I saw this with my 14 year-old boys last nite on an IMAX screen. We absolutely loved it. It was a film of selfless honor and duty, that free men choosing to die can overcome evil. But the best part was when one of my boys said, "Wow Dad, I bet the liberals don't like it." It came with no prompting from dear ol' Dad.
Honestly, all this calling Spartans good and free men is too much for me. You guys are pulling my leg, right?
Sparta had two kings.
Sparta had an unelected, oligarchical council of elders from aristocratic families.
The 5 ephors of Sparta were the closest they came to democracy.
The size of the citizenship that could vote was extremely small and limited to those passing agoge. The agoge was not cheap or easy and the voting citizenship was effectively reduced to mere hundreds around 1 BC/AD.
They kept a class of people who were essentially slaves called Helots.
Sparta went on to conqure and rule all of Greece for a short time. They were hardly defending themselves on the principle that empire-building was wrong.
Etc., etc. This Spartans as the good and noble free people is fun for pretend movies but it is not the real world.
You're raisin' that boy right!
:-)