Tree of the Dead Figurine Head and Arm

King Leonidas of Sparta and a force of 300 men fight the Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. From the 2006 film, 300, this is one of the hundred and twelve dead Greek villagers seen hanging in the Tree of the Dead. The horrific "Tree of the Dead" created for the film contains one hundred and twelve corpses of dead Greek villagers drape the branches in a grisly tapestry of broken bodies. In dramatizing the gory violence of the story, the filmmaker's philosophy is clear: The depiction of violence in 300 is not going to be realistic. 300 is Frank Miller's comic brought to life, his visual aesthetic realized through a fusion of photographed reality and highly stylized visual effects. It's the depiction of an actual historical event, but it is more fantasy than fact. 300 is like an illustration made real where battle, death, and sacrifice are things to be celebrated. Every slash, impalement, and decapitation should be rendered as a thing of beauty. It's transformed into art.