Iran Upset Over 300

I was waiting for this since I heard about the movie. The bad guys are the Persians, and everything about this movie, including the timing, seems to poke the "Persians" (aka, Iran) in the eye.

As for their claim that the US government and Hollywood are colluding to discredit Persian culture, I think Xerxes did a damned fine job of that himself, and as Leonidas famously rejoined (in the movie) "We've been sharing our culture with you all morning".

Aside from that, all you have to say is...are advisor to President Ahmadinejad?! That should say it all right there.

... that this movie RAWKS!

First, let me comment on the Iranians. Talk about hypocritical, complaining about this movie trashing Persian culture-- the Iranians have been doing that themselves since the Revolution. They are hell-bent on pretending that the pre-Islamic polytheistic culture never existed. Hell, they are planning to flood the tomb of Cyrus the Great during the completion of a dam.

Next, let me address the criticisms of the movie by the good professor linked to in Vnutz' news post. I think the professor is somehow missing the point of this film. It is not intended to be an historically accurate depiction of life in ancient Greece circa 480 BC-- I would think the inclusion of a pissed-off giant with fangs, a fat monster with saws for arms and depicting the Persian Immortals as almost Orc-like would have been your first clue. The movie is telling the legend of the battle in an highly idealized way the ancient Greeks themselves might've appreciated. The legend sounds better as "300 stood against a million" as opposed to "7000 stood against a 250,000."

No, the Spartans of real life were not a very "nice" people by today's standards-- they kept a majority population as virtual slaves. They committed infanticide (as referenced in the movie, which was also common in ancient Greece, though not law like in Sparta) and practiced what can only be called eugenics. By the same token, the Athenians weren't very "nice" either. Sure, they had democracy, one man one vote- as long as you weren't a woman or slave. Sparta, for it's being a perhaps proto-fascist state (a state of affairs predicated by the Messenean revolt) was the most liberal of ancient Greece in regards to the status of Spartan women. From the above link:

"The Spartans were the only Greeks not only to take seriously the education of women, they instituted it as state policy. This was not, however, an academic education (just as the education of males was not an academic education); it was a physical education which could be grueling. Infant girls were also exposed to die if they were judged to be weak; they were later subject to physical and gymnastics training. This education also involved teaching women that their lives should be dedicated to the state. In most Greek states, women were required to stay indoors at all times (though only the upper classes could afford to observe this custom); Spartan women, however, were free to move about, and had an unusual amount of domestic freedom for their husbands, after all, didn't live at home."

The good professor also makes hay over the depiction of Xerxes in the film, asserting that it is "strongly implied Xerxes is homosexual which, in the moral universe of 300, qualifies him for special freakhood. This is ironic given that pederasty was an obligatory part of a Spartan's education. This was a frequent target of Athenian comedy, wherein the verb 'to Spartanize' meant 'to bugger.' In 300, Greek pederasty is, naturally, Athenian." First, maybe the professor needs to examine his prejudices, for while the film Xerxes has multiple face piercings and is adorned in an almost S&M gold outfit and makeup, neither does he lisp or act effeminate (in fact, his voice is booming and sonorous.) In Xerxes quarters he surrounded by many mostly naked, writhing women. Nowhere did I spy naked slave boys.

Second, Spartan pederasty is a subject of much debate among historians. Some think, like the good professor, that the Spartans were fond of buggery, while others point to Lycurgus' decree that "someone, being himself an honest man, admired a boy's soul and tried to make of him an ideal friend without reproach and to associate with him, he approved, and believed in the excellence of this kind of training. But if it was clear that the attraction lay in the boy's outward beauty, he banned the connection as an abomination; and thus he mandated that 'boy lovers should keep their hands off boys just as parents do not lay hands on their own children.' This system, implies Xenophon, produces the most modest, trustworthy and self-controlled men in all of Greece." I'd like to point out that even the chaste version of pederasty practiced by the Spartans is very creepy by today's standards-- but that's today's standards, and things tend to change after two and a half millenium, which is probably why they didn't feel the need to go into it in the movie.

The professor says "For adolescents ready to graduate from the graphic novel to Ayn Rand, or vice-versa, the historical Leonidas would never suffice. They require a superman. And in the interests of portentous contrasts between good and evil, 300's Ephors are not only lecherous and corrupt, but also geriatric lepers." Well, duh. Again, the film is telling the legend! Real life tends to be messy and in varying shades of grey, but try telling an inspirational epic story that way.

Was Iran also bent out of shape when the ORIGINAL movie came out in 1962?

My guess is no ; )

Vince