*************** TRASH ***************. Review on 300 Movie

After reading a number of reviews on the internet and in the print media, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon, watching the movie 300. It is “claimed” to be based on the heroic resistance of Spartans against their mighty adversaries the Persians, in the battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans, in spite of being numerically outnumbered, fought off the invaders to the last man and defined one of the most famous battles in history with their own blood. Depicting historical events on celluloid is a very difficult and a cumbersome task for any film maker worth his/her salt.

The project not only involves about having the facts in the right places, but also simulating the era, in which the supposed event was to have taken place. The film makers, who are often free to use their artistic freedom to depict an event in a more exciting manner, it looks like the makers of 300 had some other things in mind. Perhaps, they just played to the gallery of the politicians. In US, there are two centers of power, one is of the politicians and the other one is of the corporate Czars. The film has been directed with a secret agenda in mind. The facts have been twisted around to prepare the general American public for the impending standoff with Iran (Modern Persia). With not much success in Afghanistan and Iraq to talk about and with the morale of their troops at an all time low, this movie succeeds up to a limit in injecting new hatred and jingoistic fervor among the American audiences.

There is an attempt to portray the good guys versus the bad guys and good guys are of course white skinned Europeans, whereas the bad guys are either dark skinned or brown skinned dirty people. In other words, a message is being communicated to the audience that while white skin is all about virtuosity, bravery and the one that values freedom and democracy, while the dark and brown skins are barbaric, illiterate, uncultured and sexually deviant races.

Anyone, who has met a Greek in real life, be they from Athens or southern part of Greece, where once Sparta was, would see that far from being white skinned and having blonde hair, the Greeks look like any other fair skinned Indian. I am saying this, based on what I have seen. Even, the Greek northerner Alexander from Macedonia, the greatest pillager in history, had dark hair. In this movie, we have these tall, white men, sporting gymnasium sculpted bodies and moving around in bare chests in true “He-man” style. They have only three things with them, their helmet, their shield and their swords.

There is a scene in the movie, where Spartan army captain’s son is killed by a Persian horseman. When Leonidas later talks to him, his captain tells him that he is filled with “hatred” (towards Persians) and Leonidas shakes head in agreement. The word “hate” is all what those pulling the strings behind the screen want to deliver. It looks absurd that we talk about “globalization” at one hand and then orchestrate jingoistic passions amongst the masses that would later be instrumental in molding the public opinion regarding any step that those in power, take. Persians are routinely referred to as “barbarians” and yes kicking an unarmed messenger and his body guards into the well was the western way of defining “civility”? Heh, the movie is a BIG JOKE!

Persian Empire was far more civilized and richer in literature, science and mathematics than any of their European counterparts. Yes, the Greeks gave a good fight to the Persians, but that must not mean that Persians should be depicted in whatever ways one wants to depict. The artistic freedom in the movie has been stretched to the limit of credulity.

In all the frames of the entire battle sequence, we see not more than 10-15 Spartans holding off Persians and hacking their enemies around like lambs, without losing a single finger of their ranks, though it was enough to show the gashes suffered by soldiers from Persian weaponry . Xerxes never came face to face with Leonidas, leave alone having to suffer the ignominy of getting his cheek slashed from Leonidas’ spear. Then surprisingly, all of a sudden, the Greeks who held for two days, surviving the rain of Persian arrows, are wiped off in less than five minutes during climax! I couldn’t figure out, how can an army be destroyed in a couple of minute’s time?

This is a highly biased, hate mongering, racist movie ever made. The aim of the movie is not to tell viewers about an incident in history, but to condition the masses from mingling with other people from different nationalities and to secure the base of the current ruling elite. Technical aspects of the movie cannot save it from being labeled as “TRASH”.

In the end, all I want to say is, our history is all about civilizations that existed on the face of earth eons ago. Be it our own Indian civilization, be it Mesopotamian civilization, Chinese civilization, the Greek civilization, the ancient Egyptian civilization, the Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, Nazca and Africa etc. Whatever we have today, is because our ancestors gave us their knowledge, helped us to stand on a solid foundation. Today, we stand on the shoulders of these great civilizations. It doesn’t matter, whether they were located in Asia, Africa, Europe or Americas. Even though, they were culturally and linguistically and ethnically different from us, they gave us something that we could further work and improve upon. As much we are indebted to our ancestors, we should be indebted to our ancestors in far lung places around the globe. I do not see what stops us from respecting and taking pride in other cultures and civilizations? We will see end to all the bloodshed and hatred that is spreading through the world, only when we start regarding other people’s ancestors, giving due recognition to their accomplishments, achievements and successes. Let not history sour the relationship between people, but help us to understand each other, respect and love each other.