Unmolested pro-life propaganda playing in theaters nation-wide for nearly a month? Thanks to the remarks of a wise friend whom I saw the film with, a hidden parable emerged.
spoiler alert (even though we should all know our Herodotus).
The story begins with eugenics. Sparta: A civilization barbarous enough to allow only its flawless infants to survive (yet thinks itself supremely "civilized"). Later in the film, when faced with someone who escaped the infanticide, a disgusted captain tries to kill the "reject", but the mutant nonetheless gains the hearing of King Leonidas.
Still, the king refuses to allow the less-than-perfect soldier to fight, and as a consequence, Sparta loses the war. A more crisply articulated morality tale for the pro-life cause is difficult to conceive. The moral? Civilizations that demand designer babies lose.