>they beat the shit out of their children and throw them into
>the wild to fend for themselves, but it's described even by
>Spartan mothers as cruel "but necessary."if they don't throw
>deformed babies off cliffs, they grow up to be twisted mutated
>treacherous freaks who betray Sparta.

You mean, that is YOUR interpretation of events.

I saw it as pointing out a fatal flaw in Spartan logic. Painting them as too arrogant and self righteous to realize their mistakes and portrays them as having absolutely zero compassion. The king is given a chance to see the flaws of his culture, that a "defective" baby is still a human being with full mental capacity and the same prideful fire inside. He chooses to disregard this and asks him to do something to stay out of their way. The kings lack of compassion and understanding ultimately caused their demise.

And if I recall, the movie portrayed the twisted mutated freak as a prideful Spartan wanting to help fight for his home Sparta despite the way he was treated. It was the King that caused the treachery by betraying one of his own.

>the movie portrays the Spartans as noble and heroic and the
>Persians as wicked tyrants. period.

Spartans are the protagonist, Persian EMPIRE is the antagonist... how are you supposed to tell this story otherwise? I don't think this movie would of made any sense if the Spartans were just randomly attacking Persian Empire soldiers consisting of daffodils and unicorns for no reason.

Did or did not Xerxes and the Persian Empire attempt to conquer Greece and the surrounding lands (ultimately the "world" at the time)? Were the Spartans trying to protect their city from invaders or not?