APOCALYPTO - MOVIE REVIEWS: 300

For Persian people across the world, the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) is highly respected. The respect that Iranians have for this dynasty is at the very least equal to the respect that Americans have for the founding fathers of the United States. Before making a movie about that dynasty, one must be careful to portray them as the exemplary kings and rulers they truly were. They gave the world its first view of democracy, freedom, fair treatment of POW's, and equality for all. The history of humanity is of course based on a collection of causes and effects. For every action in this world, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 2,500 years ago, Cyrus The Great granted the Jewish people freedom from slavery in Babylon. Many Jews stayed in Persia, and have enjoyed the prosperity in Iran for 2500 years. Many of these freed Jews emigrated to Europe and the United States, where they eventually became doctors, scientists, civil rights activists, artists, actors, and film studio executives. Many of these exemplary Jews in the US are indeed the descendents of the emancipated Jews of Babylon. I find it amazing that the same population of Jews who benefited from the freedom granted to them by Cyrus The Great would make a movie about his dynasty portraying his dynasty as blood sucking, uncivilized creatures from the underworld. (At this point, please know that I am a mix of Kurdish, Jewish, Muslim, Zoroastrian, and Persian ancestry. I believe that this interesting mix that I carry in my heritage was only possible in a diverse and tolerant culture such as Persia.) How would American people like it if Iran made an Internationally-released film about George Washington, portraying him as a cruel, slave-owning, greedy man; putting together a million man army, waging a war on 300 black slaves or natives; presenting him as sexually deviant, decadent, with tattoos, piercings, nude, and shrouded in darkness? The film would present the American culture unworthy, ungodly, inhumane, dangerous, and undemocratic. What a slap in the face that would be for America. People must understand that the Achaemenid Dynasty are very highly regarded (right up there with Mohammed Mossadegh, for those of you who know who he was), and respected by Iranian people as well as historians and cultural experts around the world. Since the makers of "300" had intended to make a negative movie about Iran, it would been a more popular movie if the subject of negativity was indeed the current Iranian regime, or various eras when Iran was under Arab or Ottoman rule. But to make a negative film about the greatest kings of Persia - - and the for that matter the world has ever seen - - was very immoral and unethical. Facts: For American Soldiers who are trying to draw parallels from this movie to our current shenanigans in The Middle East, and want to think that you are the army from Sparta standing outnumbered against an evil empire today, please take some time to learn about the Spartan culture and find out what that society was really like. They were not what this movie says they were. Sparta was a violent society. They were very war-like and their warriors were taught from early childhood to be violent and blood thirsty. They killed each other and their slaves in an attempt to prove that they were physically superior. Infants were examined by the elders for physical fitness. The ones who were physically inferior or weak were considered unworthy, and were left in the wild to die. They were cruel to their women, who were only used as tools for childbirth for the state. It was all about the state. They actually were very Nazi-like. So, all of you great American solders and Marines out there, please remember the United States military code - - you fight to protect the ones who cannot fight for themselves. This is what our country is about. We do not kill the week and subjugate our women. Spartan soldiers were mentally traumatized people who grow up with cruelty and violence inflicted upon them by their own parents, their teachers, the state, and their culture. They only knew pain and violence and enjoyed killing. Sparta was not a democratic society. It was indeed a fascist culture - - a culture that Nazi Germany was modeled after - - not the United States. - It was initially one of the city-states of what eventually became Greece that attacked Persia in the first place, and thus started the Greco- Persian wars (In reality, initially Greeks were the aggressors). - The whole idea of a million-man Persian army is absurd. The whole Persian Empire was populated with three million people. This movie says that for every three persons in the Persian Empire there was one person in the army. Was this an army of women and children? Think about this - - today in the modern world, the US has a population of 300 million, and we have 30,000 troop in Iraq, and in spite of our modern ways and comforts, we are having a difficult time sustaining them with food, clean water, and adequate equipment. So, how could a million-man army and their horses march from Persepolis to Greece, especially 2500 years ago? The logistics of supporting a 30,000-man army is difficult enough (which it probably closer to the actual number of troops). How could Xerxes and his men and horses travel across a very difficult landscape, through harsh weather for 1,500 miles, while providing them with proper clothing, food, water, heavy weaponry, shelter, and medicine? Anyone who has been affiliated with any military should have an understanding of the logistics of keeping a marching army in good heath and morale and ready for battle. - Many aspects of Greco-Persian history as told from the Persian side were destroyed when a violent Alexander "The Great", in his violent rage, attacked Persia and destroyed the Persian libraries of Persepolis and all of her educational buildings. The only documentation left is based on the writings of Herodotus, a Greek Historian who many years after the actual battle started to document the history of the Battle of Thermopyale. Most of the accounts are based on hear-say. He exaggerated the facts using Greek Mythology, portraying the Spartan King and his army as descendants of Zeus and his family. Even Herodius's actual recording of his version of history put the Greek army at 7,000 (in which 300 of them happened to be from Sparta). - "300" also fails to show that there were more Greeks fighting on the Persian side than on the Greek side. These Greek soldiers were fighting on the Persian side because under Persian policies they were considered equals and treated as such while enjoying the kindness and hospitality of the Persian culture. Those Greeks were loyal to the Persian king and empire. They were the children of the defeated soldiers in the previous Greco-Persian battles who were accepted as equal Persian citizens. (Unlike many cultures from those days, defeated armies and cultures under Persian rule were treated with kindness, and enjoyed freedom of religion and the protection of Persian hospitality, whereas other cultures would turn the defeated army and people into slaves.) - The film portrays Persian people as black. The Persian people are white, and indeed the term "Aryan" refers to the people of the Iranian plateau and their descendants. Think about this - - why is it that every time Hollywood wants to portray a group of people as evil and uncivilized, they show them as non-white people? If I was of black origin, I would be extremely upset and offended by this. As it is I am offended by this, and I feel that portraying the good as white Europeans and the bad as black is extremely Nazi-esque and unfair, not to mention the fact that most atrocities committed against humanity have been committed by white Europeans (i.e. the Jewish Holocaust). In the original comic book on which this movie is based, both Greek and Persian are black, but for the movie the Greeks are suddenly white. The makers of the movie say they are "being true to the comic book". Really? Somebody please explain this blatant and bold act of prejudice. Why its it that a film with a negative message about Persian culture is released at the dawn of a US military build-up in the Persian Gulf, and a potential invasion of Iran? The filmmakers are using art as a propaganda tool to prepare the atmosphere for another war so-called "war against terror". Sincerely, Marina the Persian