<P> Newsday critic Gene Seymour, on the other hand, stated that such reactions are misguided, writing that "the movie's just too darned silly to withstand any ideological theorizing ." Snyder himself dismissed ideological readings, suggesting that reviewers who critique "a graphic novel movie about a bunch of guys...stomping the snot out of each other" using words like "' neocon,' ' homophobic,' ' homoerotic' or' racist"' are "missing the point ." Snyder, however, also admitted to fashioning an effeminate villain specifically to play into the homophobia of young straight males . Slovenian critic Slavoj Žižek pointed out that the story represents "a poor, small country (Greece) invaded by the army of a much large (r) state (Persia)," suggesting that the identification of the Spartans with a modern superpower is flawed . </P> <P> 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 ." </P> <P> Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of Hellenistic history at the University of Toronto, commented: "Ephialtes, who betrays the Greeks, is likewise changed from a local Malian of sound body into a Spartan outcast, a grotesquely disfigured troll who by Spartan custom should have been left exposed as an infant to die . Leonidas points out that his hunched back means Ephialtes cannot lift his shield high enough to fight in the phalanx . This is a transparent defence of Spartan eugenics, and convenient given that infanticide could as easily have been precipitated by an ill - omened birthmark ." </P> <P> Michael M. Chemers, author of "' With Your Shield, or on It': Disability Representation in 300" in the Disability Studies Quarterly, said that the film's portrayal of the hunchback and his story "is not mere ableism: this is anti-disability ." </P>

Who played the hunchback in the movie 300