Posted on 03/13/2007 1:52:00 PM PDT by jmc1969
TEHRAN, Iran - The hit American movie "300" has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran.
"Hollywood declares war on Iranians," blared a headline in Tuesday's edition of the independent Ayende-No newspaper.
Even some American reviewers noted the political overtones of the West-against-Iran story line - and the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.
In Iran, the movie hasn't opened and probably never will, given the government's restrictions on Western films, though one paper said bootleg DVDs were already available.
Still, it touched a sensitive nerve. Javad Shamghadri, cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the United States tries to "humiliate" Iran in order to reverse historical reality and "compensate for its wrongdoings in order to provoke American soldiers and warmongers" against Iran.
"The film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people," Ayende-No said in its article Tuesday.
"It is a new effort to slander the Iranian people and civilization before world public opinion at a time of increasing American threats against Iran," it said.
Iran's biggest circulation newspaper, Hamshahri, said "300" is "serving the policy of the U.S. leadership" and predicted it will "prompt a wave of protest in the world. ... Iranians living in the U.S. and Europe will not be indifferent about this obvious insult."
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
What are they worried about. Other than inventing the Zero, they have contribute just that , Zero, to the the enlightenment of the world.
This movie is a step up for Iran.
They can get glad again in the same pants they got mad in. What doesn't get these guys testy?
Well, in fairness: In my lay estimation, about 40-60% of Iran's population despises the revolutionary wackjobbers who've run the show since 1979. Particularly the young and the better-educated folks. They (again in my lay opinion only) like fun movies, aren't opposed to women driving, etc. Normal people. The bootleg market is a subset of that group, not the ones who commit honor killings and such.
A lot of freepers and conservatives, and apparently everyday Americans judging from the box office figures, approve of the movie because it is also supposed to be a pro-islamofascism-war themed film.
Very probably won't go out to a theater and see it, personally.
P.S. Not much a fan of ancient Greek "civilization," so that could have an effect on opinions about this movie--especially their glorification of the Greeks (Spartans), and acting as though they were macho-ly heterosexual.
"Other than inventing the Zero"
"That was ancient India, not ancient Persia."
Yes, but they used Iran as the model.
Xerxes Invades
The Bosporus presented the first obstacle. To cross it, Xerxes had a boat bridge built, with each boat attached to the next with planks. This was an enormous undertaking, for the bridge had to be over a mile long and involved many boats, and the sea of course had to remain perfectly calm.
The sea, evidently uninterested in Xerxes' campaign, did not remain calm. Time and again the boat bridge was nearly complete when winds and rough seas broke it apart. Xerxes was so exasperated with the god of the sea, so Herodotus tells us, that he commanded his slaves to whip the sea with chains.
It worked. The sea, properly chastened, behaved itself, the bridge was completed, and the Persian army crossed into Europe.
--The Persian Wars, Boise University web site.
who cares.
If the Iranians don't like the movie, it must be worth watching.
Maybe, but you'd think that 2500 years later, the least controversial statement one Persian could possibly say to another is "Dude. We got schooled at Thermopylae."
I haven't seen this movie, but I assume it covers the Persian Wars around 500BC since the author of this article mentions Greeks vs. Persians. The battle of Salamis determined whether or not there would even be a "western civilization" and since it was fought on Greek soil, not Persian lands the aggressor is rather obvious. Xerxes and all of his predecessors conquered lands and people since about 2800BC, so I have a very hard time understanding the complaint of the Iranians.
Then again maybe they are denying their imperialistic colonization throughout their history of nearly 5,000 years like they deny the holocaust.
Actually, it didn't depict any of the Persians hating the West. The Persians wanted a conquest & they were willing to bribe & send slaves to fight in order to have it. When the only booty they seem to be able to haul off is some bootlegged DVD's showing their ancestors getting their butts handed to them by a few hardened Western troops, it's gotta really hurt.
If not, they can just STFUAD.
in 480 BC, after massive preparation King Xerxes led a huge force to subjugate Greece. A small force of about 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians led by King Leonidas of Sparta held off a Persian army of more than 600,000. For three days at Thermopylae the Greeks fought a desperate action to delay the entry of the Persians into the Greek heartland. They caused huge causualties, but all were eventually killed in the battle. Now in Greece proper, the Persians sacked and razed the city of Athens under the orders of Xerxes, but the Persian fleet was defeated in the battle of Salamis. Xerxes left Mardonius with part of the original force to finish the job and returned to Asia Minor. The next year Mardonius was defeated and killed in the battle of Plataea; the remaining Persian fleet was destroyed in the battle of Mycale. The Greek fleet sailed to the Hellespont where the Athenians and the freshly-liberated Ionians besieged Sestus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Persian_Wars
The more offended they get, the less repelled I get about bulldozing millions of bodies...
"Ahmadinnerjacket"
Very funny! Had me laughing.
How about Armanidinnerjacket or Awannadinnerjacket or Amonkeydinnerjacket?
This is what I call "vicious truthing" and most recipients don't seem to like it.
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