Thermopylae Film!

[Dithrambus]

I have spent hours slogging through this thread, and its many twists and turns. I too would love to see someting with the whole story, the nuances, lots of historically accurate details, but I fear the mass audience would have to be woken up at the end of it. Speaking of the review done by that young lady I won't bother to look up again. Mention was made of the love scene and that she found it acceptable... well yeah, a lot of women like love stories, thats why they made Sleepless in Seattle. Audiences who have little or no knowledge of or interest in history, if they go will go to be entertained. They won't care about why Sparta had two kings, or all the other details... They will gravitate to what they know, what they can understand without knowing anything about the details of the history... Sadly, we are surrounded by barbarians in the historical sense. In a way we are of a different culture. Yay us... :-) This has led me to consider an alternative to Thermopylae as the main focus, which as we know has been done at least twice already: What about using it and the Persian wars as the beginning of the events that led to the Peloponnesian War. The crumbling of the cooperation that defeated the Persians, the ascent of Athens, and eventually the war and final reckoning. I don't know if this has been pursued. It would probably be too big for one film, but it could be a trilogy or mini series. Lastly, as its very late and I need to go to bed: Jennifer Anniston? Only if you could work in a cameo for Rachel Green... Others may differ, but it seems to me that she has a very limited acting range. Every character I've ever seen her play has been Rachel with different names. Angelina Jolie, sure mostly because she's hot. There have to be actors and actresses out there who could do it justice. It might be a start for a talented unknown to make their name. One device that some people use Re: main characters, is to have some of them major historical figures, like Leonidas, and parallel stories of common foot soldiers and their perspectives and motivations. Somewhere in there, their paths cross. A sort of James Michener approach could be taken with the sons of earlier characters take part in the next chapter, and s on. Anyone who saw the miniseries based on his novel Centennial knows what I mean. Generations of people play their parts in the unfoldng stories. Anyway, its late and off to bed. Its another possibility anyway.

All good points Tom, and thank you for your input! :-)