Movie 300: A tale of pure fantasy
3/11/07Being an Iranian and having heard of all the many negative remarks,
petitions, and other complaints, I decided to see the movie "300"
for myself while fully prepared to be totally offended. But after stomaching two hours of
the most gruesome graphic scenes, I walked out feeling sorrier for the
Greeks.
The viewer must be forewarned that the movie, although loosely connected
to Battle of Thermopylae, an event that took place in 480BC, is entirely based on Frank Miller's
fictional comic [1] of the same name and judging from what I saw, it is a
faithful rework of that novel . Persian King Xerxes, for example, is not as the
bearded figure perched on his throne as depicted on the walls of
Xerxes on the wall of
Xerxes character in Movie “300” and in Miller’s
novel
Leonidas character in Movie “300” and in Miller’s
novel
Having read the Greek historian Herodotus account of the events at
This heavily fictionalized film shows the mad Greeks battling wild
beasts, giants, and fang toothed men totally degrading one of the key battles in
Greco-Persian history. They face not the army of Xerxes described by Herodotus,
but that of monstrous beings from some distant Sci-Fi universe.
Historical purists looking for an accurate reenactment of the battle at
[1] http://www.amazon.com/300-Frank-Miller/dp/1569714029
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerxes_I