International Movie Outrage – Two Case Studies
I saw two articles on CNN.com this week about two different movies that I found oddly related.
First we have an article on 300. Ok, it is actually at the Time Magazine website but I got the link off CNN. The point is that Iranians hate 300. None of them have seen it, but they believe it is part of a USA plot to make them appear weak. I’m guessing that 99% of the audience of 300 hasn’t the slightest clue that the Persians or anything else related to 300 have anything to do with today’s Iran. If only the Iranians knew how ignorant we are of their history they’d take less offense at our barely historical comic book movies.
The second article is probably instructive for Iranians, who can learn from the example of Kazakhstan. After the country’s government took out ads in US papers in order to combat the misperceptions that it felt Borat created the DVD is selling like hotcakes in Kazakhstan. It appears that everybody wants to see what all the fuss was about. No word on whether they find it as breathlessly hilarious as SG did.
Here’s my prediction. If 300 becomes available on DVD in Iran it will also sell like crazy. I can’t imagine that Iranian teenage boys will be able to stay away from it after all the attention it has received.
Posted on March 15, 2007, in Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
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Iranians should hate 300. They probably realize that they are Persia and that Sparta is Israel.
And that, nuclear weapons aside, they probably don’t stand a chance against Israel until they all get abs like Leonidas and his men.
To be fair, arJ, Orientalism is alive and well, and does breed a certain ignorance of the East which does make fighting Crusades against barbarians a lot easier.
In revenge, those evil Arabs/Persians/Ottomans (all the same) make movies like Billy Zane’s Valley of the Wolves, where infidels are similarly made to look like a bunch of barbarians.
So, there’s balance in the Force.
LOL. I remember when John Stewart made fun of all the controversy about Valley of the Wolves by showing True Lies and other such movies. (Where all the Arabs were played by New Zealanders)
I don’t really agree about the ‘outrage’ over the movie 300 after all it is based on a graphic novel and key elements of factual history… The persians are displayd as ancient persions with at times overblown theatrical exageration for artistic theatrical impact to stay true to the graphic novel as are the spartans. The reason modern day iranians view this movie as an insult is more about how there ancients failed to concour greece and how 300 elite spartan worriors along with approx. 7000 greek soldiers held off tens of thousands of an invading, yes ‘invading’ persian hot heads led by Xersus. Insult? how about we just move on to facts not movies ok? First off the middle east today has a very large propaganda machine called the ‘infidels of the west’ that teaches it’s youth that the west is evil and it’s people must be exterminated (this is fact not movie) Second when these ‘middleastern’ countries burn american flags and roar in large uncontroled crowds shooting bullets in the air (this seams to be a new passtime) do the americans cry and complain over it??? The iranians do not say that burning american flags and screaming in crowds with there young childen is wrong they simply chuckle and laugh as if it is deserved and expected. Third although the worlds views about middle eastern peoples is mixed the truth is that people on this planet do see them as (hot headed) terrorists (depicted as invading monsters in the movie 300) is this not what the iranian people would expect? By complaining about a movie they are showing there ‘hot headed’ deep inbread hatred towards the west as is expected and how they are being wronged again! Please give me a fucking break!!! Take a flag burn it and include gerard butlers also! Move on! it’s a fucking exagerated movie about the ancient persian attemt to invade greece and how 300 spartans, a highly trained and warrior race sacrificed themselves and protected greece from barbarism. Yes you are all monsters in disguise, hot headed trigger happy people who cannot take a joke or a perceived insult! Life goes on and your actions show your intentions. Zach Snyder made a movie that you hate! As I hate your neandertholic propaganda machine and your trigger happy brains. 300 PUTS IRANIANS WHERE THEY BELONG BARBARIC HOT HEADED IDIOTS WHO FEEL THAT GOD ONLY LOVES THEM AND NOT THE REST OF THE WORLD. NO PEACE! ALOU!
Oh ya one more thing! Yes the Iranian ancient people failed miserabley at the battle of Thermopylae and ‘yes’ it is very very insulting and disturbing how they failed! But don’t be upest it was 480BC before Islam!
Newsweek has slightly less balanced coverage of this issue.