If you need martial Easter entertainment and/or stylish historical action in life, you can stop by Amazon Prime Video this week. The two 300 films have migrated to the streaming service’s catalogue. They adapt some of the most famous battles of antiquity in Zack Snyder/Frank Miller style. Also present: a legendary naval battle, the outcome of which changed history forever.
Stream 300 and its sequel on Amazon Prime
The two 300 films are based on comics by Frank Miller (The Dark Knight Returns) and tell Episodes from the Persian Wars that took place between 499 and 449 BC. between the Persian empire under Xerxes and the Greek city-states. Neither the original nor the two films by Zack Snyder and Noam Murro are particularly accurate when it comes to historical accuracy.
Check out the trailer for 300:
300 – Trailer (German) HD
The first film adaptation, 300 from 2006, is about the Battle of Thermophyllae. She processes the myth of the 300 Spartans, who, led by Leonidas (Gerard Butler), defended themselves against the superiority of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his army. The action opera, starring Game of Thrones star Lena Headey, The Crown heir to the throne Dominic West and later X-Men star Michael Fassbender, set standards with its extreme slow motion and comic panel-based images. For Zack Snyder, the action spectacle meant jumping into Hollywood’s premier league.
300: Rise of an Empire takes the 300 action to the high seas
It was followed in 2014 by the late sequel 300: Rise Of An Empire, based on Frank Miller’s comic Xerxes. Where continuation is relative. Rise of an Empire takes place before, during and after the events of its predecessor.
The trailer for Rise of an Empire:
300 Rise of an Empire – International Trailer (English) HD
This time the Athenian Thermistocles (Sullivan Stapleton) is in the foreground. Ten years ago he is said to have killed the Persian king Darius – according to the film, not the historiography. His son Xerxes (again: Rodrigo Santoro) swears revenge and invades Greece as a larger-than-life god-king. On his side: the queen and warrior Artemisia (Eva Green), who supports him with her fleet.
This time, too, it is told how the Greeks, who were outnumbered, defended themselves against the Persians. Unlike its predecessor, Noam Murro’s film rattles off several major battles that should look familiar from history class. Beginning with the Battle of Marathon, which serves as a prequel, through the Battle of Artemision, to one of the most important military conflicts of antiquity: the naval battle of Salamis in 480 BC. Chr. It was something like the beginning of the end of Xerxes and Persia’s attempts to conquer Greece and thus had a decisive influence on further world history.
300: Rise of an Empire, however, does not stop at profound historical classifications, but uses these historical milestones primarily for elaborate action sequences on land and at sea, in which the former Bond girl Eva Green steals the show.
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