b’shalom

bananabrain

http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2007/03/war_rhinos.php

Well, the film is called the ‘300′, not the ’several armored divisions with full spectrum air support and nuclear weapons, financed by a first world economy any led by democratic politicians who were voted for by people who want nothing more than to go on living their lives as peaceful citizens’…

The film is not about the reality of any situation, it’s an expression of a myth that some people also make use of in real-world political arguments.

I think it is quite useful to remember that such arguments are only ever fully applicable in situations where the enemy are, as in ‘300′, ogres and combat rhinos.

i take your point, but israel is a *leetle* bit more democratic than sparta was. if there was nobody else in israel other than the settlers, i’d say it was accurate – in fact, as a *stereotype/caricature of how “progressives” see israelis*, rather than strictly speaking a satire, i would say it works rather well.

sadly enough, it’s certainly how the loony wing of the settlers, the “orange camp”, see themselves – the “persians” in that case would include their own government, of course. but in terms of the larger israeli population, it ignores the far larger segment of society that doesn’t live that way, much of which lives in cities, votes for left-wing parties and wants a two-state solution (and then there are the ultra-orthodox, who aren’t interested in fighting anyone at all and just want to sit around having kids and studying Torah) well spotted though.

b’shalom

bananabrain

1. citizen-soldier-farmers
2. heavily outnumbered and out-gunned, but superior fighters
3. defending their homeland against foreign attack
4. ruling harshly over an under-class in fear they would rebel
5. but that doesn’t matter because they are on the side of FREEDOM

That also parallels the South in the US civil war, which is, ultimately, what a certain strand of US right-wing support for Israel is all about.

People like Miller and Hanson is not interested in refugees or playwrights, but in people who kick ass and take names in a righteous fashion, who win wars against the odds just because they are that badass.

It’s not a coincidence that the US only really started supporting Israel once it started acting that way.

are any of the orcs shown doing the books for the persians? collecting receipts? doing the catering?anything like that?

b’shalom

bananabrain

Its still homoerotic despite the absence of gay sex. I mean they are killing thousands of persians wearing loincloths and red cloaks leaving their bronzed muscular torsos exposed.

Maybe that was something for the ladies to look at while limbs and blood were veering in all directions.

Is that a news? It started with Indiana Jones and Lost Temple something, complete with its snake-eating child sacrificing Kali cult. Funnily the village situated at bottom of Himalayas was populated by Sinhalese (they spoke actual Sinhalese in the movie).

That’s not true. Alexander hardly left an “empire” in the subcontinent — he took over a few territories in the extreme northwest and what is now Afghanistan, but his impact on the vast majority of the Indian population and the country was negligible. In fact, the small fraction of Indian territory which came under his rule isn’t even within the borders of what is modern-day India.

It’s entertaining enough, rousing in some places, and Leonidas is certainly charismatic; I can understand the comparisons some reviewers in the media have made with Russell Crowe’s Maximus from “Gladiator”.

However, it’s also quite wildly offensive towards Iranians. The Persians are mostly shown as dehumanised — literally, in some cases (eg. the Immortals and the “orcs”), and the depiction of their culture is also fairly inaccurate — was Xerxes’ court really that debauched ? Xerxes himself of course looked nothing like his physical appearance in the movie.

There is also a huge amount of “artistic licence” taken with the portrayal of the Persians’ ethnicity, who are disproportionately shown as being black (even more so than the misrepresentation of the Indians from the extreme northwest of the subcontinent in the film “Alexander”). I guess they wanted the Persians to look as non-white as possible.

However, I guess the film’s a good couple of hours’ entertainment if you bear in mind the considerable libterties which have been taken with the facts; people wishing to learn about the reality of those events would be wise not to base their conclusions on the movie and should do some background reading (the book “Persian Fire” mentioned above is a great start). The statements repeatedly made by the Spartans in the movie that they stood for “freedom and rationality” and “against tyranny” are of course rubbish.

On a lateral note, I did like the portrayal of Leonidas’s wife. She was shown as being a pretty strong character, and her relationship with her husband did come across as passionate and very heartfelt; I thought the deep feelings between the two were quite nicely conveyed. I also liked the fact that Lena Heady (who played the queen) was very clearly in her thirties and not some early-twentysomething nymphette, but the queen was still shown as an extremely attractive and sensual woman. A nice touch; something which went against the grain of the way women past the age of 30 are often depicted by Hollywood.

Envoy C’len: so, do you accept our offer?

bin Leonidas pushes C’len off the tower

bin Leonidas: THIS! IS! ISLAM!

Enter: bin Leonidas (a Chippendale in a loincloth)

Petraus and bin Leonidas fight, while Busces watches from his throne

Busces: your defeat is inevitable, why do you struggle?

Join me and together we can rule the galaxy, as man and wife

bin Leonidas: I did join you. You have forgotten already how we fought together against the Sovieti? But you never wrote, never returned my calls…

bin Leonidas: besides, I fight for FREEDOM and my HOMELAND

General Petraus: your homeland is 2000 miles away, and what was that about FREEDOM?

bin Leonidas: You misheard, I am fighting for FREEDOM from my HOMELAND. That place sucks, this is the only way I could get to leave

Busces: Darken the sky with warplanes!

bin Leonidas: then we will fight them in these caves!