Woes of Persia

[fu_manchu12]

I was interested to see this:

Iranians take offence at depiction of ancient PersiansWhile I sympathise with their annoyance, they allege that George Bush's 'Axis of Evil' ideology is behind the negative portrayal of the Persians - as decadent effeminates who covet Western lands, but who are destined to be repeatedly hacked apart by Europeans with

Comments

[anotherusedpage]

Huh, that's interesting. I gather 300's been accused of being homophobic as well... I'll still probably see it though.

Thing is, I suspect very few people in the west would have noticed that the Persians in the film are technically speaking the same nationality as the Iranians if the Iranians hadn't pointed it out...

Don't various of the Alexander The Great sources insult the pants of the Persians as effeminate and all the rest of it? I think it's cultural baggage they just have to live with. Although, having said that, holywood isn't exactly known for being respectful of other people's cultural heritages - just look at Troy...

Right, I feel that may be enough blathering now...

[thalassius]

I liked the comment about how it was outrageous that Alexander 'showed the Macedonian general easily conquering the Persian Empire'. After all, it's not as if he conquered an empire the size of Europe in only seven years with a fraction of the men - and then his successors hung onto its territories (albeit in separate parts) for another century