The movie "300" has made Iran mad.

Forums: Movies, Film, Iran, Films, 300
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Iran, which turned a deaf ear last year to protests over its attempt to rewrite history through a Holocaust conference, now is crying foul over what it calls a "fabrication of culture and insult" to Iranians in the Hollywood hit movie "300."
"Cultural intrusion is among the tactics always used by the aliens," a government spokesman charged in a statement made to the state FARS News Agency. "Such a fabrication of culture and insult to people is not acceptable by any nation or government and we consider this attitude as hostile."
The Iranian press has seized on the outrage, with one newspaper, Ayandeh-No, proclaiming: "Hollywood declares war on Iranians."
Javad Shangari, a cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, attacked the film as being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed at Iranian culture," Daily Variety reported Wednesday.
"Everyone is starting to react. The DVD is already very available, and people are quite angry," one Tehran-based producer told Daily Variety. He doubted the film will ever be distributed in the region, though boot-leg copies already had made their way into many Middle East capitals.
An online petition calls the movie's distributor, Warner Brothers, "irresponsible, unethical and unscientific actions ... while announcing our disgust at such a heresy, we demand an immediate historical review and quick apology from the responsible people."
The film depicts the 480 B.C. Battle of Thermopylae between 300 Spartan soldiers and an invading Persian army. Iranians are descendents of Persians, who are portrayed as evil. Of particular scorn for Iranians is the depiction of Persian Emperor Xerxes, who was descended from Cyrus, and is revered in Iran for having written the first human rights declaration.
The Iranian government hosted a two-day gathering last December, billed as a legitimate conference on the historical record and invited notorious Holocaust deniers and white supremacists from around the world, including former Ku Klux Klan leader, David Duke.
The Foreign Ministry held the event after Ahmadinejad claimed several times that the Holocaust was a myth, invented by Zionists to justify the establishment of Israel.

Source
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a hoot. Enjoy the comedy!!!

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 1,654 • Replies: 11

No top replies

I wonder if they have declared a Jihad against the producers yet.

Idiots.

0 Replies

Hilarious.

"300" is a movie based on a graphic novel (a comic book, for Pete's sake!)
which in turn was based on a movie "The 300 Spartans" made in 1962. I
doubt any reasonable person expects historical accuracy.

Casting the Persians as the bad guys goes back to Herodotus. It's a bit
late to start whining now.

0 Replies

I didn't know they had movie theatres in Iran!

0 Replies

woiyo wrote:

I didn't know they had movie theatres in Iran!

Of course they have movie theatres, what do you think it is, the stone age?

Sometimes I swear people dont know the difference between Iran today and Afghanistan under the Taliban. When they hear it's Islamists in power, they automatically assume its some primitive stone-age desert. If only it were that simple.

For some day-to-day flavour from the streets of Teheran (a few years old by now, but very evocative), read Entry 4 of the journal of a writer in Iran, Reza Aslan, (Sept 2004). It's not long.

0 Replies

as much as it tightens my sphincter to agree with Baldimo and McGentrix (speaking of the stone age), who gives a hoot what they think of the movie? Let 'em get over it. It's a movie for God's sake.

0 Replies

Or here's a random tourist's impression from 2002:

Quote:

Now to speak about the women-females comprise 10% of Parliament and have a female Vice President. Yes, you do have to wear a scarf, but the regulations are much looser than Arab countries-you can show some hair, and while you need to wear clothes that cover you, you don't have to wear an abaya. [..] Women in Iran also drive (and you have to be pretty aggressive to drive in Tehran!), they can go out by themselves, have every kind of job, be news anchors, reporters, work with men in hotels, they are tour guides, things that would be very uncommon in a lot of Arab countries. Marriage is only arranged among the more religious, and young people do go out in groups. There are movie theatres, restaurants, and while you must wear your scarf outside, in my experience, people would take off their scarves the minute they got inside the house, visiting friends, whatever [..]. They have 6 Iranian TV channels but many people also have satellite TV, with 300 channels from all over Europe and the Middle East, as well as CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, NBC etc.

For sure things have deteriorated since, and for sure there was plenty wrong with the regime and religious culture there even then, but this image of Iran as some kind of primitive wilderness really bothers me.

Was it Ann Coulter who suggested to just nuke the place, or something outrageous like that? I suppose things like that are easier to belief if you pretend its only a stone-age place anyway.

----

As for the topic of the thread, pprrfftt.. I'd mostly chalk it down to political posturing on the part of the Iranian government.

There's probably some halfway sensible point to be made about stereotyped images, or about those images being risky in particular when they coincide with the rumblings of war, but far as the Iranian government's complaints are concerned, it's just politicking silliness. They hope to get some mileage from it, I'm sure, perhaps score brownie points amongst offended nationalists or the like.

0 Replies

George wrote:

Hilarious.

"300" is a movie based on a graphic novel (a comic book, for Pete's sake!)
which in turn was based on a movie "The 300 Spartans" made in 1962. I
doubt any reasonable person expects historical accuracy.

Casting the Persians as the bad guys goes back to Herodotus. It's a bit
late to start whining now.

Isn't the movie accurate as to who the players were? Its not as if the battle didn't happen.

0 Replies

I can't wait for the sequel: 300 & 2.

0 Replies

Baldimo wrote:

George wrote:
Hilarious.

"300" is a movie based on a graphic novel (a comic book, for Pete's sake!)
which in turn was based on a movie "The 300 Spartans" made in 1962. I
doubt any reasonable person expects historical accuracy.

Casting the Persians as the bad guys goes back to Herodotus. It's a bit
late to start whining now.

Isn't the movie accurate as to who the players were? Its not as if the battle didn't happen.

Yup, the battle happened.

Many characters depicted in the film actually existed.

But there are many books (comic and otherwise), plays, and movies that
are based on actual historic events and that have characters based on real
persons in them. But it is unrealistic to complain about their lack of
historical accuracy, as the Iranians are. I also believe that it is foolish to
see this as some attempt to insult present-day Iran. The movie is little
more than an extended video game.

0 Replies

so let's see the Spartans, brave and rigorous bastards raised from birth to fight and kill are the Americans, where nearly one third of us are grossly overweight or obese, and the Persian soldiers are Iranians, where if you read Herodotus' "Histories" indicates that the army under Xerxes was from all over the regions of the Persian Empire?

its a comic book movie fer christ sakes, better to watch the '60's film "The 300 Spartans" which actually depicts Herodotus quite well, at least that movie did not show the Persians with hand genades. and then you at least have the Kennedyesque depiction of Leonidas by Richard Egan. man that guy had a set of teeth on him that glowed in the dark!

"300" is Gen Y's "Red Dawn"

The History Channel has been running the battle of Thermopylae all month, its better than anything out there, except for reading Herodotus.

0 Replies

Has anybody really read Herodotus?

"Upon this, Xerxes, who had no means of surmizing the truth--namely, that the Spartans were preparing to do or die manfully...Then the Medes rushed forward and charge the Greeks, but fell in vast numbers; others, however took the places of the slain, and would not be beaten off, though they suffered terrible losses. In this way it became clear to all, and especially to the king, that though he had plenty of combatants, he had but few warroriors.
Then the Medes, having met so rough a reception, withdrew from the fight; and their place was taken by the band of Persians under Hydarnes, whom the king called his "immortals". They, it was thought, would soon finish the business. But when they joined battle with the Greeks, twas with no better success than the Median detachment....
During these assaults, it is said that Xerxes, who was watching the battle, thrice leaped from the throne oon which he sate, in terror for his army. Next day the combat was renewed but with no better success on the part of the barbarians."

0 Replies

The movie "300" has made Iran mad.

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know