Iran condemns Hollywood war epic

I dont agree with genocide at all. I was mostly in argeement with her comments on them being, well, thugs for lack of a better word.

Ok i get it, but you know what you say here does not make you any different from any fanatic muslim, they are saying the exact same thing for the US. But anyway lets stay ontopic this things are far beyond a hollywood movie

Everything else you said about Iran is not valid.

On June 17, 2005 and then June 24, 2005 the Iranian Government had an election. The run-off (June 24th) was between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who won 61% of the vote - roughly 62.66% of the population who could vote turned up in the first round and 59.6% in the second - which is above the last Election within the United Kingdom, I do believe.

Granted the Guardian Council did veto several members on their ability to run for election, but this happens all over the World. The USA has an age limit on who can run, this thins the numbers out, you need large sums of money to run in many Western Nations and thus this limits the number of people who can run.

But in no way was he un-elected. In fact, Iran is one of a few democratic Nations in the Middle East and we should be doing our upmost to support the democracy and the fact they have female members within it. In fact, at present there are more and more Iranian people pushing for full equal rights between men and women but it is our lack of support and media blindspot which doesn't show you this.

I assume you will retract your statement about them being un-elected along with the rest of your statement? Since you've well - been proven wrong.

I was going to respond to this until I saw that. You are a sick individual and completely lost in your ignorance.

Okay, maybe I've got my history wrong, but if I remember correctly, the Battle of Thermopylae pitted 10-20,000 Persians against about 1,000 Greeks, including the 300 Spartans. I'll go take another look, but I'm pretty sure that was it.

I'd like to point out, that Frank Miller wrote the comic book in 1998, based on a movie that he saw as a child. Both of which were LONG before the current tensions with Iran/US.

It's ridiculous to claim this is some US propaganda.

I watched the movie and never ONCE thought of Iran. Oh, I understand the Persian Empire included and was central to what we think of as Iran now, but I suspect the average movie goer isn't even going to know that, nor care.

Yes, the depiction of King Xerxes and his army was fantastical and over the top. But the scenes from the movie were directly taken from the comic book. The whole visuals were artistic whimsy, telling a fantastical version of a historical event.

You can debate the numbers all you want, historians do because of translation mistakes they think. But there were very detailed accounts of the event, it's an extraordinary event no matter if the army was 250,000 or 5 million.

The encounter has found historical acclaim because it was so notable. It's an example taught to military students of how terrain is very important.

I'm just curious... those of you arguing against this movie, do you believe that no films that have a group portrayed as historical villains should be released?

See, yeah the Persians in 300 seem to be portrayed as villains, right? But I'm curious... what about movies about the Civil War?

Is it fair to make a movie that shows the horrible and inhuman treatment that blacks received at the hands of the Southern plantation owners? Can't the residents of the South say that those movies should be banned since they're not like that anymore and it's portraying them negatively?

Is it fair to make a movie that shows the Holocaust? Can't the Germans of 2007 protest the showing of evil behavior by the Nazis since they're not like that in 2007 and obviously the movie is going to make people mad at Germans?

Please... indulge me.

It's interesting because it wasn't so extraordinary. The Persians had shields made of wicker, compared to the bronze Spartan shields. And, as was previously stated, the terrain was on the Spartans side. At any given point, each spartan was only fighting one or two Persians. Granted, their longevity was impressive.

Regardless of how the Persians may have been inaccurately portrayed in the movie, it doesn't change the fact that they out of their own arrogance demand that the Greeks bow down to their king, and then unjustly invaded their country.

But of course back in those days everyone did things like that so whatever.

I dont think that anyone here proposed the movie should be banned or not even released that should be extreme. The only things that i have seen here so far though is not the condemnation of iranians on the movie, instead the condemnation against Iranians Why so much hate people? Its really sad


Is it fair? Well i think not, since the other side (''villains'') do not have the chance to defend their point of view. So for example,someone who has not studied history since the 300 movie, more or less identifies persians/iranians like some kind of ancient barbarians. The same goes for the residents of the south and the germans which you mentioned.

Should they Ban these movies? Ofcourse not, whatever country for any reason ban a movie,a book,a site or anything that contains art,information or any kind of subjection ideas is fascist ..

p.s Iran has not ban the 300 movie they have though the right to protest against it even though the movie apart from its historical facts is based on a comic

[edit on 14-3-2007 by Antoine]

I have no problem with this movie - in fact, I just can't wait to see it in cinema! I am not telling anyone to ban it or something like that, maybe you missunderstood me. I am talking about the perfect timing of this kind of history/fantasy epic movie - it is clear as day, that the Persians are kind of a reflection of Iran today and that the elite Spartan army is a reflection of the USArmy. I mean, you do not have to be a genius to see that. I wanted to see, how many of people here actually do realize this and how many are really just going to see "another fantasy epic movie", kind of like Lord of the Rings. But the problem is, that Lord of the Rings is based on a fictional novel, and the "bad guys" are actually not some historical persons. In case of 300 - yes it is based on Frank Miller's comic book (to whom I have deepest RESPECT!) - yet he still based his comic on real historical events and real historical people. It is not complete fantasy on the level of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars - but it is the same GOOD vs BAD kind of a movie; and here the Persian Empire is portrayed as extremly bad with some weird-looking-ork-like creatures in first front lines. I mean, who is that dude with chains? Looks like a troll or something - not really human.

The other thing is, what was pointed out on Page 1 of this thread, is that Hollywood is also involved in this War on Terror and we should expect more movies of epic heroic deeds being commited against some kind of ultimate evil islamic invaders and/or other terrorists. Like Rambo 4 for example, which is in the making or the new Die Hard movie, in which I am more then sure, that John shall deal with terrorists of some kind...

[edit on 14/3/07 by Souljah]

What this all boils down to is lack of tolerance. The argument that this is propaganda or a partisan movie of some sort is completely bizarre to me. Guys.. this movie is simply based on a comic book. I'm German; every time some run-of-the-mill movie comes out about world war two and how awful the Nazi's were, should i start pulling out my hair in frustration and wailing about how Germans are being slighted because a movie depicts Germans of a previous era as evil?
Iran is a muslim country. The persians were polytheistic. Islam is vehemently anti-polytheism. This, above all else from a muslim point of view, should seperate their cultures. This is a ploy by the Iranian propaganda grinder to manifest more anger in the muslim states for America. It's time people learned how to call a spade a spade, instead of trying to figure out how the government is brain washing you into believing that there is a spade there when there, in reality, isn't one at all.




[edit on 14-3-2007 by PartChimp]

I don't know why this is upsetting anyone. I mean for gods sake ...its just a movie!!!. It also said "BASED" on a true story not A true story. that means and has always meant using some true facts to film a movie around with artistic liberties by the director. I see nothing attacking Iran at all..again its a movie and on top of all that Hollywood has a long history of being very liberal.

@Souljah
I completely share the same point of view at this subject. Ofcourse the timing which the movie aired is not accidental. Its just good marketing.
Also hollywood is known for making ''villains'' in movies out of real life rivals, its not a secret. Some decades ago was the Russians, nowdays the typical ''villaine'' in hollywood movies is a muslim .

@PartChimp


Well..both sides actually are doing their best to manifest anger to their citizens. Not only the iranians propagandize.

Haha! I got to see a prescreener at an IMAX and it was AWESOME. It was free and PACKED!

I had been arguing with my cousin about just this point up until the day we saw the movie together. His stand was that this was a politically motivated (I believe his exact quote was something like "right-wing-republican-matabatory fantasy"), where as I sided in on the it's just a movie side...

As soon as the lights came up I looked to the stranger sitting next to me and said:
"What'd you think?"
"Yeah, it was pretty good!" was his reaction.
Which I followed with "Let's go kick Irans ass now! Yeah, I'm psyched there a buncha pansies huh!?!"
He looked at me like I was crazy and got the heck away from me.
"See?" I said to my cous...

To be fair lets look at this from a distance:
-Yes, based on true story. These guys (in real life and in the movie) didn't defeat the Persian army, they just held them up for a couple of days so the rest of the Greeks could get motivated. In game terms (I'm a big Warhammer fan), we would call this unit a "speed bump".
-Yes, Frank Miller (the author of the book) is rabidly right wing and pro war (at least that is how he has come off in an NPR interview).
-No, he didn't write this book to support our current war or Shrubs Axis of Evil idea. It was published in 1998.

I honestly don't think that the movie is politically motivated. I think that the movie is financially motivated following on the heals of Sin City's success. Frank is a hot commodity in Hollywood right now, BUT the rights of his best works are already owned by other intrests. The Daredevil/Electra/Bullseye movie was already done (written by Mark Steven Johnson who ruined it), The Dark Knight (that's Batman for those of you who don't know Frank Miller's work) already has his own franchise, and RoboCop2 and 3 sucked already in the late/early 80s/90s (bet you didn't know Frank had a hand in those gems did you?)! I bet we'll get Ronin, Hardboiled, or Martha Washington on the big screen next...

[edit on 3/14/2007 by whargoul]

[edit on 3/14/2007 by whargoul]

As a follow up IMDB shows that there is a production called Ronin scheduled for 2009. Exact info is only available to IMDBpro users though, but I will bet you this is a Frank Miller work!

It doesn't matter why we did it, we just did do it. Tens of thousands of Americans died, we sent Europeans weapons and aid before going into the war and even banned businesses from sending Germany aid. I know Europeans think you could have won without America and that we are misinformed, but that doesn't mean you have to play down American efforts. Millions more would have died if the US stayed out fully, and some of that number would have been in England from starvation.

[edit on 14-3-2007 by RetinoidReceptor]

HAHAHA, 1 million !!!! seriously man, go back to history studies, the Persian Army was merely 100.000 ! And you know what? The Greeks weren't only 300 ! the Spartans werre 300 (yes) helped by around 3500 troops from other Greek cities. Anyway, the "1 million" joke was a good one ! can you imagine 300 guys slashing 1 million guys ? I can't !

Response
If you look back in history all commanders were stupid. Actually there's no need for me to site examples; so just apply the prejudices you have today on past events.

I am so glad you said this. There is always someone's "shocking" opinion that gets all the attention around the world, and people assume that this opinion speaks for everyone. It sells newspapers, what can I say?

In my opinion people these days get offended by just about everything! Things get taken out of context, political messages get pinned to things where they do not belong,..... etc. etc. Some people on this board especially are so paranoid, that they believe there is a conspiracy theory behind everything.

Go read this, people. It partially talks about what Frank Miller had in mind when he was creating the Graphic Novel.

Frank Miller's 300

Like I said earlier,...... WHEN is it appropriate to make something into a movie? We're constantly at war with the Middle East, we may continue to be at war with the Middle east for another 100 years. Should we stop making war movies alltogether? Should we make every future movie politically correct? When Lord of the Rings came out I always thought that some of Sauron's forces looked kind of Middle Eastern. They were on the "evil" side. What changes would they have to have made to make them look less so? Did anyone get offended over it? I can't remember.

I'll be damned if someone tries to stifle my artistic freedoms to use little pieces of history along with fiction to create something neat. I LIKE history, and I enjoy the costumes and means of getting around. I don't consider it my fault that someone takes it as a history lesson.

This 300 movie wasn't even made to LOOK historically correct. They had fictional beasts for crying out loud! It's supposed to be eye-candy. Had they made it in the form of "Saving Private Ryan" for instance, then I'd say that MAYBE you have something there. "Documentaries" are far more dangerous than fictional movies, and work a lot better.

As an artist,...should I be held responsible for every nutjob out there who happens to think I'm talking about today's politics? I'm just trying to tell an adventure story. Should writers be held responsible for their fictional murder mysteries modeled after the real world... which just happen to inspire some nutjob to go kill someone? Same with musicians.

There will always be heroes and enemies, characters that inspire people with their brave deeds. If you identify with them, great,...... BUT my work is never intended to be used as fuel for hate and violence in the real world.
Oh I know!!! Maybe I should be banned from depicting battle scenes alltogether. Let's all just make pretty pictures with unicorns and butterflies. Maybe THAT will make everyone happy.