The 300 Spartans - Ultra HD Blu-ray

Inspired by the 1962 Cinemascope epic The 300 Spartans that he saw as a lad, writer/artist Frank Miller would go on to create the five-issue graphic novel 300, a wildly stylized, heavily fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae.

- By Chris Chiarella

In his telling, full of indelible images and gruesome violence, the historical events of brave King Leonidas and his 15-score soldiers’ resistance against an innumerable horde are elevated to nigh-mythological status. Led by the self-proclaimed god-king Xerxes, Persia was mercilessly conquering much of the world, but the willful Spartans, still renowned as the greatest warriors ever, dared to stand their ground.

Filmmaker Zack Snyder proved to be more than capable of adapting this unique work, successfully immersing audiences for two hours in an ancient Greece that never was. He made the smart move to trust the source material, relying heavily on Miller’s gorgeous artwork, distinctively colored by his longtime partner Lynn Varley, to yield cinematic visuals unlike anything seen before. The screenplay by Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Michael B. Gordon humanizes the heroic Spartans, curtailing their brutality while also adding a “meanwhile, back home…” political subplot to provide grander context.