After the battle, Persian King Xerxes secretly buried most of the Greek dead and all but 1,000 of his own slain, in order to conceal from his army just how few men had held up his progress for so long.

Dreaming of fascism, is definitely not a good review of the film, as the Bush derangement syndrome becomes incoherent.

The kind of review is this: I’m talking, of course, about 300, a gory retelling of the Spartans’ defense at Thermopylae, which has got the whole town buzzing, and not just about its first-weekend grosses. Is it an ode to Riefensthalian fascist militarism? A thinly veiled attack on the Bush administration‘s insane war-mongering? Or is it something else?

Help me out here, because I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around a few things: When, early in the film, a sneering Persian emissary insults King Leonidas’s hot wife, threatens the kingdom, and rages about “blasphemy,” the king kicks him down a bottomless well. And yet nobody in Sparta asks, “Why do they hate us?” and seeks to find common ground with the Persians on their doorstep. Why not?

The Spartans mock the god-king Xerxes (whose traveling throne resembles a particularly louche Brazilian gay-pride carnival float), mow down his armored “immortal” holy warriors clad in nothing but red cloaks, loincloths, and sandals, and generally give their last full measure to defend Greek civilization against superstition and tyranny. Where are the liberal Spartan voices raised in protest against this blatant homophobia, xenophobia, and racism? In full here from the National Review.

Here is a bit of History.

The Greeks' courageous stand at the mountain pass had hardly even slowed Xerxes' advance. Four days of waiting and three days of fighting -- Leonidas' heroism had bought only one more week for his compatriots. Athens, all but abandoned, was soon sacked.

And yet Thermopylae was not a total failure. The invading army had been bloodied -- badly, if Herodotus is to be believed -- and it must have had some effect on Persian morale. The battle's influence on the Greeks was indisputable. When the war was over -- for Greece did finally defeat the Persians -- they established holidays commemorating Thermopylae and erected memorials over the battlefield. "Four thousand men from Pelops' land/against three million once did stand" read one. Another celebrated Leonidas and his 300 men: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by/that here, obeying their commands, we lie."

Thermopylae thus acquired a significance that transcended its tangible military impact. In the end, the battle's value lay not in land gained or lost or in men killed or captured, but in inspiration. The Spartans and Thespians had taught Greece and the world an enduring lesson about courage in the face of impossible odds. In full....