300: Rise Of An Empire, another anti-Iranian movie

So, oh lowly one, more of your usual pendantic nonsense then. 

Edited by Mountain Man - 02-Sep-2014 at 20:22

For crying out loud, CV.   You must be the only person left on the planet who fails to grasp the meaning of the word "Hollywood", which is not and never has been to accurately present history but solely to make money by doing whatever it takes to sell movies.

This would be the very same Hollywood that infamously cast John Wayne as Ghenghis Khan, and that says it all.

If history has taught us anything, and apparently it has not, it is that there are no good guys or bad guys, just various civilizations with differing philosophies and ambitions, some of which meet our current 21st century morality standards and most of which do not.  What we still fail to comprehend is that those civilizations met the morality standards of the time, period.

Thus, slavery is meaningless, since it has been around since the dawn of time and is still practiced widely throughout the world.  Military conquest through savagery and brute force likewise is as old as Mankind itself.  It was widely practiced for centuries by the most modern and inventive ancient empire of all, the Roman empire.

Mysogynism is still with us, widely practiced by the Muslim religion, interestingly the religion of modern day "Persia", i.e., Iran, and the Asian cultures, otherwise highly advanced for their time.  What was Japan, after all, in terms of ancient practices, if not one of the most barbaric and repressive on the planet?

Moaning about Hollywood's representations of history is as useless as complaining that Playboy bunnies aren't "real women" - in other  words, everybody knows that - what's your point?

That is true, but I sincerely doubt that such consideration will impress Hollywood and inspire it to make historically and culturally correct movies.
Thanks, Master-of-Meanings!

Well, movies are for entertainment, not for study of history. I don't see anyone getting angry over Star Trek because the Reman are presented ugly and revolting, while Remulans are not. I consider every movie production a fiction, nothing more, and don't see a reason to get incensed over what is made solely to provide escape after a hard day's work.

People who say that it's "just a movie" are very selfish and if this exact movie was aimed at their own culture they would probably feel offended deep inside. Because this movie and the one before did not just give a wrong presentation of ancient Persia,it presented it in the most offensive, disgusting,brutal and twisted way for a certain culture to be shown in a movie. This is called Cultural Terrorism and Hollywood has a long history of this, but never in the history of mankind a movie mistreated a culture more than these two movies.

Originally posted by beorna Originally posted by Cyrus Shahmiri beorna, what do you think about a movie which depicts your nation as demons? Xerxes was one of the greatest men in our history, you can't compare him to Mickey Mouse, Superman or other fictional characters, you certainly insult to a nation by demonising or mocking their heroes. I am German, are you serious. I can't count the movies in which germans are shown as evil monsters, stupid roboters, militaristic idiots or our Germanic ancestors as uncivilised fur wearing barbarians. Some time ago Alexander was shown in a movie as homophil. The was an outcry in Greece. The same stupid behaviour. These people are dead for more than thousands years, indeed for several thousand of years. I think it would need some coolness. If people don't like such movies, don't look them.

Originally posted by Stefanos Well...Unfortunately the actual history around both movies (300 and 300:Rise of an Empire) is so much more fascinating and entertaining than what was depicted.

For a movie, which is so unhistoric, it is really entertaining.

Originally posted by Stefanos Cyrus - you do have a point (and this is coming from a Greek-American) in that the portrayal of the Persians is not accurate. Neither is the portrayal of the Greeks. They have Queen Gorgos fighting in battle(?) The whole thing is a bit FANTASTIC, but at least it brings awareness and hopefully it will cause enquiring minds to do more research. In today's age one can spend an hour or two researching and will soon get a better understanding of what actually happened.

That is widely my point, too. It is so unrealistic, that it will probably have no influence on the view neither on Persians nor on recent Iranians. And we should think as well about the depiction of the ephoroi in that movie. Not really a nice picture.

Originally posted by Stefanos Having said that - there is the basis of both movies that is true. Persia was an autocratic Empire that expanded to it's size by conquering territory. The premise of this autocratic empire taking over "free citizens" is correct, and the premise of the various Greek City-States uniting in order to stop this force is correct. Additionally the premise of small forces stopping a significantly larger force is also correct.

Here I widely disagree. Of course Persia was typically oriental autocratic reign. But the greeks were far away from "free citizens". Of course we appreciate the Greek democracy today. But we should be aware than in Athens and Sparta and in all the other poleis, the "free Greeks" were a minority. The Greek polis and its democracy was based on slavery. In Sparta, there was a small caste of homoioi, which ruled over perioikoi, neodamoneis, hypomeiones, mothakes and helotes. The power laid in the hands of two kings, some ephoroi and a few rich families.

Does the average Iranian really think this movie is an attempt to brainwash the American public to hate Iran? I just don't understand that. First, the average American has no idea that "persia" and Iran have any relation at all. Secondly, I realize other countries may not watch movies the same way...this is a cheesy action fantasy - nobody thinks this is a historical film. Our society is built on diversity - every school in America is filled with middle eastern children, black children, Asian children, European. The last time I remember hearing "Persia" in a movie was Kingdom of Heaven...have you watched that? The Persian people were noble and honorable. What about app the anti George bush movies made in America? Movies are written by people. They can write whatever they want. What decides if it gets produced or not is will it make money? Swords and muscles loincloths and mysterious bad guys make money, simple as that.

Well...Unfortunately the actual history around both movies (300 and 300:Rise of an Empire) is so much more fascinating and entertaining than what was depicted.

Cyrus - you do have a point (and this is coming from a Greek-American) in that the portrayal of the Persians is not accurate. Neither is the portrayal of the Greeks. They have Queen Gorgos fighting in battle(?) The whole thing is a bit FANTASTIC, but at least it brings awareness and hopefully it will cause enquiring minds to do more research. In today's age one can spend an hour or two researching and will soon get a better understanding of what actually happened.

Having said that - there is the basis of both movies that is true. Persia was an autocratic Empire that expanded to it's size by conquering territory. The premise of this autocratic empire taking over "free citizens" is correct, and the premise of the various Greek City-States uniting in order to stop this force is correct. Additionally the premise of small forces stopping a significantly larger force is also correct.

Yes it can be but even the story is romatic nationalistic, what are you expecting? 300 men stopping thounsands persians...

also it is very bad movie for me. Everything is coming from computer in the movie, there is no reality