 The 300 writer Frank Miller said : " The Spartans were a paradoxical people . They were the biggest slave owners in Greece . But at the same time , Spartan women had an unusual level of rights . It 's a paradox that they were a bunch of people who in many ways were fascist , but they were the bulwark against the fall of democracy . The closest comparison you can draw in terms of our own military today is to think of the red @-@ caped Spartans as being like our special @-@ ops forces . They 're these almost superhuman characters with a tremendous warrior ethic , who were unquestionably the best fighters in Greece . I didn 't want to render Sparta in overly accurate terms , because ultimately I do want you to root for the Spartans . I couldn 't show them being quite as cruel as they were . I made them as cruel as I thought a modern audience could stand . " 
