Word: sparta
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...Herodotus himself wrote his Histories “so that the great deeds of men may not be forgotten,” urging Greek unity when, after defeating the Persians, Sparta and Athens were at odds. But just as he is called “father of history,” Herodotus has also been called “father of lies.” Every audience must understand that each historian has an ideological agenda, and this film is no exception...
...Rather than philosopher-kings, Leonidas’ actual Sparta was a society of fighter-kings, where “equals” were the fearless warrior class bred to serve the hawkish state. In fact, the state provided hordes of slave workers, helots, to work the lands of “equals.” Sparta’s economic and social arrangement was built around the assumption that colonized cities would be enslaved and, thanks to their labor, Spartan armies would be fed and clothed. How is that for an “age of freedom?...
...actor to use every cell in your brain to just imagine and really believe that everything’s happening, that you have millions of men behind you,” Santaro says.Santoro, whose character thinks he is a god and aspires to extend his domain over Sparta, brings perhaps the most unique acting background to the movie. Having done work in films that involve questions of sexuality, most notably playing a transvestite in 2003’s “Carandiru,” Santoro explains that he chose to portray Xerxes as a character whose gender was fundamentally...
...necks. If you could somehow distill the purified testosterone from both of those men and put it into digital film, you would have the basic ingredients of this near-perfect trailer. Every time I watch the Spartan king yell “Madness? This—is—SPARTA!” I feel as though my balls have been ripped off. And I like it. Black Snake Moan Celluloid Gold This is two minutes and twenty five seconds of pure, hard-core, home-cooked, old, weird Americana. An overweight Samuel L. Jackson, a severely beaten Christina Ricci...
...right of a citizen not to be detained without trial. And 17th century trials operated under another time-honored principle: the presumption of innocence. As many jurists have observed, go back as far as you care to - beyond English common law, through Roman law, to the laws of Sparta and Athens - and that rule sparkles as the jewel of any legal code with pretensions to fairness and humanity...