In the Bullpen » Iran Slams ‘300′ Which Means It’s a Must-See

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Iran Slams ‘300′ Which Means It’s a Must-See

Filed under: Iran Watch by Chad at 1:55 pm CDT

I’m rather skeptical about the new film ‘300.’ I love action movies and the story told in the movie is a great story for the heroism of the Spartans and what the battle meant to Western Civilization, but I’m worried the movie is too ‘comic book-like’ for me to enjoy.

The film has garnered some good reviews, and some bad saying the film highlights gay men (?), but after reading how Iran has lashed out against the film, I’m convinced I must see it.

“Cultural intrusion is among the tactics always used by the aliens. Such a fabrication of culture and insult to people is not acceptable by any nation or government and we consider this attitude as hostile,” [Iranian spokesman Gholam] Elham said while speaking to reporters during his weekly press briefing here in Tehran on Tuesday.

An advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the movie insults the Persian civlization.

“Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture,” Shamqadri added “certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies.”

What other films have attacked Iran?

Sphere It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 1:55 pm CDT and is filed under Iran Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 comments for Iran Slams ‘300′ Which Means It’s a Must-See »

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Comments are not moderated and do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors of In the Bullpen. We do expect all comments to be pertinent to the discussion, not inflamatory and free from profanity.

Comments

Aside from the historical fact that ancient Persia was an empire built on conquest that was doing it’s damnedest to invade Greece, the story of Thermopylae is more of a celebration of the heroism of the 300 spartan troops (along with it’s 700 thespian supporters) in holding in check an opposing force of some 150.000 persians (at least), rather than an outright attack on persian culture. One could easily make a movie about the bravery of the german paratroopers defending Monte Casino during WW2 without praising the nazi regime…!

As for movies ‘attacking’ Iran… In a similar genre, Alexander (04) is a candidate. Caravans (78) could be another, although neither of these films directly critize Iran/Persia in any way. Not Without My Daughter (91) is the only one that comes to mind that specifically challenges the current regime.

Thermopylae has always been one of my favorite historical anecdotes and I’m definately going to see this film, regardless of reviews or the anger of mr. Ahmadinejad.

Comment by Adam B. — Wednesday, March 14, 2007 @ 3:06 am CDT
Whoops! Double post, it seems… It doesn’t acknowledge that you’ve submitted a comment, so I thought I’d lost the first post. :/

Comment by Adam B. — Wednesday, March 14, 2007 @ 5:04 am CDT
Yeah, it’s cached.

I’ve seen Alexander, but I don’t think it was tough on the Persians. Then again, it was an incredibly boring movie so it might have been and I missed it because I dozed off or something. I haven’t seen the other two movies you mention.

“One could easily make a movie about the bravery of the german paratroopers defending Monte Casino during WW2 without praising the nazi regime…!”

That’s an interesting point. I cannot think of one even semi-major movie that explores the Nazi soldiers in even a decent light. There have been many that present the Japanese side, but I don’t recall one on the Nazis. There are good stories to tell, and Monte Casino is one of them.

Comment by Chad — Wednesday, March 14, 2007 @ 9:12 am CDT