HOLLYWOOD DECLARES WAR ON IRANIANS!
prof_rockwell
2,867 Posts
from Newsweek:The Few, the Proud, the MovieMarines love it. Iran calls it an act of war. '300' is essentially a Spartan (yet lavish) videogame, but people take it seriously.By Evan ThomasNewsweekMarch 26, 2007 issue - The New York Times and the government of Iran agree: the movie "300" has no redeeming social value. The movie, which depicts the brave stand of 300 Spartans against a marauding army of hundreds of thousands of Persians at Thermopylae in 480 B.C., "is about as violent as 'Apocalypto' and twice as stupid," according to A. O. Scott, the Times' movie critic. The Iranians, who presumably don't screen many Mel Gibson movies, were nonetheless even more offended. The movie is aimed at "humiliating" Iranians, who are descendants of the ancient Persians, said Javad Shamghardi, cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "300" is "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed at Iranian culture." And this was the headline in the Ayan No newspaper: HOLLYWOOD DECLARES WAR ON IRANIANS.To most moviegoers, "300" may or may not evoke the Clash of Civilizations, but it certainly is popular among young American men. The R-rated film grossed more than $70 million its opening weekend, the biggest March debut ever. The majority of the audience was under 25 (though there were a surprising number of older viewers). They were probably not drawn by their interest in classical Greece. The bloody 2004 epics "Troy" and "Alexander" were expensive box-office duds; "300" was made for $65 million in a warehouse in Montreal, using B-list actors filmed against a blue screen, with the digital mayhem painted in. Aggressively marketed online, "300" may be none too cerebral, but it is disturbingly beautiful. It looks and feels like a lavish slash-and-chop videogame.Still, the cultural significance and popular appeal of "300" reach beyond the thrill of watching pixilated decapitations. The Persians in "300" are the forces of evil: dark-skinned, depraved and determined to terrorize the West. The noble, light-skinned Spartans possess a fierce love of liberty, not to mention fierce six-pack abs. "Freedom is not free," says the wife of Spartan King Leonidas. The movie was adapted from a graphic novel by Frank Miller ("Sin City"). Miller's post-9/11 conservatism (he is reportedly working on a new graphic novel pitting Batman against Al Qaeda, titled "Holy Terror, Batman!") suffuses his comic-book fantasies. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that "300" resonates for some real warriors. At a theater near Camp Pendleton outside San Diego, cheers erupted at a showing of "300," the Los Angeles Times reported. The Marines ("The Few, the Proud") identify with the outnumbered Spartans. In fact, "Gates of Fire," a novelized version of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield, is on the Marine Corps commandant's recommended reading list.The analogy between the war on terror and the death struggle of ancient Greece with Persia has not been lost on some high administration officials either, especially Vice President Dick Cheney. (A White House spokesman declined to comment about the film.) In the months after 9/11, a classics scholar named Victor Davis Hanson wrote a series of powerful pieces for the National Review Online, later collected and published as a book, "An Autumn of War." Moved by Hanson's evocative essays, Cheney invited Hanson to dine with him and talk about the wars the Greeks waged against the Asian hordes, in defense of justice and reason, two and a half millennia ago.The movie is a cartoon, based very loosely on historical fact. The Persians are depicted as either effeminate or vicious abusers of women, while the Greeks are manly men. The bad guys in "300" also include corrupt Spartan politicians who refuse to send more troops to the battle. Some right-wing bloggers have likened them to liberal Democrats voting against the surge in Iraq. Moviegoers may be a little confused by other cultural echoes in the film. The Spartan heroes seem to be in love with what one of them calls "a beautiful death." Just like, er, Islamic suicide bombers.
Comments
Funny to hear Iran declare what does and doesn't have a "redeeming social value".
It's a fucking movie adapted from a fucking comic, which is loosely based on historical fact. Even though I don't know why thats pointed out. Since no one could do a film not loosely based on anything from over 2000 years ago.
In anycase. Anyone who hasn't read the comic, here's some great side by side pics between it and the film.
http://www.solaceincinema.com/2006/10/04/300-comic-to-screen-comparison/
I find it pretty amazing that they made this film for 65 million. It's not a real Hollywood film, since it would have cost 3-4 times that if it was! A huge part of the future of film making is what dudes like Rodriguez & Snyder are doing.
I don't think so.
this movie is objectionable in any number of ways, and racism/sexism aside it is resolutely fascist.
that said its also funny as hell
I just meant that this was the 3rd 300 thread I believe.
Really?
Maybe they're thinkin' Parisian... heh
I hate these types of posts. Everyone here just assumes that "most people" are so dumb that they know nothing, which makes the poster look like he see's himself as superior. Than its taken as a truth and ran with by the guy who responds and afterwards it's interpreted as a soulstrut truth.
sounds like some type of mental bully shit to me
I'm pretty sure most of the soulstrut posters that think they have a leg up on "most people" don't care about those kind of details.
HAHAHA! Seems like the only popcultural pastejob they forgot in that was to put Gerard Butler's screamface in a Aphex Twin video.
"THIS IS SPARTAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"[/b]
I wish I had photoshop skills.
I'm not sure what you mean. Because they all died off?
Iranians aren't the only descendants - due to border changes and displacement and war and all the regular historical events that move people around and cause them to have babies with each other. Geographically alone, 'ethnic' Iranians are prime candidates for having some link.
Can you elaborate what you mean? If at all possible, sarcasm-free?
Western policy makers need to take into account the fact that ethnic politics influences Iran's foreign policy choices and will be a factor in the current regime's future stability.
Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Baluch are concentrated on Iran's peripheries, sharing ties with people in neighboring Azerbaijan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The presence of relatively large groups of ethnic minorities directly across the border from ethnic majorities in neighboring states significantly affects Tehran's bilateral relations with its neighbors.
Since ethnic Azerbaijanis make up a third of Iran's population, for example, Tehran is fearful that neighboring Azerbaijan could become a source of irredentism for its own Azerbaijani population. It has therefore supported Armenia in its war with Azerbaijan over the disputed province of Nagorno-Karabakh, even though Azerbaijan and Iran are among the few states with a Shiite Muslim majority.
So well said. This is so lame.
not to mentally bully anyone, but you live in LA, Guz. I think it's safe to say in large swaths of the country folks would not make a Persian-Iran mental connection.
Funniest post of the week!!!
I'm not so sure and I couldn't be sure without seeing some sort of survey/ study on it or conducting one myself. But the overall point I was trying to make is I find those kind "most people probably dont know..." comments to be based in nothing but a persons idea that somehow he is more intelligent than other folks. Judging a group of people based on some idea that one has come up with is nothing more than stereotyping.
I'd like to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to knowledge until they prove to me that they really are that stupid (Hi Archaic)
I dont think we need to be worried about that.
tepid.
Not sure if this was in answer to my question, but most of the groups mentioned above are also descendants of ancient Persia in its many forms.
having said all that, it kinda bugs me when Iranians call themselves Persians.
i apologize for the cut and paste, but if the conversation isnt about me, i dont want to spend a lot of time on it.
Iran is a multinational empire dominated by Persians, not a nation-state. The Persians account for slightly more than half the population of 70,000,000, a smaller proportion than the Russians were in the Soviet Union. Arabs make up a sizable minority in Iran (3 percent of the total population). Many ethnic Arabs live in the southwest, and one of their major grievances is that although much of the country's oil wealth comes from this area, they do not benefit from it. They also complain of underdevelopment, discrimination in securing jobs, and poor educational opportunities.
Maybe not. But there's enough serious stuff out there to take seriously, so I choose to view my comic book movies like I'd view......a comic book.
MAN THAT BATMAN MOVIE SURE IS FUCKED UP. HOW DO YOU THINK ALL THOSE DOODS WHO HAD THEIR FACES MELTED OFF BY ACID AND TURNED INTO SUPER-VILLAINS FEEL AFTER WATCHING THAT?
lol - and who can blame you?
Can't tell if you're being genuine here. Either way, I don't mean to dismiss comic books as a valid art form because they absolutely are. Comic book movies on the other hand.....I rarely watch them but when I do it's straight up eye candy to me.
Completely off-topic: I was such a fan of X-Men as a youth that I've refused to see any of those movies. I'd rather remember it the good way instead of the lame way. As soon as I saw the lame they had playing Wolverine, it was a wrap.
I haven't seen any of the SpiderMan shits either but the one w/ Venom looks like it might could maybe possibly be not completely shitty.