by lonelysheep 12 Replies latest social entertainment
The only thing that wore on my nerves was all of the subtle "support our troops who are fighting for freedom" talk. It was a thinly veiled "support our troops who are fighting terrorists" movie.
I saw the pro-Bush/pro-war propaganda as more overt than thinly veiled. I was very irked by the message. The cinematography was rich and makes the movie worth seeing in spite of the message.
Nvr
I enjoyed it as well. I went with the other folks in the Classics Department of my university. The fact that it looked like the graphic novel come alive was great; the fact that it sounded like a graphic novel was unfortunate. The Battle of Thermopylae is a wonderful story: a small force, doomed to lose, against a greater; the rational West against the superstitious East; free men against slaves; treachery; sacrifice. The film does not add any new themes that the ancient Greeks did not talk about (except for the romance), but I fear that the story could be used to manipulate people politically: "All they needed was more troops. The West stands for beauty, health, rationality, freedom, but the East stands for people whose bodies mortify because of either neglect or decadence and who are enslaved to tyrants and a primitive faith."
Just to note a little biblical connection here, the Bible actually mentions the war that the Thermopalae battle occurred in:
"Three more kings are yet to arise in Persia, and the fourth [Xerxes] will amass more wealth than them all, and when he is strong because of his wealth, he will rouse everything against the kingdom of Greece" (Daniel 11:2).
