Like all art worthy of the name 300 demands that you meet it on its own terms. It is brutal, simplistic, fascistic and thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end. Talk about everything old is new again! It is a particular aspect of the work of Frank Miller that his morals are starkly conservative. In Sin City all the women were whores, even the good ones and all problems were solved with ultraviolence – even the small ones -- and this was as it should be 300 works on a similar black and white paradigm – the Spartans are a free people and the invading hordes of Persia are come to take away that freedom. The Spartans worship war and this pares their society down to its simplest forms so that all questions have a clear and definitive answer. The Spartans are austere and honorable, given to economy in their expression, whereas the Persians are rich and decadent, given to deceit, salesmanship and hedonism to achieve their ends. The implication in the film is that most people would choose the Persian way because it is easier and appeals to our basest instincts whereas the Spartan way, the honorable path, can only be chosen by the elite. That’s why there are so few Spartans and millions of everyone else. You know you’re a bad-ass artist when you can make this perspective seem hip and exciting.