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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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.