In the touchy world of today's international politics, even 2500-year old issues can become ammunition for cultural outrage.
"Hollywood declares war on Iranians," read a headline in Iran's Ayende-no newspaper soon after the release of "300," a stylized action flick based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller which depicts the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. In the film, directed by Zack Snyder, a vastly outnumbered band of Spartans holds off a massive Persian army under King Xerxes for several days before the eventual death of every last man.
The movie has sparked a wave of protests from Iranian political leaders and publications who claim that it inaccurately and negatively portrays Persian culture.
"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.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cultural advisor Javad Shamghadri got in on the action, declaring that "300" was an effort by the United States to "compensate for its wrongdoings in order to provoke American soldiers and warmongers," according to MSNBC.
State-run Iranian television even put out several programs denouncing the film and highlighting its historical inaccuracies.
While it is hard to overlook the strong "freedom versus tyranny" undertones of the movie -- as anyone who snickered when Queen Gorgo declared "Freedom isn't free at all" would attest -- suggesting that it directly mocks modern Iranian culture is absurd.
"300" is not a historical film. It is a stylized adaptation of a graphic novel that was expressly targeted at video-game-playing males between the ages of 15 and 25 -- one of its marketing campaigns took place entirely on, ahem, MySpace. Claiming that it inaccurately portrays ancient Persians is like saying that Nacho Libre inaccurately portrays monks. But if the Iranian leadership wants to play the realism game, so be it.
Spartans did not wear leather Speedos. Giant wolves do not exist. The Persians did not use rhinoceri in battle. The Ephors did not live on top of a sheer mountain. Ephialtes was not a mutant-hunchback. The Immortals were not fanged vampires with spooky silver masks. Arrows did not really blot out the sun. Xerxes was not seven feet tall, and he was not of Hispanic descent. Kind Leonidus was not a six-packed Scottish stud-fest with a penchant for mixing modern colloquialisms and sweeping historical catch-phrases.
Apparently, Ahmadinejad and friends fail to realize that "300" is not a documentary. It is an over-the-top action thriller about as useful to real historians as Ice Age was to paleozoologists.
Accuracy aside, the Persian Empire of 480 B.C. can barely be compared to modern Iran at all. Though it originated among the Persians living on the Iranian plateau, the empire under Xerxes stretched from what is today Turkey and North Africa in the west to India in the east. Soldiers from dozens of nations across 50 degrees of longitude comprised the "Persian" army depicted in the film, and most were not natives of Iran. The Empire was the world's first superpower, and though ancient Persians and modern Iranians are connected linguistically and culturally, one can hardly argue that the modern state truly compares to the international behemoth that was ancient Persia.
Iran's government was quick to scorn "300" for provoking "American soldiers and warmongers" against the current Islamic regime -- an interesting claim, as the film takes place 1100 years before Islam was founded.
But for the sake of argument, let's concede that the film claims to be completely accurate. We'll even pretend that its portrayal of ancient Persia is directly indicative of modern sentiment toward Iran. One enormous hole remains in the argument of those who denounce "300": It is a Hollywood movie. No matter how much we politicize it and speculate about racist undercurrents, there is no denying that Zack Snyder created this film to tap a market of young moviegoers looking for a bloody graphic novel adaptation on the silver screen -- in other words, to make money.
The venture has, indeed, proven lucrative. Appealing to a surprisingly wide fan base, the film grossed $71 million on opening weekend, ranking it at nineteenth best in box office history. Yet, it hardly seems likely that Snyder is sitting at home counting his money and thinking, "Now I've shown those Iranians who's boss!" He's probably at home just counting his money.
All told, "300" is too stylized and commercialized to be taken seriously. Its theme of freedom versus oppression was created to appeal to the modern American audience, not to channel some sort of political hatred at Iran. The fact that this controversy has occurred at all is proof that Iranian hardliners like Cultural Advisor Shamghadri were simply out looking for something Western to denounce. It was only a matter of time before their attacks fell on an innocent graphic novel adaptation.
