# Any historical movies about Greece? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2016, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604 "2016-07-22T17:19:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604/21 "2016-07-24T17:38:17Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The biggest offense, I think, was presenting the Spartans, a fascistic society based on the labor of slaves, as fighting on behalf of freedom. Oh, snap! Reported for political sniping in Cafe Society. šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604/22 "2016-07-24T18:06:57Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Oh, snap! Reported for political sniping in Cafe Society. šŸ˜‰ Lacedaemonian lives matter. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604/23 "2016-07-24T18:10:13Z")
To most people, in most times, and most places, ā€œfreedomā€ has generally meant ā€œfreedom for people like me to live a lifestyle like mineā€. Consequences for Other people has rarely been a consideration. Even today reformers rarely admit to any downside to their reforms. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604/24 "2016-07-24T18:23:16Z")
> [@Chihuahua](#): > > Yeah, this is one of those issues that is not very clear cut. They very definitely thought of themselves as ā€œfree,ā€ and the Greeks in general wanted free and independent polis. The Spartans did create institutions to balance the power of their kings. I would say the kind of rhetoric Leonidas uses in the movie very definitely reflects what real Greeks thought about their situation. > > At the same time, of course, the Spartiates were few in number and tied down by their need to prevent slave revolts. I would say that they had a somewhat different definition of ā€œfreedomā€ than we doā€¦ But the early Americans saw no contradiction in talking about freedom while simultaneously keeping vast numbers of slaves. My understanding is that a Spartan would see no contradiction in talking about freedom for Spartiates but not helotsā€¦ The Spartan ruling class might very well have seen themselves as fighting on behalf of freedom of sorts. However, the reason they proclaim their commitment to freedom in the movie is to make a U.S./western audience sympathetic to them over the Persians, even though the kind of freedom that is idealized in the U.S. today is very different from the way that Spartans conceived it. Likewise, the defenders of the Alamo are usually depicted as defending freedom (and they well may have regarded themselves as doing so), even though one of the issues that caused the Texas War of Independence was the abolition of slavery by the Mexican government. Ironically, the only people who received freedom as a direct result of the Alamo were two slaves owned by Travis and Bowie, who survived the battle and were freed by the victors. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604/25 "2016-07-24T19:07:10Z")
Ooops - never mind. Didnā€™t read the OP closely enough. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-historical-movies-about-greece/760604.md?page=1)