King Leonidas Teaches Budgeting! Money in The Movies Reviews 300

Photoshopped abs LEONIDAS It has followed us since Sparta Slow motion spear fighting and excessive body piercings XERXES human chill crawl up his spine I'm Peter Bielagus and this Is SPARTA Uh no it's not I'm Peter Bielagus and this is SPARTA okay fine i'm peter Bielagus and this is Sparta Hello and welcome to Money In The Movies where we review films based on their financial accuracy this week's film is 300 directed by Zack Snyder and starring Gerard Butler as the tough as nails King Leonidas. Butler and his gang of 299 other tough guys reenact the historic battle of Thermopylae where a small force of Greeks held off the Persian army of a million men Before Leonidas can lead his lean lemmings to certain death he must first seek the permission of the Ephors that creepy incestuous Clearasil starved group of elders who somehow score all the beautiful women When the Spartan King visits the council the Ephors ask him to offer tribute. Leonidas then spills a bag gold coins on the temple floor. The only trouble is the Spartans didn't use gold coins in fact according to the Greek historian Plutarch the Spartans did not use any money at all several hundred years before the reign of King Leonidas the spartan king Lycurgus saw the evils of money and luxury and forced all trade in Sparta to be done with iron bars rather than gold coins In short the Spartans made trade with other city-states as difficult as possible as they wanted their people to focus not on material items but on the spartan profession LEONIDAS Spartans! What is your profession? [CHANTING} as you can see the spartan profession is that grunting and raising a spear in the air anyway there is something we can learn from Spartan culture while using heavy iron bars as currency is a bit excessive the lesson is there. If you don't want to spend your money then make it difficult to spend your money. If you are carrying a credit card or many credit cards and many debit cards around all the time as well as a lot of cash well it's very easy to cave in to temptation. So leave all that home next Friday night and carry only the cash that you want to spend. Just like the Spartans you'll be fine. Actually I mean all 300 Spartans did get massacred by the Persians but YOU'LL be fine. In terms of financial accuracy though I have to give the film one out out of three dollar signs. Because in a land where gold coins were forbidden and material wealth was shunned it is unlikely that the Ephors would have taken a bribe from King Leonidas. And it's even more unlikely that the King had that much gold to give them anyway. I'm Peter Bielagus and thanks for watching Money In The Movies.