I find it strange that the Hollywood 1962 movie "The 300 Spartans" with Richard Egan has not been mentioned here.

That was out there before the Ayatollah Khomeini and his Islamic "enlightenment" of Persia...erm sorry Iran.

It is quite obvious that the Hollywood films are on about a place called Persia. If the wife beaters were really proud of their Persian heritige then why are they not called Persia now?

Thats like saying I am so proud of my English roots I'll call England Monkfish

If the Peaceful Persians think that this film is made to cheese them off then, thats nice. Better the movie budget was used to make some entertainment rather than turn Persia..erm Iran to glass with a similar sized fund of nuclear export.

Actually I think they should feel alarmed, as the Spartan story could give you the impression that the Persian blood line is not one of peace but one of conquer and destroy and thats the Americans job. Maybe thats the problem, jealosuy..the Yanks are where the Persians want to be...a world power.

Whatever Xerxes problems he didn't send 14 year old boys into battle against machine guns armed only with copies of the Koran

I give up.

If certain people want to wallow in ignorance, so be it.
.

Arabs cant win wars.They are incredibly stupid.Even with a million man army and 800 ships they lost!

Amazing.

No wonder everyone looks down on them and they have to resort to suicide bombs and terrorism.

Americans can't win wars. They are incredibly stupid. Even with all their technological advances they still lose!

Amazing.

No wonder everyone looks down on them and they have to resort to ignorance and racism.

You can do it too! Just replace a few words and you can make this statement work for any culture ever to exist.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by DisappearCompletely]

I thought Persians aren’t Arabs

wow...America is so ignorant and racist that its just funny lol.

Originally posted by beckybecky

Arabs cant win wars.They are incredibly stupid.Even with a million man army and 800 ships they lost!

Amazing.

No wonder everyone looks down on them and they have to resort to suicide bombs and terrorism.

Classy statement!

Persians aren't Arabs, sure they had a few Arab mercenaries but it's unlikely they featured in Xerxes army. Some estimates put the "Spartan" force at 300 Spartans (the Spartans didn't like taking too many soldiers away from the Peloponnese since they were paranoid about their slaves rebelling), about 2200 Tegeans,Mantineans and Arcadians. 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans, 1000 Phocians and more than 1000 Malisians and others. Most pro-Hellenic estimates put the force at around 7000, easily enough to defend a narrow pass (with the added protection of the hastily repaired Phocian wall) against insurmountable odds.

Some historians regard the "Greek traitor" story as myth, fabricated to make the story all the more tragic as well as the Persians appear incapable of winning a battle without the help of a renegade Greek.

All in all the last stand of Leonidas and his men was a wasted gesture, the Persians cleared the pass and the only reason the invasion failed was primarily due to mistakes the Persians made..... "Greek Valour" had little to do with it.

Anyway, the Spartans turned up too late for Platea, and were happy to ally with Persia during the Peloponnesian war.

I must say that I agree that the film has come out at a rather sensitive time, as well as looking pretty homoerotically charged (like good old fashioned fascist cinema!).

I don't know why any of you continue to argue about the historical facts behind this movie for reasons I mentioned on page 1 of this thread.

Originally posted by DisappearCompletely
[
Americans can't win wars.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by DisappearCompletely]

Americans have won every war.

We won WW2.


In Vietnam we won again on body count.They killed 56000 Americans.We killed 5 million of them.

We won both gulf wars

In Irak we killed 600000 Terrorists while they only killed 4000 Americans.

It seems we Americans are the spartans of the 21st Century.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by beckybecky]

[edit on 13-3-2007 by beckybecky]

[edit on 13-3-2007 by beckybecky]

Sorry 2manyquestions, I just like discussing real history (especially this period, I've an incurable addiction to anything related to the Greeks and Achaemenids) and opportunities to chat about Ancient Persia are few and far between!



[edit on 13-3-2007 by DenyAllKnowledge]

Originally posted by DenyAllKnowledge
Sorry 2manyquestions, I just like discussing real history (especially this period, I've an incurable addiction to anything related to the Greeks and Achaemenids) and opportunities to chat about Ancient Persia are few and far between!



[edit on 13-3-2007 by DenyAllKnowledge]

I guess I'll allow it then.

errr...it's based on Frank Miller's fantastic graphic novel which has been around for years, I didn't hear them kicking up a stink then. It's strange how when a book or comic are translated to film it can cause such a fuss.

You can have every sexual act or blasphemous comment you want in a book/comic and no one bats an eyelid, yet Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs and someone says "F*** Jesus!" in a movie and the masses are up in arms.

Go figure!

[edit on 13-3-2007 by John Nada]

Originally posted by beckybecky

Originally posted by DisappearCompletely
[
Americans can't win wars.

[edit on 13-3-2007 by DisappearCompletely]

Americans have won every war.

We won WW2.


In Vietnam we won again on body count.They killed 56000 Americans.We killed 5 million of them.

We won both gulf wars

In Irak we killed 600000 Terrorists while they only killed 4000 Americans.

It seems we Americans are the spartans of the 21st Century.


I concur wholeheartedly with beckybecky. The United States has won every major conflict since it's incepetion. AS for Iran believing that the movie 300 is a shot at them I just have to laugh. Next they will blame us for upcoming movie, The Invincible Ironman.

Originally posted by zerotime
...the Graphic Novel and the Movie show how brilliant a miltiary Maneuver this battle was.

Does it? It shows how the Persians got a land force from Asia to Europe? If so, kudos to them.

Actually, it makes no mention of the bridging by the Persians, of the Hellespont straight. The creation of which, was the greatest feat of military engineering until the modern era.

Originally posted by Odium

The Battle of Thermopylae probably did not happen how we are told. Does anyone honestly believe that an Army of 300 people could hold off an Army of over 1,000,000?

Just because of the odds does not mean the battle and the odds of the men did not happen as it is being told. There are several examples of very few men holding off an arm through history. From the Texas rangers to Korea it has happened in one form or another.

Well it seems some of what Hollywood has been doing is making movies of the great historic battles and wars. So maby they will do just that.
Of coarse being the horribly violent and war like people we are they have many to chose from.

How silly to call americans racist because of a movie. If you rent some Iranian, Bollywood, Pakistani war/action movies, they are the victors. They could be classed as racist too for all the care they show to the losers.

Why is it that the new breed of wimps always use the race card? I'm sure the Persians didn't do that hundreds of years ago.
I'm sure that would've seemed chicken-livered to the ol' guys of yore.

I'm going to see the movie. If only to put me in touch with a bit of history. I'll keep in mind that it is a DRAMATISATION and that a bit of creative license was probably employed.

But then, we don't need Iranian sympathisers to tell us something that we've already known about Hollywood movies for decades.