300 The Movie And The Battle of Thermopylae

A recent newspaper article describes how a hit cartoon film about 300 Spartans defeating a massive Persian army at the famed Battle of Thermopylae has met with a hostile response from Iranian nationals...

A recent article published by Australia's The Sydney Morning Herald describes how hostilities have broken out over a hit cartoon film about 300 Spartans defeating a massive Persian army.

According to the article, the release of "300" - animated by the Aussie team behind Happy Feet - provoked the headline "Hollywood declares war on Iranians" in Tuesday's edition of Iran's independent Ayende-No newspaper.

The movie racked up a March record of $A89.22 million in its opening weekend in the US.

A Sydney-based production house behind Happy Feet, Animal Logic, was instrumental in creating the mostly computer-generated battleground for the interpretation of the famed battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.

The movie 300 is based on Sin City writer Frank Miller's graphic novel about the battle, in which 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days.

The newspaper article goes on to say that even some American reviewers noted the political overtones of the West-against-Iran story line - and the way Persians are depicted as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks.

In Iran, the movie hasn't opened and it is expected that it never will, given the government's current restrictions on Western films.

The news article notes that the movie comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and Iran over the Persian nation's nuclear program and the Iraq war. Aside from politics, the film was also seen as an attack on Persian history, a source of pride for many Iranians across the political spectrum, including critics of the current Islamic regime.

State-run television ran several commentaries calling the film insulting and even brought on Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies.

"The film depicts Iranians as demons, without culture, feeling or humanity, who think of nothing except attacking other nations and killing people," Ayende-No said in an article.

"It is a new effort to slander the Iranian people and civilization before world public opinion at a time of increasing American threats against Iran," it said.

The film from Warner Bros. (a unit of Time Warner Inc) earned almost US$71 million on the weekend before the article was published, making it the best March movie opening in history, according to the Sydney Morning Herald news article.

For those who are interested in knowing more about the battle of Thermopylae, we have two audiobook titles that address this topic in our audiobook catalog:

The Persian War - Herodotus (4 hours - Abridged)

In this, the first prose history in European civilization. Herodotus tells the heroic tale of the Greeks' resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, King of Persia. Here are not only the great battles - Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis - but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.

They Saw It Happen - Published by Naxos (5 Hours)

Here are more than 60 eyewitness accounts from history. Many are notable events: the Battle of Thermopylae, The Black Death in 1348, the Great Fire of London, the execution of Louis XVI, the death of Nelson, the American Civil War and the bombing of Hiroshima. But there are also snapshots of more ordinary life - no less memorable for all that - including working conditions during the Industrial Revolution, views of slave owners and slaves, Paul Gaugin choosing a bride on Tahiti and the arrest of Dr Crippen. It is a fascinating and absorbing collection, bringing the past alive as only direct memories like these can do.

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