, with very strong pro and con feelings being expressed. Now David G.has seen it on DVD and shares his thoughts:
First, to set the stage: There is an early scene where a messenger from the Persian god-king Xerxes asks Leonidas, the King of Sparta, for an offering of “earth and water” as a gesture of submission to Xerxes in return for his kingdom being left intact.
Now, I usually watch DVDs with the English subtitles on because I’m a stickler for dialogue and because the spoken word is often hard to make out clearly on a television. The word submission is isolated on the caption screen as Leonidas ponders the offer. Islam, of course, means submission and the use of that particular word does carry weight despite the fact that the events taking place on the screen pre-date Islam by a thousand years.
But Leonidas threatens the messenger, who declares, “This is blasphemy, this is madness.” With a nod from his wife, Leonidas kicks the messenger into a well with the words “Madness? THIS IS SPARTA! The messenger’s minions soon follow their leader into the pit and as they descend you see their pajama-like desert garb, complete with face coverings, fluttering as they fall in slow motion into the abyss.
Later, as the Persians approach the Hot Gates, where the battle is to take place, Leonidas turns to his men and fiercely assesses their task:
“This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die! Moments later, he says, “Give them nothing! Take from them everything.”
Eventually facing defeat, Leonidas once again refuses submission.
I didn’t realize the extent of the debate on this film until I actually saw it and then researched some reviews and commentary. It’s pretty remarkable.
Victor Davis Hanson liked the film and according to his website he is writing a forward to a booklet on the film. He wrote:
“If critics think that 300 reduces and simplifies the meaning of Thermopylae into freedom versus tyranny, they should reread carefully ancient accounts and then blame Herodotus, Plutarch, and Diodorus—who long ago boasted that Greek freedom was on trial against Persian autocracy, free men in superior fashion dying for their liberty, their enslaved enemies being whipped to enslave others.”
Other comments range from “get a life, it’s a comic book story,” to serious tracts written by PhDs correcting the false portrait of Sparta, Xerxes and the Persian civilization that 300 depicts.
Is this a propaganda film? If you read the reviews coming out of Iran and India and from those who see 300 as “fascist aesthetics” and pure Orientalism, a la Edward Said—yes. (Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned it—I didn’t even know he reviewed movies).
In the film, all the Spartans are white and the Persians are “people of color.” One Indian scholar noted this and you can read his comments. And here are some others, this and this.
In The Book of Military Quotations by Peter Tsouris there is this gem:
“When somebody asked [Agesilauis, Eurypontid King of Sparta] why Sparta lacked fortification walls, he pointed to the citizens under arms and said, “These are the Spartans’ walls.”—Plutarch
That spirit of Sparta is certainly depicted in the film.
As I watched 300, I envied the relentless, heroic fury of the Spartans and wished that we had the same fervor in protecting our culture and borders that these fictional Spartans exhibited in protecting theirs. In our case, that doesn’t even require us being “under arms.” All we would have to do is merely enforce our laws. The difference is that the laws of Sparta were lived laws, they shaped and determined behavior and a citizen’s worth was gauged by such adherence. In place of that we have elevated ever-changing standards of political correctness, little embraced and little believed in by the populace, which are mere impositions designed to separate traditional citizens from their roots and beliefs.
Toward the conclusion of the film the immortal lines are delivered “Go tell the Spartans, passerby, that here, by Spartan law, we lie.” This is a reference to the Spartan law, “never retreat, never surrender.” Once again, I had to ask myself; what if we took our laws, our culture, that seriously? Would we have 20 million illegal immigrants in the country today demanding a “pathway to citizenship?” Would we be facing, that is, tolerating, the steady advance of sharia?
In many ways, 300 is a reminder of the things that we are in danger of losing. Things that the liberal Zeitgeist has worked hard to neglect or destroy.