I’m a Frank Miller fan, but this film neither innovates visually (it’s really a combination of Miller’s dark ink drawings as showcased in Sin City with the cartoonish bloodletting and fighting styles of Kill Bill and epic martial antics of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) nor artistically (all “acting” is done by shouting as loud one can while retaining a steely gaze and taut abs).
So all you have left is basically what will be interpreted by many to be a propaganda film for the war on terror, although it’s probably more telling of frat-house mentality. That has been picked up by today’s Persians — as the New Yorker’s review notes:
In Tehran, after pirated copies hit the streets there a few weeks ago, the movie was quickly denounced by an Iranian government spokesman as an act of “psychological warfare” that was intended to prepare Americans for an invasion of the country. “American cultural officials thought they could get mental satisfaction by plundering Iran’s historic past and insulting this civilization,” he said. The complaint was echoed by President Ahmadinejad, who said, “They are trying to tamper with history . . . by making Iran’s image look savage,” and a Time correspondent reported that many Iranians assumed that the movie was produced by an American government conspiracy. It is perhaps unfair to expect the Iranians to develop a sense of humor about American pop culture. They may also have trouble understanding that commercial American movies are ordered up not by “cultural officials” but by studio officials. The film is, of course, less an act of psychological warfare than an act of capitalism. It was called into being not by a hunger for war but by the desire to exploit a market—professional-wrestling and X-treme Fighting saturnalias play into the movie’s atmosphere. Everyone screams at everyone, and specialized Persian warriors wearing masks and other freakish regalia turn up to do battle. Pop has always drawn energy from the lower floors of respectability; this movie, in which fan-boy cultism reaches new levels of goofy chaos and sexual confusion, draws energy from the subbasement.
Still, the Iranians have a point: though first planned years ago, “300” is a political fable that uneasily engages the current moment. An all-volunteer expeditionary force of Spartans ventures forth, the warriors sacrificing themselves to stop the invading hordes from killing their wives and children, which may be an allusion to the Bush Administration’s get-them-in-Iraq-before-they-hit-us-here rationale. The Spartans also fight, as a lofty narration informs us, “against mysticism and tyranny.” Against mysticism? How many ancient armies went to their deaths with that as their battle song? And how many men have died, as the Spartans do, to defend “reason”? A whiff of contemporary disdain for the East—what the late Edward Said called “Orientalism”—arises from the mayhem: “300” turns into a dawn-of-democracy epic in which violence is marshalled to protect the future of Western civilization. Made in a time of frustration, when Americans are fighting a war that they can neither win nor abandon, “300” and “Shooter” feel like the products of a culture slowly and painfully going mad.
Luckily American popular cinema is a very, very varied thing. As a counterpoint to 300’s glorification of Western superiority, there’s some good-natured self-parody in Mike Judge’s Idiocracy, when an average American of today wakes up 500 years into the future and finds that everyone is incredibly stupid and speaks a mixture of frat-boy wooos and valley girl slang. The joke is not just that this is the way Western consumerist culture is headed, but that it’s not that far off now anyway. An Occidentalist argument? Perhaps, but then again one gets the feeling that the characters of Idiocracy are the kind of people that 300 is intended for.
Everyone seems so concerned about the Iranians’ opinions on 300, what about the Spartans?
More importantly, where’d you get your hands on the movie at this date?
Share!
Have the Spartans voiced an opinion?
Cosmic, one word: BitTorrent.
“the movie as a whole is a rather ridiculous fascist ode to Western supremacy”
Of course it is! Its a Greek legend! What did you expect? I’m sure the Iranians have similar legends to prove their supremacy. Every people has that kind of legends. The movie does not pretend to be an accurate historical reconstruction of a battle does it? It’s just entertainment. Why should an ancient legend suddenly become a sensitive political issue? Are the English angry when a movie about Jeanne d’Arc glorifies the heroic French battle against the murdering English beasts? The English taxpayer even pays for an Irish propaganda movie like “The Wind That Shakes The Barley”!
Yes, this movie is ancient Greek war propaganda. Why should that be a problem?
Who had the better abs, Spartans or Persians?
It’s funny that the Spartans are painted as defenders of the West and reason in this film whereas in the teaching of Thucydides in IR classes through the early 90s, they were presented as a thinly-veiled representation of Soviets overly concerned with conformity and honour, while the Athenians were the proto-Americans.
Why bit torrent? It’s in Egyptian theaters. I’m very torn about this film, between reading scathing reviews of it in the elitist press and my fascination for action movies, especially those involving swords and sandals. What may keep me from seeing it, though, is reports of shlock lines like “freedom isn’t free”… What was free and democratic about the Spartans exactly? As I recall it was pretty much the original template for a fascist warrior society — as opposed to the Athenians who actually developed democracy, and then were savagely attacked and reduced to penury by the Spartans during the Pellopenesian war.
If anyone gets a chance, Gore Vidal’s book Creation, about the travels of a Persian diplomat to India and China in the 5th century BC is a great read and very dismissive of the Greeks and their supposed democracy and military victories.
The comic book, while equally ridiculous in terms of its bizarre attempt to turn the Spartans into defenders of democracy, is, at least, one of the most visually stunning comics I’ve ever read. Gorgeous colors, amazing compositions and images. But what’s-is-face 300 director is no Roberto Rodriguez and 300 is no Sin City, cinema-wise.
Frank Miller is, however, pretty much a fascist and you shouldn’t go looking to his work for anything else. He’s been talking for a while about how his next big project is going to be Batman vs. Islamofascism…..
Dear Stephen,
300 is not a Greek legend nor is it “ancient”. Don’t be a moron.
I’d have thought a grand epic battle film like this would be better on the big screen too, but I suppose the LE 20 or whatever could be invested more productively in horticulture?
The movie was entertaining, what i took from it wasn’t fascist undertakings of hidden meanings, as they mean little to me! what i got is what i paid for, 10 bucks for 2 hours entertainment. its a myth that was brought to life before and now again, with Frank Miller’s approach of violence against a pale backround and alternative metal music. i thought it was good and i have watched alot poorer material.
@r: What is it then? It’s based on the works by Herodotus isn’t it? And there are countless references in poetry and literature to the battle of Thermopylae throughout history.
Of course Herodotus didn’t write the movie script or the comic book. But his story keeps inspiring writers for over 2000 years. Isn’t that what turns history into legends?
Basing a work of art (a term loosely employed in this case) on an encounter between two ancient armies does not entitle you to start throwing around words like myth and legend. Especially in this case. It inspired myth and legend, indeed the battle has entered into myth and legend, and the producers of your beloved film have drawn on this rich cultural heritage to produce, to your evident delight, a leering blood-drenched nazi abortion dressed in a leather thong and red cape. When you (not me: I’ve got some self-respect) say “turning history into legend” you fail to notice that this kind of untermensch rubbish is the death of history, cultural and otherwise. It’s a fascist show for the mob, set–cunningly enough to deceive you, at least–in ancient Greece. This does not make it Greek or ancient.
I know! Use “loosely based on…”, as in “homo-erotic stab-fest loosely based on the legendary battle of Thermopylae”
That way I can admit I enjoyed it.
[…] Issandr El Amarani watched the movie 300 and gives us his thoughts about it here. Amira Al […]
My research assistant is named “Zack Snyder” which is also the name of 300’s director. Poor Zack got his first piece of hate mail yesterday from an irate Iranian complaining about the film.
Jeepers. It’s just another bad movie. Not Matrix III bad. Not Star Wars Episode II bad. But pretty bad. That Iranian government officials deign to comment on it is… well, I don’t know. Pathetic?
Did America officially react to that Turkish book/movie that cast Americans, present-day, as invaders of Turkey and all-round bad dudes? That was so hugely popular in Turkey, right? What was it called, Metal Gear or something like that? Something about Turkey teaming up with China to fend of the US? The clerk at my hotel in Istanbul was telling me all about it, once, and I remember telling him: “y’know, I think American’s not going to attack Turkey, you don’t even have oil.” har har. I asked him if he’d read Orhan Pamuk’s Snow and to his credit he had, but this evil-US book, he said, was waaaay more fun and he totally preferred it and books like it. His culture must be going MAD, I tell ya, MAD.
But back to Iran. If Ahmedinejad is really so upset, he ought to divert some funds away from his ‘peaceful’ nuclear program and fund some of his own filmmakers to make their own righteous (in the sense of gnarly, awesome, tubular), fanboy pleasing version of millenia old stories. Compete in the marketplace for gloating rights, don’t just whine.
I think it’s actually cool that such a silly movie can get so many people talking — but *official* condemnation from governments? Don’t they have something better to do?? Maybe Ahmedinejad is one of the people who gave ‘300’ a 1 on Metacritic?
(Incidentally, Idiocracy was a bad movie, too. A great concept but such a lackluster execution. There’s a reason it went straight-to-video.)
Dear Dan,
Actually, the real reason Idiocracy went straight to video is not actually because of the quality of the movie.It was supposed to follow the model of ‘office space.’ In fact, the producers planned this from the beginning and hoped it would be very profitable by not spending a lot of money on the marketing because they knew it wouldn’t appeal to a mass audience. It didn’t cost much to make. This was an intentional decision.
Worth a read:
Sparta? No. This is madness
http://www.thestar.com/article/190493
Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of hellenistic history at the University of Toronto, has seen the movie and offers his view.
Dan – the problem is that 300 is unlikely to lead to a spike in tourism in Iran the way Borat did for Kazakhstan.
I hear Iranians make good wacky heartwarming comedies – perhaps Jafar Panahi needs to team up with Nora Ephron?