"300" was most excellent. I was worried about it getting tinny, it having been a reproduction of a graphic novel, but the director got the balance just right. The imagery, the high relief of dark and light, serves the story.
I'm sure the film will hit the 19-24 y.o. demographic "sweet spot" square on.
Meanwhile, This is Thebes. While Spartan culture is fairly well known as the epitome of communal living and all-around toughness (including group flogging for greatest endurance honors), The Sacred Band of Thebes, who put male pairs together into the armed forces in a do-ask-do-tell policy, beat the Spartans under the incorruptible Epaminodas at the battle of Leuctra, with a unique concentration of force strategy against a more numerous Spartan army, and went on to consolidate their gains.
Alexander (the Great), under his father, King Phillip II, routed the Thebian band with his Macedonian calvalry. Later, during his own conquests, Alexander raised the city of Thebes, when it resisted, as might have been expected given their fiercely independent, hard won attitudes. Some think that the atrocities at Thebes remain one of the blotches on Alexander's escutcheon (excellent synopsis of Alexander's career, here).
