effects aspects of the production.
“From the start, everyone on this film, from the studio to the producers, executive producers, the cast and production team, was incredibly supportive of what I wanted to do with ‘300,’” says Snyder. “They all grasped the vision so well and were such tremendous collaborators that it has been a truly extraordinary experience.”
Snyder’s decision to make the graphic novel had groundbreaking implications for the film’s look. “The look development was a big part of the process,” Snyder continues. “You go to the movies because you want an experience that’s different. That’s what we tried to do with ‘300.’ Whether it was landscapes or battles or action or architecture, every frame in the movie is like a visual effect.”
Snyder initially storyboarded the film himself, and ultimately, he and his producing partner and wife, executive producer Deborah Snyder, and associate producer Wesley Coller put together a development package to express the director’s vision for the film.
The presence of Frank Miller, who also served as an executive producer on the movie, might have proved intimidating to the director, but Goldmann counters, “Frank was so nice and so helpful. Whenever Zack sought his input or approval, he would say, ‘Keep going, it’s great. I love what you’re doing.’ He embraced the movie and all the people involved in making it.”
A series of tests was conducted on every aspect of the film, from lighting and costumes to the texture of the sets. One of the elements that the filmmakers wanted to explore was the photographic look of the film. Snyder had the idea of manipulating the color balance to create a process that was ultimately nicknamed “the crush.” “Zack developed a recipe where you’d crush the black content of the image and enhance the color saturation to change the contrast ratio of the film,” Jeffrey Silver explains. “Every image in this film went through a post-image processing. The crush is what gives this film its distinct look and feel.”
“I don’t want anyone to say, ‘Oh, that looks like Greece or that looks like Canada,’” explains Snyder. “I want them to be, from beginning to end, inside of this experience.”
“We were all in awe of the scope of what Zack wanted to do with this multi-layered effects process,” Canton adds.
“The evolution of what was filmed, from the set to the final product, brings this story into another realm,” says Nunnari.
Gerard Butler, who stars as King Leonidas, states, “It’s almost like somebody who was there and witnessed the battle went to sleep and dreamed the whole thing again because a lot of it is very representational…a lot of it exists in the imagination, so it allows us to take it so much further. It’s an incredible story, which has been an inspiration to so many people throughout history, but it’s not a documentary. It is a fantastic story full of passion and politics and brutality and so many more things, existing in this hyper-real, beautiful, emotional world.”
… Here By Spartan Law We Lie: The Story of “300”
Gerard Butler became aware of the project during a meeting with Warner Bros. executives. “They said the word ‘300’ and I knew that there was something fresh and different about it,” he recalls, adding, “When I met with Zack Snyder, I knew this is a guy who understands the things you can’t explain about this story and what it would require. I could write six volumes about him and his talent, his intelligence, his passion, and his goodness as a person.”
Jeffrey Silver notes that Butler had qualities that made him perfect for the role of the Spartan king: “His charisma as a person and leadership qualities set a tone of camaraderie among the actors. He brought this team of Spartan actors together.”
Butler relished the opportunity to dive into research on this formidable culture. “Spartans are shown nothing but pain their whole lives to teach them endurance, to teach them fearlessness and to teach them to have no mercy against their opponents,” he says. “Everything about it requires a steeliness and a strength of character, from the way the men are trained to the way the women must surrender their children in the name of warfare.”
Screenwriter Kurt Johnstad adds, “There is fierce competition. This code of honor and duty and loyalty is beaten into them, and then it just evolves into what they do every day. It’s how they breathe…how they act and interact.”
A feared and revered military king of the Greek city-state of Sparta, Leonidas rules with the guidance and support of his queen, Gorgo. “Gorgo is, by all accounts, brilliant,” says Miller.
“She and Leonidas watch each other’s backs and she is a great contributor to his strategic thinking. There is a great depth of emotion and intellectual partnership between them. Spartan women are Spartan warriors just like the men. They send the men out first, but you’ll see in the movie that the women can play pretty tough, too.”
Born in the rugged north of England, Lena Headey possessed an innate strength and grace that proved essential to the role of Gorgo. “Lena is so tough and down to earth and strong. And she’s beautiful, with such wisdom in her eyes,” says Butler. “Lena brought incredible charisma, intelligence and fire to Gorgo.”
Calling the film “a story of honor, fearlessness, passion, blood and faith,” Headey was ready to portray the Spartan Queen. Gorgo is not a prominent figure in Miller’s tale, so Headey had freedom in crafting the character, guided by her conversations with Snyder. “She’s a really strong character in the movie, just because of everything she goes through and is prepared to sacrifice,” Headey remarks. “She has already lost her husband, but to admit that would be too much, so she fights, with her heart, in the political arena. I see Gorgo as the heart and instinct of Sparta, and instinct usually guides us through to the right decision.”
All that Leonidas is, as a king and as a man, is brought to bear when a messenger rides into town with a warning that the army of a thousand conquered nations is, even then, marching towards Sparta. Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro, has brought the ancient world to its knees mostly through sheer audacity. “He’s rich, he’s arrogant, he’s a very unstable megalomaniac,” describes the Brazilian actor who portrays the self-proclaimed God-King. “He just wants to conquer the world. His ambition is unlimited. He wants glory; he wants victory; he wants eternal fame. Underneath all that wanting, though, he’s ultimately weak and very insecure.” Santoro first met with the director as a potential Spartan, but after he left, “I said ‘I think Rodrigo could be Xerxes,’” recalls Snyder.
A towering, enigmatic figure covered with exotic jewels, Xerxes is carried on a golden throne by crouching slaves. “He has a voice that is smooth and seductive and everything that a God-King should be,” says Bernie Goldmann. “You see that people would follow him…that he would seduce as well as conquer.”
Leonidas shows the Persians what he thinks of their threat by literally killing the messengers. But the politicians of Sparta do not want to fight. Theron, played by Dominic West, represents a new kind of Spartan, more interested in negotiating for power than fighting for freedom. “Theron is not an honest politician by any means, and his duality first manifests itself in his being a treacherous appeaser of the Persians,” says West. “He’s the politician, not the warrior. It’s always good to play a villain; they usually get the best lines,” the actor smiles.
The Spartan Council sends Leonidas to consult the Oracle—a young woman corralled by Ephors, ancient men who interpret her signs. “Leonidas, through a gigantic leap of imagination, understands exactly what Persia is up to and knows how to stop them,” says Frank Miller. “But he has all the odds against him. The council doesn’t want to have the battle for their own reasons, so they use the Carneia celebration of the moon as an excuse not to go to war.”
Leonidas would sooner die fighting than kneel before any conqueror, but if he is to take Xerxes on, it will have to be without the Spartan army behind him. “Leonidas is probably the most decisive character I have ever played, but when he has a moment of indecision, when he needs assurance that he’s right, he looks each time to his wife,” says Butler. “And she explains so eloquently why he has to go to war, which is, ‘Go and die. I’ll never see you again, but you’ll do this as a free man. Don’t answer this question as a king or as a Spartan citizen but as a free man.’ That really is the essence of the Spartan woman.”
Though she is not at the Hot Gates with Leonidas, Queen Gorgo must also face a battle on their home ground. Gorgo’s sacrifice for Sparta and its future king, her son, is equal to that of Leonidas. “Gorgo is as much a warrior as Leonidas. She must rally her city and her country to her King’s aid,” affirms Johnstad, “while also fending off the political maneuverings of Theron.”
Deborah Snyder adds, “She gives herself, but, to her, it is nothing compared to what’s at risk. It means nothing because the stakes are so high.”
Gorgo’s words are the perfect challenge to a Spartan warrior. “His nation has been asked to do the one thing they don’t do, which is to submit to another ruler,” Butler avows. “There’s a time to stand back and resist, and then there’s a time to take action. He understands like nobody else the relevance of this mission. It isn’t just a mission to save Sparta—this is his moment to show the world, not just Xerxes, for all the centuries yet to be, just what Spartans are made of.”
An all-volunteer personal guard, made up of 300 of the most skilled and courageous Spartan warriors, coalesces around Leonidas. He cannot declare war, but he can give Xerxes a shock. When Sparta decides to fight, there’s no holding back. “These are insurmountable odds he’s facing, but perfect for a Spartan king,” states Butler. “So he takes his elite force to Thermopylae to make a stand.”
Dilios, a Spartan warrior and storyteller in the graphic novel, is played by David Wenham, an Australian actor whose popularity increased dramatically in North America when audiences were introduced to him in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
The character of Dilios solved for Snyder the puzzle of how to bring Miller’s unique voice as a storyteller into the film. “We hit on the idea of having a narrator tell the story, which allows Frank’s fantastic world to come to life,” Snyder offers. “That was really important when it came to weaving Dilios’s story through the movie—how awesome it is to have this storyteller that can render Frank’s prose in the picture.”
“I love telling stories, so to have the opportunity to be a storyteller is a gift,” comments Wenham. “Dilios spends a lot of time entertaining the troops when there’s down time, telling stories about the first Olympics or other tales. He is also probably one of Leonidas’s best friends, and a great warrior who is highly respected among the men.”
The film unfolds with Dilios as a guide; his version of events thus becomes the narrative that future generations will pass along. “Dilios is a guy who knows how not to ruin a good story with the truth, necessarily,” says Snyder. “He’s going to make it bigger where it needs to be bigger, and do whatever it takes to motivate and excite the Spartans. His voice provides the poetic flux of the movie.”
The core trio leading the 300 Spartans is Leonidas, Dilios and an enigmatic warrior called the Captain, played by Vincent Regan. “The Captain is probably one of the most intense of the all the 300 Spartans, along with Leonidas,” says Regan. “Historically, he would have been one of the three captains of the bodyguards of the king.”
The Captain brings with him to battle his eldest son, Astinos, played by Tom Wisdom. “In a way, The Captain makes a great sacrifice in bringing his eldest son with him on the expedition because it’s seen as a suicide mission,” Regan asserts. “After all, there are only 300 Spartans against a million soldiers of the Persian Empire. But he is extremely faithful to his king and his city, and he’s prepared to sacrifice all that he has—his own life and also his son’s life—for the ideal of freedom for his city and king, who is also a close friend.”
The role of Astinos marks Wisdom’s feature film debut, a detail that might have played in his favor. “I suppose one reason I was cast is because I share similar characteristics with Astinos, who is a novice in battle,” he says.
Astinos and another soldier, Stelios, played by Michael Fassbender, represent the enthusiasm of the young Spartan warriors. “Stelios is very spontaneous and very passionate,” says Fassbender. “He sees this as his chance to prove himself on the battlefield and die the glorious death that he craves in order to fulfill his destiny as a Spartan warrior.”
“Stelios is very spontaneous, very passionate,” says Fassbender. “It’s his chance to prove himself on the battlefield and die the glorious death that he craves in order to fulfill his destiny as a Spartan warrior.”
In Xerxes’s army, the Spartans have finally come up against a worthy adversary. Xerxes has willed into being an exotic and extraordinary force comprised of physical oddities, brute strength, wild African animals, magic practitioners, and his elite guard, called the Immortals.
“The Immortals are his special force,” says Santoro. “They are very skilled, scary, fiercelooking masked warriors. They are his finest men.”
“Leonidas is the opposite of Xerxes, who sits up in his high tower, who bribes, who seduces, who kills his men to achieve victory,” Butler remarks. “There’s a great line when Xerxes says, ‘How can you ever stand against me when I would gladly kill any one of my men for victory?’ And Leonidas says, ‘And I would die for any one of mine.’ That, to me, is the essence of Leonidas.”
Leonidas’s plan is to use the geography of Greece itself against the Persians, leading his 300 to the Hot Gates of Thermopylae—a narrow corridor between towering cliffs of the Aegean, which the Persians will have to pass. This natural structure provides the 300 Spartans with a much-needed strategic advantage. But it is not invulnerable, as Leonidas learns from a terribly deformed onlooker, Ephialtes, who tells him of a hidden goat path behind the rocks. Played by Andrew Tiernan, Ephialtes is described by Deborah Snyder as “a sad character. He was outcast from Sparta at birth but all he wants is to be a Spartan.”
As soon as the horizon darkens with the awesome sight of Xerxes’s forces, the battle is on. “The story of the 300 Spartans is about more than just a battle,” says Miller. “Leonidas knows these 300 men can’t defeat the Persian army. ‘300’ is about fighting, knowing you can’t win. The act itself holds more power than the sum of the 300 warriors’ spears. These people, these men at the Hot Gates, are ready to die. In fact, Leonidas intends for them to die. He knows there’s no chance of survival. He clearly doesn’t care, because he knows something will be achieved. I regard the Spartans as the victors of Hot Gates. You can win by losing.”
300 (2007)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Rodrigo Santoro, Andrew Tiernan, Michael Fassbender, Stephen McHattie, Alex Ivanovici, Kelly Craig
Screenplay by: Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, Michael Gordon
Production Design by: James D. Bissell
Cinematography by: Larry Fong
Film Editing by: William Hoy
Costume Design by: Michael Wilkinson
Set Decoration by: Paul Hotte, Agnes Lopsang, Philippe Lord
Art Direction by: Isabelle Guay, Nicolas Lepage, Jean-Pierre Paquet
Music by: Tyler Bates
MPAA Rating: R for graphic battle sequences, some sexuality and nudity.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: March 9, 2007
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