Sable14

Hi there,

I saw the movie, The 300 on opening night. I felt out of place, and I thought I was on a High Schoo fielding trip. The majority of the audience was between the age 15-21.

Anyway, I love action movies. The sword work choregraphy was wonderful. As well as the costuming.




Spoiler info about the movie below so you can choose whether to continue reading.
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I left that movie with two big thoughts, and one costuming thought.

One: The US military should have had a recruiting booth outside the movie theater. They missed a big chance.

Two: Was it me or did that movie leave any one else with the feeling that the the movie was very propagand themed with today's world issues?

I do not mean to offend anyone, this is just the movie vibes that I get from seeing it.

Spartans = Western view points(freedom, goodly morals, strong, smart, independence, honor)

Persians = ( believe the world should be their slaves, amoral, anti-freedom, anti-free will thinking, satanic[the goat head almost subbliminal image], drug users, orgies)

I left thinking if I was a Persian, how offended I would be. It gives the viewing audience the interpretation that Persia was an evil country/kingdoms. May be I am reading to much into it, but it is feeding the public the idea that the foundation of the Middle East is an amoral, anti democracy land.

Three: The harem scene inside King Xerxes tent, with the harem dancers. I thought it interesting the Tribal fusion influence.

I am probably stirring up a hornets nest. I am hoping to get some thoughts from fellow dancers. Did any of you get the same feeling? It did not even seem to be a hinden agenda propaganda movie. There were lots of overt tones in the movie, at least to myself and my husband.

Curious,

- Sable.

chryssanthi sahar

Dear Sable.

Unfortunately I couldn't see the trailer and I also haven't seen the movie yet. I'd like to see it though, since I am Greek and I am always curious what kind of bulls..t Hollywood makes out of ancient Greek themes. When I watch it, I'll surely tell you what I think about it

__________________
Oriental dancer and instructor of Greek origin, living in Germany
www.chryssanthi.com

Suhad

I did want to see it...now I'm not so sure after your review.

It's curious to me, if it is indeed the way you describe it, why the conservatives in our country alway decry Hollywood as being the bastion of the ultra liberals and seat of the evil that is destroying our country--this movie would appear to give the lie to that.

I've found that if you want to know why a certain media outlet slants things the way they do you must find out who is funding it. I wonder if it's possible to find out who funded this movie?

Persia is the most likely place for the concept of dualism to have arisen, and spread from there but I would hardly call that evil; it's what has been done with it in the last 2000 years that has often been evil. The idea that the Persians, to whom we owe our ideas and ideals of Western culture, were evil is just beyond belief and betrays a serious lack of historical knowledge of our Western religious roots.

Babylonia

OMG I just got back from this movie 5 minutes ago! It was beautifuly filmed and has something for guys and girls. Lots of action for the men and lots of hot bodies for the women. I'm sure we could debate the historical accuracy and political overtones but I say see it because it was good fun.

A Warner Bros. spokesman said: "The film 300 is a work of fiction inspired by the Frank Miller graphic novel and loosely based on a historical event. The studio developed this film purely as a fictional work with the sole purpose of entertaining audiences; it is not meant to disparage an ethnicity or culture or make any sort of political statement."

The Film's Director Zack Snyder stated in an MTV interview that "The events are 90 percent accurate. It's just in the visualization that it's crazy.... I've shown this movie to world-class historians who have said it's amazing. They can't believe it's as accurate as it is." He continues that the film is "an opera, not a documentary. That's what I say when people say it's historically inaccurate". Quoted in a BBC news story, Snyder stated that the film is, at it's core "a fantasy film"

Shanazel

My seventeen year old son really liked it, but informed me it was probably too graphic for me to enjoy. I'll take his word for it. He told me about the warrior with swords for arms and for the life of me, all I could do was wonder how the guy managed his personal hygiene issues. All in all, I think I will miss this one.

belly taz

it is just a movie or as i see it light hearted entertanment i never take a movie seriously....i enjoyed it fun to watch

Babylonia

The young men who might be inspired by this film to become soldiers might want a history refresher. Even though we're "Western" we might want to learn a little from our "Eastern" brothers and sisters from the past. The Persians were a mighty empire and although they might have won the battle they lost the war. The Persians lost to a people who were outnumbered because of sheer will and determination. It's very hard to conquer and control people especially when you've got an enormous empire whose resources can only be strained by war. Something our leaders of today need to consider.

da Sage

Some thoughts...

Iranians are terribly upset about the movie. The funny (and sad) thing is that most Americans don't even know that Iran = Persia! So I think they are upset over nothing.

I personally think the eugenics issue (improve society by killing the weak at birth) is more noteworthy than the comically overblown depiction of the Persians.

The themes of sacrificing oneself for the greater good, the corrupting power of wealth, and the negative (yet oh so alluring!) portraits of hedonism are all well-portrayed here. The Persians are great bad guys, but I don't believe the movie studio picked this pitch with any political motivation. The comic book's author is another story (You do know this was an adaptation of a comic book, right?).

I was disappointed that there wasn't more dance in the movie. I recall some snaky movements, but that's about it. And the harem girls' costumes were practically non-existant! I had planned to steal some costuming ideas, but I saw nothing worth stealing! Draping myself in jewelry and oil isn't really a good costuming option for the local hafla.

Viv

We saw the movie a couple of weeks ago. Personally I took it for what it was ment to be. A testosterone, violence, muscle filled fantasy movie based on a grafic novel which used a real historical event as insperation. The historical event was basic outline for the movie, nothing more. I never took it as a "true and acturate historical drama", it's a fantasy genre movie. Personally I don't go to movies to look for real world parallels, I go to escape from the real world for a couple of hours. I'm certainly not going to think Persians were/are awful people because of the silly way a movie made them look any more than I'm going to think all ancient Greeks had amazing abs and ran around in leather loin cloths for armor.
All that being said, the battle scenes were wonderful, very grafic and violent, and creative, the harem scene so rediculous the entire group I was with was giggling and laughing (never take a group of dancers and their families to a movie with harem scenes in it, we're just going to mock them for the silliness they are), there were several very sly lines that made us giggle, and the Sparten men were worth the price of admission and the need for a cold shower afterwards...LOL!

Shanazel

Next you are going to tell me that Achilles didn't look like Brad Pitt .