Filmstalker: 300 helps historical books on Thermopylae

There are a few books about Thermopylae, just search on Amazon UK, and although we've heard of a couple from that list this is the first news of how the 300 (Filmstalker review) film is actually affecting them.

Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World is a book by historian Paul Cartledge that looks into the true story of the battle of the Persian army against the Spartans and Greeks. Publishers Weekly through Xomba tells us that originally only twelve thousand copies were printed when it was released last november. Now it has thirty five thousand copies in print and the book is the top seller of the publisher's list.

Apparently the author said in a press conference that he offered the makers of the film some of his advice on the historical facts, and they politely ignored him. Well I can understand that, not the ignoring, but not using historical fact since the film is based on the fictional work of Frank Miller's graphic novel.

I suspect that this will be a big bonus for many of the historical works on this battle, and it should go some way to appease the ill feeling from people who believe that the Persian's have been seriously misrepresented - see The anti-300 petition story.

Add a comment

Your Name:

Your Email:

Your URL:

Remember my details?

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)

Site Navigation

Promotion

Comments

A fine bit of evidence that people don't look to the movies for facts. Perhaps Dr. Hamed Vahdati Nasab should stop underestimating western audiences. We're all aware of how the truth is secondary to drama when writing a film script, and we know where to look for the real story if something piques our interest.

Posted by: ISO100 | March 11, 2007 5:24 PM

I recently saw the film and feel that it's probably one of the best action and hero films I've ever seen. 300 has made me aware of this time period and what those brave men have accomplished. It's made me have an interest in history and finding out the real story of what happened. Thing is, most of what I found was already presented in the film. I'm just curious on what this historically accurate stuff I am missing.

Posted by: Matthew | March 11, 2007 7:53 PM

Hey Richard, I hear 300 made over us$70 millions during it opening weekend..Not bad for a R rated movie. I get to see it on the 15th!! I can't wait...

Posted by: mike | March 12, 2007 1:57 AM

Yeah, I'm hearing that it's been doing really well money wise but that critics over that way are giving it a hard time.

Bravo them, the studios will be thinking that this is another film released in the UK first and got stronger reviews than over there. Perhaps they'll think about doing that more now!

Posted by: Richard Brunton | March 12, 2007 6:29 AM

300 (2006) $70.9M $70.9M

Zodiac (2007) $6.64M $23.6M

Riddle: What does this mean?

Posted by: Peter | March 13, 2007 7:46 PM

Here is Peter, the resident Filmstalker cynic!

[[[HUGS]]]

Posted by: Simone | March 13, 2007 9:46 PM