Abbi gave the 300 her stamp of approval. We were surprised at how, given that it is basically a graphic novel come to life, historically accurate the movie is overall. The Persian king was so impressed with the 300 (they killed 10,000-20,000 of his men) that he wrote down their deeds. Since the Spartans fight to the death, there would have been no record of this battle were it not for the king--highly unusual since history is comprised mostly of the accounts of the victors.
The gallows humor happened for real. A Persian really did say that their arrows would block out the sun, and a Spartan really did retort that they would fight in the shade.