amari_z | You can't please all of the people all of the time

So, I went to see the 300 this afternoon. I wanted to like it, I really did. I had tried to check my historical sensibilities at the door and suspended my disbelief, and, especially given the mood I've been in lately, I was all too eager to watch some ass kicking--but you know what? I actually left the theater despising it.

Oh, the visuals were neat, the male bodies nicely sculpted, the fight scenes interestingly staged, but, seriously? Every racist stereotype, every homophobic prejudice taken and run with. It pushed all the wrong buttons, pandered to prejudice, and I'm actually appalled.

(And don't tell me that this is based on reality. Xerxes was likely as white skinned as Leonidas, who, by the way, was one of two kings. Sparta was not a democracy in any modern sense of the word but a society built on slave labor. Historically, Spartans were known as lacking in art, culture, learning and philosophy--and placing no value on such things. So, white men fighting for liberty, rationality, freedom, democracy, civilization, etc. against ethnically monstrous hordes of cowardly exotics enslaved to a false god. Yeah. Sounds just a little familiar.)

I know a lot of people enjoyed this movie, and I really wanted to, but just no fucking way. I can't turn off my brain to that extent. And in the world we unfortunately live in today, I can't write this off as just harmless stupidity in the name of "entertainment."

If you disagree or think I'm overreacting, I'm, despite my vehemence, happy to discuss. So, what did you think?

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Just watched the **sobs** last episode of Rome. Good, if a bit hasty. Not quite an epic sort of denouement like the one afforded to Six Feet Under (best series finale ever, IMHO). But I'm glad Attia got one last parting shot, and as for Pullo...

Point well made. Though I'd have to place more of the blame on Frank Miller. He won't option out his work to anyone who doesn't agree to do a frame-by-frame recreation as far as the appearance of characters and scenes (plot-wise, he gave in a little; they got to name The Captain's Son, and left out a younger Stelios being beaten by the The Captain after stumbling, and stuff). From what I recall, FM's Xerxes is black/very dark skinned. The costuming and jewelry are faithful to the graphic novel, though I must have a look at it again.

Intellectually, I get that I should be offended by the Persian legions' depiction, but I'm not, perhaps because it's not my culture being mangled, and I'm self-centered like that. I know that's hardly an appropriate reaction, but I can't feel what I don't.

Good to air these issues out, though. I remember there being some discussion about ROTK, what with the Haradrim and the Corsairs all being non-Caucasian, but then again they were dealing with fictional ethnic groups (though JRT certainly had his issues, and was very specific about the cultures he portrayed as villainous).

I'm a bit conflicted when it comes to stuff like that, and it has got to do with my own prejudices. I guess it didn't bother me because I've got different issues when it comes to race. An example: I'd rather Mickey Rooney have played the hideous caricature of the Japanese neighbor in Breakfast at Tiffany's (though I'm glad we're beyond that, it took long enough; BAT is still one of my favorite films despite it) than have had a Chinese actress portray a geisha.

And it wasn't because it reinforces the stereotype that all Asians look alike, it's because, being (very minutely) part-Japanese, I couldn't suffer someone a Chinese person, someone with strikingly un-Japanese features, playing what was a symbol of unequivocal Japanese purity.

Terrible, isn't it? Oh well. Glad that you put this out there.

Oh, and I really don't think people will equate the mighty superpower of the US armed forces as underdogs battling against hoards of heathens and use this film as a battle cry. The people dumb enough to think that way will just think the film is gay (gay Hollywood propaganda even, despite the 'boy-lovers' statement), given all the over-the-top bared man flesh of EU and Australian actors. The film quality isn't quite low-brow enough to make it a war allegory for the masses.

They do make it plain that Xerxes's forces had warriors from just about every place he'd conquered, so while it would've been better to have had some good looking, fit white faces, I don't think Xerxes's troupes are seen as representative of other races collectively.

I still have the whole season of Rome to watch. I don't know when I'll get around to it, since I don't actually want it to end—and if I watch one, I probably won't sleep until I've seen them all. Not healthy.

I actually don't care whether the images originate from the GN or not. The moviemakers chose to make the movie, and whatever stips the writer wanted, it was their choice to make the agreement.

This actually shouldn't be my culture either. The fact that I'm so pissed is a tip off about the dishonesty of the movie. I mean, Christ, I root for the Greeks when I read Herodotus. The Achaemenids are nothing to do with me. I'm not even Persian and so have no tendency to want to latch on them in the interests of pseudo nationalistic pride. And while, yes, Xerxes's army is supposed to come from all over his empire, and Herodotus does, in the tradition of the Homer's catalogue of the ship, run through the people who make up his army, and does include "Indians," "Ethiopians" and "Arabians," these are only a few among many people who would been from "Aryan" or Semitic descent. Certainly, from Herodotus own account, as I recall, the Medes and Persians lead off the assault at Thermopylae. (And I just have to mention, in a more amused away, wtf was up with the "hot gates"? Did they really think that "Thermopylae" was too difficult for movie goers? And are people so ignorant today that the name Thermopylae carries no resonance for them, no matter how dim and nebulous? Before the movie started to seriously piss me off, I was giggling every time a character said it, because, man, did it sound stupid.)

And to get technical, I don't think there's actually anyway to know, from Herodotus, the skin color of the peoples in Xerxes armies. Herodotus, as far as I can recall (although admittedly it's been awhile since I read him), doesn't tell us--what he does do is describe the clothing and weapons of each contingent. I do recall him saying that the Ethiopians were said to be the most handsome people in the world. I think he also does mention two types of Ethiopians--ones with straight and ones with curly hair. So, based on Herodotus alone, there is definitely a basis for thinking that there were black people in Xerxes army, but that hardly excuses the film. It is also interesting to me that not only did the creators chose to make Xerxes, an Aryan, dark/black, but that they did this while trying to make him an utterly evil character. That is not Herodotus' portrayal at all, but theirs. Ignoring the god delusions, gigantism, and bondage jewelry--Xerxes is simply not an evil figure in Herodotus. In fact, he is shown doing generous things, such as not killing the Spartans who are sent to him for punishment when the Spartans are trying to appease the gods/spirits (I can't exactly remember but there's someone in particular, I want to say Agamemnon's messenger?) for their sacrilegious act (under their own view of the world) of killing the Persian king's messenger. Anyway, the Greeks were apparently in some ways more sophisticated then we are today, and Herodotus was writing in the tradition that had produced Homer. No war brings true glory unless it is against a worthy foe.

Cont'd from above, because, well, blah blah blah.

I actually do find JRRT a bit offensive as well—but not quite as much, since his world is a fantasy and he was somewhat of a product of his time. I was more pissed at Jackson and Co. for just running with it. I remember watching one of the making of specials and one of the technical people bragging a bit about how far and wide they'd researched "exotic" (my word, not theirs) cultures to get the Haradrim's look, and thinking, are you smoking crack (not the good kind)?

But for me, this one is far, far worse. I actually disagree with you about it being a stretch to associate the Spartans with America. Yes, if you think it through it doesn't work, but the movie uses much of the same rhetoric that the administration does (and their rhetoric makes just as much sense). I don't think it's an overestimation of people's stupidity that they would subconsciously or consciously associate the good guys, fighting alone for "justice," "reason," and "freedom" with the US (with the effeminate Athenians, oops, I mean Europeans, not pulling their weight) against the "mysticism and tyranny" of the chaotic, teeming hoards of the irrational East who are out to destroy all that is good and free and who view the Westerners as "blasphemous" (the repeated use of this word was particularly interesting). Even if people don't go that far, it still leaves the viewer with an image vilifying certain (unrelated) groups at a time where all we need is more blind, stupid stereotyping to flame the ignorance and excuse the warmongering.

And if the box office results are anything to go by, the movie is being watched by more than just a more "highbrowed" crowd. It's really quite like a video game brought more fully to life.

Also, despite the manly slashy vibe between whatzhisname and the captain’s son that slathers may pick up and run with, I have to say that this movie was really quite pleased to make a point of associating homosexuality and effeminate type characterizations with evil. I had thought we were somewhat over that by now.

And, by the way, historians do have some idea of what the Immortals wore. It wasn't loose black clothes with a mask. Maybe I'm off base with this, but they put me in mind of ninjas wearing noh type masks. So, at least to my mind, the movie didn't limit its stereotyping to just dark skinned groups. I actually thought that while I was watching the movie, but as I was leaving the theater, I did hear some idiot male in his 20s talking to his friend about the "samurai." This type of stupidity is what, to my mind, you get when conflate racial stereotypes in the interests of finding a shorthanded way of provoking a the lowest type of visceral reaction in your audience.

You can't please all of the people all of the time

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