I imagine it will be only a couple of hours now until the Religion of Peace rallies and begins killing people and burning buildings to show how they are not a violent people.
"300" opened this past Friday, and raked in $70 million.
The Ayende-No newspaper of Tehran wrote, "Hollywood Declares War on Iranians."
An ironic headline, since the story is about the Persians who declared war on the Greeks.
The paper also said that, "the film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people."
Another paper, Hamshahri, says "300" is "serving the policy of the U.S. leadership..." Give me a break! The policy of the US is not based on a comic book written over 8 years ago.
This kind of hyper-sensitivity is getting old. Cartoons of Mohamed - month-long riots, fire, murders. A Koran found in a sewer somewhere in Saudi Arabia - riots, fires, murders. It's ridiculous!
The movie does not focus on the actual historical accuracy of the event. It focuses on bringing a comic book to the big screen. And it does so beautifully. It's a creative visual take on a story, not a historical take. If that's what you want, get the whole story by watching an historical documentary.
What really happened? The Persian Empire was spreading quickly across the middle-east, and even took so Greek city-states in Turkey. Years later, these Greek areas revolted, and they were assisted by the Athenians. This did not please the Persians. And since the Athenians torched the temples that were in this Persian-occupied Greek town, the Persians swore revenge. And so as Xerxes came into power, he went after Greece, and his massive army and navy were engaged at the Hot Gates. In that battle, the 7000 Greeks led by 300 Spartans made the Persian Army pay dearly! And the Navy did significant damage against the Persians. After 3 days, the entire Greek army was wiped out, and the remaining Navy fled south. And so Xerxes then decimated Athens. He then continued to make war in Greece. And his Navy chased down the Greek navy, and at Salamis, the Greeks nearly destroyed the entire armada. After that, the Persians never came back to Greece.
Historically, that's what happened. But the part of the story we love, are the 300 Spartans who sacrificed themselves so that Greece would have a couple more days to rally and prepare for a counterattack, or to flee Athens. In this moment, Greece became united as a fledging democracy. And had the Spartans not stood and fought, Athens, and all the people in it, would have been killed, and Democracy, Freedom, and Western Thought along with it.
This all happened circa 480bc. It's not a new story. Across the middle east, there are places one can go to hear about the heroic tales of the Muslims during the crusades. Oral traditions, stories passed down for generation after generation. Stories that celebrate the killing of the Christians. And now we tell a story, a story based on a comic book, and suddenly, we're declaring war on them and instituting anti-Iranian policies. Ridiculous.
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