300

With a $70 million launch, the movie 300 is being heralded as the first blockbuster of the season. And what better movie could there be to attain such an accolade? Its an... ahem... creative re-imagining of the battle of Thermopylae in which a variety of ancient peoples fought each other on two sides that have loosely been termed 'Greeks' and 'Persians'. Here is Slate's review which i must say, I whole heartedly agree with.

Of course a quick read of the real history of the battle of Thermopylae would lead one to expect that a slightly more historically accurate movie might also have been named 300+700+5000+1000 since the battle was fought on the Greek side not just by 300 Spartans but also 700 Thespians, 5000 Greek allies and 1000 Helots - who were slaves of the Spartans. Now the story of the Helots is particularly interesting. It was death for a Helot to touch a weapon according to Spartan law but Leonidas, the Greek king armed them for battle and promised them freedom after the war. Throughout the war, Helots were armed and fought alongside the Spartans. When the war was over, the Spartans held a ceremony in Sparta where all the Helots who had fought in the war had a parade and then were massacred to a man. That was Sparta and I think those people who watch this movie and get all excited about the Spartan warriors saving civilization should keep it in mind.

Obviously the movie, like the graphic novel, is written very consciously with the Spartans identified with America, the other Greeks with other European nations and the Persians with non-westerners (post 9-11, read: Muslims). Sadly, and rather frighteningly, this attempt to shove history into a shoebox and identify with and glorify the militaristic ethos of classical civilization smacks all too much of fascism.

IZ

Edit: Yes, and just in case anyone who reads this thinks I'm too much of an alarmist and always nattering on about fascism etc. Well, here is a quote from a response to the review on Slate that I linked above:

This critic seems to miss the FACT that throughout history, this is the way mankind, specifically MEN are. Only in the last 40 years have those with a different sexual orientation emerged as leaders (sure it happened in real history in the past..as those civilizations fell..look it up!). Here is why. In times of reletive peace, many changes in society occur. During those times the weak tend to prosper for obvious reasons. Once they get power and start running things by their warped views, the strong tend to wake up and give the weak a literal bloodbath...and they strong will always win in this sort of contest. So it is today with the emergence of liberals (anti-war, anti-gun, anti-American, anti-free speech (except their own)), one day I assume they will get power and start an oppressive regime the likes of which America has NEVER seen. The strong will wake up and crush these limp wristed maggots easily at that time...its rather humorous to think these folks can see it coming. they are after all...the weak.

Yeah, all the fascists are gathering to defend the historical accuracy and artistic expression of 300...

IZ