A further comment about the remark about "boy-loving". There is a song that was on a radio program called the Dr. Demento show (no this ties in, honest), called "Standing on the Shoulders of Freaks". One of the lines in that song is:
"Ancient philosophy was framed by prodigies,
Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates.
And even though their thoughts were deemed the 'Aristocratic Voice'...
They also had a thing for little boys."
The point is, it's not an idea exclusive to this movie.
As Gillian pointed out, it's actually a pretty much accepted fact.

Also, that (what amounts to) an elite military force, which I don't think anyone would deny the Spartans were, would refer to any group that did not meet their standards of "manliness" really isn't that surprising. Ask a US marine what he thinks of the navy guys. Then ask the navy guys what they think of marines. You will get many comments from all branches about how useless/stupid/arrogant/whatever, the average person in the other branch is, but I would be surprised to find there is a single person from any branch that would refuse to assist, or to be assisted by, a member of different branch of the service. That's sort of what an inter service rivalry is. What I gathered from the movie was not that the Spartans were doing it to spite the Greek army, but to buy time for the rest of the are to actually see, and accept that there was a threat.

The political aspect of the film I thought were slanted a bit, but they may have just seemed that way due to the times in which we live, and current events. What I got from it all though is basically what I feel to be true anyway, and is actually summed up very well in another song: Gordon Lightfoot's "Don Quixote":
"See the soldier with his gun, who must be dead to be admired."

I did have a pretty big nit to pick about a step they took for dramatic reasons though, but it's a bit of a spoiler, so I'll hold off.

__________________
I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.