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Criticisms of ‘300′ addressed

March 24th, 2007 by Double Tap

OK, I told myself I wouldn’t post about the movie ‘300′ anymore, after I saw it. But gosh, the Iranians and the liberals keep giving me excuses!

If you’ve been living under a rock the last few weeks, the movie ‘300′ is loosely based on the historical Battle of Thermopylae in which a small Greek force attempted to hold off an invading Persian army of hundreds of thousands. They did so, for several days, before being finally destroyed.

The movie, based on a graphic novel (also known as a comic book) portrays its heroes and villains in typical graphic novel style - heroes have big muscles and are incredibly brave. Villains are often ugly, often also well-muscled, and have a propensity to act like villains.

From the Iranian president…

In a televised speech marking the Iranian New Year on Wednesday, the hardliner accused Western powers of “trying to tamper with history by making a film and by making Iran’s image look savage.”

Last week, the president’s cultural adviser, Javad Shangari, accused the film of being “part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed against Iranian culture.”

Now that we’ve set that up, let’s examine the criticisms of the movies. I start with a review by Kyle Smith in the New York Post.

Sparta’s king, Leonidas…, is told by a messenger that Persia’s king, Xerxes, demands tribute — a token gift. There’s no shame in diplomacy, but Leonidas goes berserk…Then he punts the messenger down a well…But Leonidas has just thrown himself down a moral well. The messenger’s warning that no one kills the mailboy is absolutely right.

The Leonidas sure is a meany, huh? Smith forgot to add that the messenger also came bearing the decapitated heads of other rulers who refused to bow down to the Persians - obviously a direct threat to Leonidas’ person. So, the “token” gift would have been only the start. Continuing with Smith’s review:

Leonidas, though, is just getting started; he bellows about honor as he begins a decathalon of dishonor. Rampaging in his leather Speedo, he murders wounded enemies, desecrates their remains, insults allies and confuses death with glory. His troops are like al Qaeda in adult diapers.

First, the Persians were the invading force, not the Greeks. The Greeks were defending their homeland. As for the near nudity of the Greek forces…

The Greeks themselves often embraced such impressionistic adaptation. Ancient vase painters sometimes did not portray soldiers accurately in their bulky armor. Instead, they used “heroic nudity” to show the contours of the human body.

I too was a bit shocked at first by the killing of wounded Persians, but let’s think about this a minute. In ancient times, there were no modern medicines or medical procedures. Let’s face it, if you had your belly cut open and your intestines spilled out, you weren’t likely to die right away - but you also weren’t going to live. The Persians they were killing weren’t the walking wounded, instead, they were prostrate on the ground moaning - obviously seriously injured. There also weren’t any Persians coming around to pick up their wounded men. If anything, the Spartans were doing the humane thing.

One last criticism from Smith:

Leo frames his struggle as a war against barbarism, but his is a “culture” that puts babies to the sword for looking like weaklings. He ignores both religious counsel…and Spartan law, seemingly because he views death as a promotion.

Even the softer voice of Leo’s wife (Lena Headey) tells him not, “Pick up a gallon of milk on your way back” but “Come back with your shield or on it.” Like “no prisoners,” which also pops up here, this is a familiar battle cry that makes no sense unless violence is war’s goal rather than its means.

So our “hero” is a psycho, which puts a hollow at the center of the story.

OK, so your husband is going off to fight an invading army, he’s very likely to die, but you’re going to tell him to bring home a gallon of milk on the way back. Right.

Actually, the phrase “come back with your shield or on it” was a common admonition Spartan mothers gave their sons as they went off to war. If they came back carrying the shield, that means they fought with honor and didn’t drop it to run away. If they came back being carried on it, it meant they were either killed or wounded on the field of battle.

Victor Hansen, who has written several articles and books about the ancient world, and the Battle of Thermopylae in particular, addresses some of these comments:

…the Greeks themselves…saw their own society as antithetical to the monarchy of imperial Persia.

True, 2,500 years ago, almost every society in the ancient Mediterranean world had slaves. And all relegated women to a relatively inferior position. Sparta turned the entire region of Messenia into a dependent serf state.

But in the Greek polis alone, there were elected governments, ranging from the constitutional oligarchy at Sparta to much broader-based voting in states like Athens and Thespiae.

Most importantly, only in Greece was there a constant tradition of unfettered expression and self-criticism. Aristophanes, Sophocles and Plato questioned the subordinate position of women. Alcidamas lamented the notion of slavery.

Such openness was found nowhere else in the ancient Mediterranean world. That freedom of expression explains why we rightly consider the ancient Greeks as the founders of our present Western civilization.

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