War epic “300”, a smash hit in the United States for its gory portrayal of the Greco-Persian wars, has drawn the wrath of Iranians for showing their ancestors as bloodthirsty “savages.”
The press, officials and bloggers have united in denouncing the film as another example of “psychological warfare” against Tehran by its American arch enemy at a time of mounting tension over its nuclear programme.
“Hollywood declares war on Iranians,” said the headline in the reformist daily Ayandeh-No of the film which tells the story of the 300 Spartan soldiers fighting off ancient Persians in the Battle of Thermopylae.
“It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now, has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians’ ancestors are the ugly murderous dumb savages you see in ‘300’,” fumed the paper on its front page.
A cultural advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the film as “American psychological warfare against Iran.”
“American cultural officials thought they could get mental satisfaction by plundering Iran’s historic past and insulting this civilization,” Javad Shamaghdari told semi-official Fars news agency.
Three MPs in the Iranian parliament have also written to the foreign ministry to protest to the production and screening of this “anti-Iranian Hollywood film”.
The film has already proved a major box office hit in the United States and, unsurprisingly, Greece.
It is highly improbable the film would ever be screened in the Islamic republic but contraband DVDs of the latest American movies are often available on the streets no sooner that they are internationally released.
Yeah, it seems someone always has to have a problem with something in a movie by reading stuff into it…whether it be this or those dumbass frat boys in Borat that sued him for ‘making them look dumb’…seems like you cant do anything these days without offending someone…whats next…VW Bug owners sue for discrimination(or some other BS reason) cause Bumblebee is a camaro???
Funny thing is, when I saw the Persian army in 300, I immediately thought of the modern U.S. military. They both try/tried to throw a bunch of fancy technology at a smaller but determined force, with results that could be best described as inefficient.
[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Funny thing is, when I saw the Persian army in 300, I immediately thought of the modern U.S. military. They both try/tried to throw a bunch of fancy technology at a smaller but determined force, with results that could be best described as inefficient.[/quote]
Well, I’m half Persian and I find this funny. This is a remake of 300 Spartans.
[quote]
“It seeks to tell people that Iran, which is in the Axis of Evil now, has for long been the source of evil and modern Iranians’ ancestors are the ugly murderous dumb savages you see in ‘300’,” fumed the paper on its front page.
[/quote] Iran is now Axis of Evil?.. Wow I remember president bush saying this, but I thought that was only to scare the war veterans. I can’t believe people remember that shit.
And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making mud hills into mountains. He is just making up shit, he is seriously a dipsh*t and we can all only wait until the the Iranian presidents try to improve life for their people. We can only hope.
Then again we can only hope for better relations with them. I do not want another war.
I don’t know what the Iranians are talking about; it’s my life goal to be called bloodthirsty by as many people as possible. I would die happy knowing that people considered me bloodthirsty.
[quote]dennis3k wrote:
Yeah, it seems someone always has to have a problem with something in a movie by reading stuff into it…whether it be this or those dumbass frat boys in Borat that sued him for ‘making them look dumb’…seems like you cant do anything these days without offending someone…whats next…VW Bug owners sue for discrimination(or some other BS reason) cause Bumblebee is a camaro???[/quote]
It cuts both ways though. When I left the theater I overheard some high schoolers saying “oh… wait a second dude, this movie is totally about iraq!” , “whoa, hey you’re right! I hadn’t thought of that.”
I think the lesson here is that people read into things based on the context they are presented in, more than the content themselves. Were this movie to have been released any other time, while some iranians may still have been pissed, it would not have been a news item.
A cultural advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the film as “American psychological warfare against Iran.”[/quote]
I’m buying it wholeheartedly. Those damned Iranians better not even try to invade Europe.
However, I’m not unsympathetic. I can see how, when you’re used to denying the holocaust and using phrases like ‘erased from the pages of history’, subtle “psychological” things might seem very suggestive to you.
On a completely unrelated note, is there any news about IMOD?
[quote]HardcoreHorn wrote:
I don’t know what the Iranians are talking about; it’s my life goal to be called bloodthirsty by as many people as possible. I would die happy knowing that people considered me bloodthirsty.[/quote]
I totally didn’t get that impression. What I saw was a bunch of sharks who were sensitive to the way they’re portrayed and were looking to change that image. Remember, “Fish are friends, not food.”
The shark portrayal was no more insensitive than the portrayal of the Jews in “The Passion of the Christ” which was quite fair, imo.
Just which region of the world is currently full of savages promoting terrorism as a way to deal with the issues of the world today?
I don’t know about anyones ancestors, but I’m very happy to consider terrorists “savages”.
Maybe some western newspaper should print a set of cartoons and the region can show us how moderate and civilized it has become since the era of the Spartans.
No, the real funny thing is that most people that see this movie wouldn’t know where Persia is.
DB[/quote]
Or the fact that about half the people going to see this movie don’t know that it’s originally based off an actual event… which I don’t understand why they’re even complaining about it since it did actually happen in the past it’s just a part of their history.
Besides why do people have to read into everything these days, they should just accept it as it is, a form of entertainment.