If you can overlook a weak script and a sophomoric performance by Barry Coe, you might like this 1962 film for its impressive battle scenes and cinematography. About 85 miles north of Athens, Greece, is a clot of 300 do-or-die Spartans blocking a mountain pass. Poised to invade is the enemy Persian army under Xerxes I that numbers between 360,000 soldiers (according to modern estimates) and more than 5 million soldiers (according to the ancient historian Herodotus). If you assume that the former number is right, the Persians outnumber the Spartans 1,333 to 1. Yet thanks to superior tactics and patriotic resolve, the Spartans repel the invaders again and again in what history remembers as the Battle of Thermopylae. Although the script of 300 Spartans ranges from average to mediocre -- and the acting from good (Ralph Richardson) to bad (Coe) -- the action satisfies like a good spear throw or sword thrust. Richard Egan (of Summer Place fame) leads the Spartans as King Leonidas, and Richardson guides the Athenians as their military strategist. Both perform ably in spite of the sometimes trite lines they have to recite. Viewers looking for character development and deep meaning should spin forward to the smoke and fire of the three-day battle in which Xerxes pits his crack troops, the Immortals, against the Spartans. History teachers seeking a simple film that makes a point and keeps the kids quiet may want to book this 1962 color production. If nothing else, the students will learn that the Spartans wore red to camouflage blood stains.