This was really good – a faithful rendition of the graphic novel which managed to capture some of Miller’s visual style (as did Sin City) and pay homage to Spartan virtues. So: four out of five.

However, having enjoyed it and been stimulated by it, I have to say that I’m glad I don’t live in Sparta. I think that our culture doesn’t honour the martial virtues (something I’m probably going to preach on for Remembrance Sunday), and clearly Sparta was the opposite of that, but I think that the martial virtues have a point beyond themselves, ie they are there to form a safe space within which other – higher – virtues can manifest. I find it intriguing that it was the mistreatment/ different treatment of the hunchback which led to the downfall. Not sure what could have been done otherwise, but I think a community within which all have a place is stronger than one which denies the existence of the weak. Sparta as an element in Greece, perhaps, rather than the epitome.