(Untitled)

[heraclitus]

The 300 is a fascist movie. It advocates the violent extermination of non-whites by a professional warrior caste of whites bred for the purpose. If you like the movie, you like a film that makes being a fascist look cool, and if you like the characters in 300, you like fascists. If the Nazis had won World War 2, we would be watching these kinds of

Comments

[phanatic]

This is the first negative review of the movie I've read that is worth taking seriously.

[heraclitus]

Thanks.

[dominika_kretek]

Also: PERSIANS??? God help us.

[madmanofprague]

It's kind of weird that the phrases they used to describe the Persians made them sound kind of like the United Federation of Planets.

[heraclitus]

The constantly stated emphasis on proper breeding as the mark of a true warrior, the systematic killing of the helpless, the disparaging of the "soft" Arcadians and Athenians as ultimately unable to defend Greece, and the reduction of the enemies to inhuman monsters. Some of these actions are similar to those of other totalitarian regimes, but the cluster of them and how they're fit together is fascist. I think it's not just authoritarian because of the depiction of the systematic killing of the helpless, and the emphasis on breeding. Those two things together are red flags for fascism.

The problem of the film comes down to two things: 1) It approves of all the barbaric, vicious bullshit it shows the Spartans doing, and 2) It is not interested in being "realistic" or "historical" and so can't look to reality for an excuse. If those two things are true, then the filmmakers consciously chose to try and make us sympathise with people who kill helpless people.

[madmanofprague]

s it really out of place to depict such an army as otherwordly?

So what do you think they were trying to do by depicting Xerxes as a femmey Goa'uld?

[epictetus_rex]

We're meant to identify with the Spartans throughout this film, but the Spartans aren't really us at all. They're an arrogant warrior caste fighting for an authoritarian regime founded on personal charisma. They simply happen to parrot the right kinds of catch-phrases about "freedom" to make us think, if we don't critically reflect, that they share something in common with us.

We live in nations, let us not forget, where our soldiers are more akin to the citizen-soldiers of Arcadia than the Spartans.

Bingo. Bing the fuck go. We have no CONCEPT of what it means to live in a spartan, or even roman society. Most of us, when actually shown what it requires to participate in such a culture, would recoil rather violently. If your daughter was raped and her attacker pardoned because of his status as a warrior, how would you feel, dumbasses?

[phanatic]

If your daughter was raped and her attacker pardoned because of his status as a warrior, how would you feel, dumbasses?

Like a Saudi?

[heraclitus]

Yes, but you disapprove of Saudi culture's handling of that situation (as do I and I would assume epictetus_rex). It's important to not only reject the vicious bullshit other people pull, but to avoid pulling that same vicious bullshit ourselves. That's why it's important to be critical of things like 300, to make sure that we aren't getting confused and turned about through clever rhetoric.

[plural]

win

[bookwormpride]

good writing. I think your sentences are gettting shorter and better.

[heraclitus]

Thanks. I'm spending a lot of time thinking about my novel, and it's changing the way I speak and write.