How the West was won

I saw 300 over the weekend and thought it was excellent, regardless of what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says. And it's a true story to boot, albeit one that is told from a decidedly pro-Greek (i.e. our side's) point of view. And why shouldn't it be? The tremendous courage of the Spartans at Thermopylae provided a dose of momentum that rallied Greek armies to victory at Plataea and Mycale the following year, dealing the Persians a pair of final, stunning defeats and saving Western civilization in the process. The story of the 300 Spartans is one of the greatest in history, and thanks in part to films like 300, it's one that successive generations won't soon forget.

(As to the film's historical accuracy, I'll defer to Victor Davis Hanson, who also wrote this introduction to the book written to accompany the movie.)