Truly comical
It is simply unnecessary to dedicate this much attention to a fictional movie, created for the sole purpose of entertainment

This is not a review of the movie 300. This is a review of certain reactions to it. A multi-sentence account of the movie is unnecessary given its widespread popularity. 300 is set in the war-crazed ancient world, where the Spartans resist Persian intruders. Perhaps it is the androgynous Persian king, Xerxes, in the movie, or the arrant exaggeration of the size of the Persian army, or the implicit conviction of the current Eastern world versus the gallant West; whatever it is, it’s gotten the Persians -- contemporary Iranians -- pissed off.

Imagine your country undergoing a violent revolution, commenced by religious fundamentalists who eventually take hold of the government, having a direct stand-off with the global superpower, while at the same time defying all international norms, in addition to opposing the very existence of a close ally to the superpower by providing financial support to its enemies; further imagine, coupled to all this, that you live in the land of the very superpower whose name is at all times subject to your country’s political rhetoric, and a land in which public opinion, popular culture, and news outlets alike condemn your country for being the epitome of all threats to human civilization.

Such a tale would fit perfectly the thousands of Iranian-Americans who have been most vocal in their dispute against 300. Indeed, to understand the reactions to a simple, fictional movie, one needs to uncover past socio-political undertakings. With modern Iran being overshadowed by Islamic fundamentalism and, more recently, the controversiality of nuclear empowerment, its shinning history has been held onto as a treasure, proving to be a source of national pride and dignity. And an attack on its glory, however unintentional, is bound to cause rage and resentment.

300 has left its mark on all classes. It seems, especially, that waves of educated, Iranian dissident voices have been hitting shore at full force, fuming with anger over the utterly monstrous depictions of Persians in the movie. And they do have a point. To quote an example, from an article by a professor of Ancient History at California State University, “What do you get when you take all the ‘misfits’ that inhabit the collective psyche of the white American establishment and put them together in the form of a cartoonish invading army from the East coming to take your freedom away? Then add a horde of Black people, deformed humans who are the quintessential opposite of the fashion journal images, a bunch of veiled towel-heads who remind us of Iraqi insurgents, a group of black cloaked Ninja-esque warriors who look like Taliban trainees, and men and women with body and facial piercings who are either angry, irrational, or sexually deviant. All this headed by a homosexual king (Xerxes) who leads this motley but vast group of ‘slaves’ known as the Persian army against the 300 handsomely sculpted men of Sparta who appear to have been going to LA (or Montreal) gyms devotedly, who fight for freedom and their way of life, and who at times look like the Marine Corps advertisements on TV? You get the movie 300.” The absurdity of such images puts a smile on my face. It does so particularly because not even the Devil himself, and his army of Evil, are an amalgamation of every conceivable inimical image as are the depicted Persians. This is sufficient in detracting any significance from the movie, other than it being a cinematic achievement and an enterprise of entertainment.

As a Persian, I must say, I can sympathize with the damaged pride of my compatriots, loyal to their nationalistic credos. I cannot, however, bring myself to react similarly, which is nothing short of overreaction. What I call overreaction is a storm of fierce complaints in the form of press coverage, petitions, letters, blogs, online forum discussions, and, overall, excessive debating. Oversensitivity, egotism, and counter-productivity are not the only reasons for my discontent of the inflated Persian response; more simplistically, I see such aversive response as being rooted in emotivity, with little logical grounds. It is simply unnecessary to dedicate this much attention to a fictional movie, created for the sole purpose of entertainment.

With that said, given Iran’s negative press treatment and corresponding negative perceptions of the country, positive action is merited. I use ‘positive’ here to indicate reasonable and informative initiatives, where the goal is to unearth the historical truths which are buried deeply within the ground for the average viewer. I would use ‘negative’ action to denote all those emotionally-driven, bad-tempered attempts of conspiratorial Iranians claiming that Hollywood is merely a White House apparatus by use of which public consent to attack Iran will eventually be given. Nevertheless, after observing a trend of anti-Iranian sentiments in Hollywood blockbusters, Alexander being a case in point, it only makes sense to target the inaccuracies and distorted images. What is particularly alarming about 300, and other such films, is not that it is meant to be an accurate historical account and fails in so being, but that it inadvertently paints a grotesque and gruesome (not to mention untrue) image of Persians for an uninformed audience. This very fact ought not to justify any call for the movie’s ban, but, rather, campaigns of information to lessen false perceptions.

Project 300 is an initiative that would fall under the described category of ‘positive action.’ This creative project aims to unveil the truth in the most civilized and elegant of ways: “300themovie.info is an ongoing collaborative art project featuring art by artists using the theme of ‘ancient Persia.’ Driven by an admiration for arts, and united by a common concern about the barbaric and demonic portrayal of Persians in Frank Miller's graphic novel and the movie 300, we have come together to voice our objection in a uniquely artistic fashion.” 300, as repeatedly mentioned, is not a factual reconstruction of a historical battle -- nor does it ever claim to be so; for it is but a highly stylized, computer generated film of passionately violent men, aimed for the viewing pleasures of the average Joe and the financial super-success of its makers. Accordingly, it should only entertain and not produce even more obfuscated views about Iran and Persians. Project 300 is an admirable attempt to prevent just that.

300 is merely an exoteric representation of a Greco-Persian war. It might be intellectually unsatisfying, or even intellectually demeaning, but it never promised to be more; “You want realism and devotion to the hard facts, watch the History Channel. You want to experience the Battle of Thermopylae as a non-stop thrill ride, here's your ticket” says Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times. I agree with him. What I don’t agree with are the views giving this cinematic pseudo-history historical worth, claiming it to be the true story of brave representatives of the West (Spartans) fighting off the Eastern savages (Persians) to shape the enlightened, free, and democratic path that the West has ever since travelled. I have in mind, here, John Kass, editorialist of the Chicago Tribune, who bluntly asserts the movie “is true to is sources” and hence its “truth…is worth telling today.” Yes, Mr. Kass, truth is a tale worth telling. How unfortunate that you cannot stand by your own palaver.

300’s inauspicious timing has triggered a domino effect of reactions by the descendents of the Persians. Even CNN, the Warner Brothers’ corporate cousin, took note of this by broadcasting Iranian frustration and their assertions of American plots against them. Now, personally, I do not definitively rule out this movie as part of a series of attacks on Iranian culture given the current political context -- but the probability with which I view this as being true is as much as an extraterrestrial encounter with humans. That all this hype encourages movie-goers to hit the theatres and increases profits is a fact that cannot be overlooked. And those who advocate 300’s boycott or call for the proliferation of protests, petitions, or proposals of removal should take heed of their counter-initiative actions.

After all, to the historian, this movie is the nadir of factuality, making it a ‘historical comedy’. To the movie fanatic, this adaptation stays true to its ‘comic-al’ origins. To these two poles, and to the rest of us in between, 300 is then nothing but truly comical. Comment