300 ... the most homophobic mainstream flick I have seen in years. It's as if the villianizing of gay characters was part of the the plot!
"Let's take all the bad guys and girls and make them queer!... that'll REALLY make the teenagers hate them!" "Let's make Xerxes this strange transgender middlesex sort of character to shock the hell out of suburban movie goers and depict him as a vicious murderer while we are at it."
And let's forget that it is a well-known fact that Spartan men were highly "flexible" wtih regard to their sexual preferences.
Ew... the whole thing was cheap manipulation of people's homophobia. Made me really nuts.
And don't forget the unnecessary raping of Lena Headey's character. Considering, ironically enough since it's from a Frank Miller story, it was a scene *not* lifted from the original text.
Opps, I liked that one. It's a comic book. They didn't gloss over the Spartan manlove ----shield mates were there. The comment was that the Athenians were boy lovers. As for the overthetop Xerxes, he was just a nutbag, megalomaniac ---so are all the villains in the comics. So is Kim in North Korea.
noted... well, variety is the spice of life and while i interpret the transgendered murdous Xerxes as a blatant manipulation of history and homophobia. You see him as a nutbug. : ) all's good. cheers! Viva la variety! However, I respectfully disagree agreeably...
Granted, it was a graphic novel-- and I appreciate Frank Miller's work. I just don't like the fact that now every 14 year old boy who saw the movie now believes that Leonidas and Xerxes were both at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.... because Xerxes was never there... and never, ever came face to face with Leonidas.
But I will admit that I have developed a particular and somewhat biased disdain for blatant representation of homosexuality alongside deformity -- which amounts to manipulation of American well-documented homophobia- the largest media consumption market in the world. It sells!
The frenching lesbians with the bondage chains, collars and scarred branded faces --- all in the BAD GUY's camp! were just a little over the top for me.
I respectfully yield to your offense at the selling of a totally unhistorical, bastardized comic as history and supporting the pubescent indoctrination of homophobia in popular culture. I agree. But this was also the most homoerotic thing that I've seen on film. Not many adults have read or heard of Herodotus, probably the most quoted of the historians. Even his telling of the battle is questioned, politics and propaganda were not born in this century. Yes, there was not an iota of fact in this 'film'. Well, the festival in august played a small part, Leonidas did die there. The persians did find out about the mountain pass and flank the greeks- but there was no such grotesquely deformed greek as their Benedict Arnold(we could have a discussion about the gross character assassination of this man too.) Yes, the Greek city-states squabbled and many sided with the Persians. Getting everyone to agree was like herding cats(UN, anyone?). Xerxes was slowed by the Spartans who won the propaganda war. Publicity like that costs billions today. But this movie or comic-history? Of course not. Not anymore than 'Pearl Harbor ' is-simply horrid movie. I totally understand your disdain for the representation of the grotesque here as vile,distasteful,and traitorous, essentially homophobic. Xerxes certainly didn't look like a refugee from a mad max film. Perhaps, it was taken by Miller as Herodotus mentioned the Persians to be- having a feminine nature. This was all to glorify the manly Spartans(Herodotus favored them over the other greeks-bent as he was), to immortalize them in a book...They,the Persians, dressed differently,exotically, in silks,bejeweled. Prejudices were used then too. I doubt that any of us would disagree. Philosophically, we are in concurrence. If I was at a different time in my life,I'd be just as angry. I took the film simply as an exercise in style. A telling with a decided bias to present a fable, the perfect versus imperfect, neither of which actually ever exists.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 03:27 pm (UTC)... the most homophobic mainstream flick I have seen in years. It's as if the villianizing of gay characters was part of the the plot!
"Let's take all the bad guys and girls and make them queer!... that'll REALLY make the teenagers hate them!" "Let's make Xerxes this strange transgender middlesex sort of character to shock the hell out of suburban movie goers and depict him as a vicious murderer while we are at it."
And let's forget that it is a well-known fact that Spartan men were highly "flexible" wtih regard to their sexual preferences.
Ew... the whole thing was cheap manipulation of people's homophobia. Made me really nuts.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-24 11:05 pm (UTC)I liked that one. It's a comic book. They didn't gloss over the Spartan manlove ----shield mates were there. The comment was that the Athenians were boy lovers.
As for the overthetop Xerxes, he was just a nutbag, megalomaniac ---so are all the villains in the comics. So is Kim in North Korea.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-27 10:06 pm (UTC)Granted, it was a graphic novel-- and I appreciate Frank Miller's work. I just don't like the fact that now every 14 year old boy who saw the movie now believes that Leonidas and Xerxes were both at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C.... because Xerxes was never there... and never, ever came face to face with Leonidas.
But I will admit that I have developed a particular and somewhat biased disdain for blatant representation of homosexuality alongside deformity -- which amounts to manipulation of American well-documented homophobia- the largest media consumption market in the world. It sells!
The frenching lesbians with the bondage chains, collars and scarred branded faces --- all in the BAD GUY's camp! were just a little over the top for me.
comic book history
Date: 2007-08-28 12:17 am (UTC)Not many adults have read or heard of Herodotus, probably the most quoted of the historians. Even his telling of the battle is questioned, politics and propaganda were not born in this century. Yes, there was not an iota of fact in this 'film'. Well, the festival in august played a small part, Leonidas did die there. The persians did find out about the mountain pass and flank the greeks- but there was no such grotesquely deformed greek as their Benedict Arnold(we could have a discussion about the gross character assassination of this man too.) Yes, the Greek city-states squabbled and many sided with the Persians. Getting everyone to agree was like herding cats(UN, anyone?). Xerxes was slowed by the Spartans who won the propaganda war. Publicity like that costs billions today. But this movie or comic-history? Of course not. Not anymore than 'Pearl Harbor ' is-simply horrid movie.
I totally understand your disdain for the representation of the grotesque here as vile,distasteful,and traitorous, essentially homophobic. Xerxes certainly didn't look like a refugee from a mad max film. Perhaps, it was taken by Miller as Herodotus mentioned the Persians to be- having a feminine nature. This was all to glorify the manly Spartans(Herodotus favored them over the other greeks-bent as he was), to immortalize them in a book...They,the Persians, dressed differently,exotically, in silks,bejeweled. Prejudices were used then too. I doubt that any of us would disagree. Philosophically, we are in concurrence. If I was at a different time in my life,I'd be just as angry. I took the film simply as an exercise in style. A telling with a decided bias to present a fable, the perfect versus imperfect, neither of which actually ever exists.