Comments on: Go Tell The Spartans, Biy0tch

By: Viz

Viz — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:56:58 +0000

“Man, if you ever want to talk about the original model for a federal empire with enshrined speration of Church and State, advanced human rights and technology? Look at Persia.”

Man, I love this blah blah blah was first stuff. This isn’t a game of Civ. You don’t get to be judged on the basis of your average performance over the history of the world.

By: Aufero

Aufero — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 06:04:17 +0000

I enjoyed the movie a lot more after I realized it was a complete fantasy, and was mostly an excuse for cramming as much sex and violence as possible into an inspiring old story.

Not everything has to mean something.

By: Jeff Freeman

Jeff Freeman — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:50:08 +0000

Dammit. I was hoping this would be thing to finally bring us all together.

By: scottj

scottj — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:53:59 +0000

By: Engels

Engels — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:04:00 +0000

Well, there is no King Harry “We Happy Few” speech from Leonidas on record, but suffice it to say that antiquity didn’t have this notion of ‘freedom’ we’re meant to feel when watching these scenes in the film.

Leonidas exhorting his men to freedom would be as anachronous as George Bush on a carrier with a banner stating “Pour Libations to Zeus”.

By: Dren

Dren — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 17:28:01 +0000

Freedom is subjective. Just because somebody is yelling about freedom doesn’t mean it is the same freedom you and I know.

Just the fact that a force is coming to change your way of life can be called a loss of freedom. It doesn’t matter that you really weren’t all that free to begin with.

By: Engels

Engels — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 16:23:58 +0000

Jobrill,

I think you misunderstand me; sure, greek poets of antiquity lionized Leonidas, and the whole point of the 300 original comic was to do exactly the same thing. What you’re missing is the emphasis on freedom, which was not part of Herodotus’ account or Frank Miller’s account.

In today’s Orwellian climate, its this aspect of the film that I find manipulative and revolting, especially in light of Sparta’s complete lack of freedom from itself.

By: Axecleaver

Axecleaver — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:04:10 +0000

Maybe we should ask the Ayatollah Sistani. This website allows you to pose questions to the man himself. I learned a lot about Islamic law.

http://www.alulbayt.com/sistani/q&a.htm

By: Jobrill

Jobrill — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:14:13 +0000

“but to get all uppity about a facile rendering of Herodotus’ account is nearly as pathetic as the director’s desire to have Leonidas yell about freedom.”

- Actually, The Greek Poets writing about the Battle of Thermopylae were doing this LONG before the Director of the 300 was.

By: O.G.N

O.G.N — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:51:52 +0000

I found an article on this on an Iranian news site here:

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=50330&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Considering they are accusing the film of historical inaccuracy there are a couple of nice quotes there. For instance:
The movie has fabricated the history with depicting a war between Iran and Greece, whereas, no Greek king dared to stand up to the Persian Empire or the Emperor Xerxes.