Criticism of the movie "300"

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Contents 1 Controversy 1.1 Reviews 2 Parodies 3 External links 4 References

Controversy

Before the release of 300, Warner Brothers expressed concerns about the political aspects of the film's theme. Snyder relates that there was "a huge sensitivity about East versus West with the studio."^[1] Media speculation about a possible parallel between the Greco-Persian conflict and current events began in an interview with Snyder that was conducted before the Berlin Film Festival.^[2] The interviewer remarked that "everyone is sure to be translating this [film] into contemporary politics." Snyder replied that, while he was aware that people would read the film through the lens of contemporary events, no parallels between the film and the contemporary world were intended.^[3]

Outside the current political parallels, some critics have raised more general questions about the film's ideological orientation. The New York Post's Kyle Smith writes that the film would have pleased "Adolf's boys,"^[4] and Slate's Dana Stevens compares the film to The Eternal Jew, "as a textbook example of how race-baiting fantasy and nationalist myth can serve as an incitement to total war."^[5] Roger Moore, a critic for the Orlando Sentinel, relates 300 to Susan Sontag's definition of "fascist art."^[6]

However, Newsday critic Gene Seymour stated that such reactions are misguided, writing that "the movie's just too darned silly to withstand any ideological theorizing."^[7] Snyder himself dismissed ideological readings, suggesting that reviewers who critique "a graphic novel movie about a bunch of guys...stomping the snot out of each other" using words like " 'neocon,' 'homophobic,' 'homoerotic' or 'racist' " are "missing the point."^[8]

Since its opening, 300 also attracted controversy over its portrayal of Persians. Various critics, historians, journalists, and officials of the Iranian government including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad^[9] denounced the film.^[10][11][12] As in the graphic novel, the Persians were depicted as a monstrous, barbaric and demonic horde, and King Xerxes was portrayed as androgynous.^[13][14] Critics suggested that this was meant to stand in stark contrast to the masculinity of the Spartan army.^[15] Steven Rea argued that the film's Persians were a vehicle for an anachronistic cross-section of Western stereotypes of Asian and African cultures.^[16]

The film's portrayal of ancient Persians caused a particularly strong reaction in Iran.^[17] Azadeh Moaveni of Time reported that Tehran was "outraged" following the film's release. Moaveni identified two factors which may have contributed to the intense reaction: its release on the eve of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, and the common Iranian view of the Achaemenid Empire as "a particularly noble page in their history."^[18][19][20] Various Iranian officials condemned the film.^{[21][22][23][24]} The Iranian Academy of the Arts submitted a formal complaint against the movie to UNESCO, labelling it an attack on the historical identity of Iran.^[25][26] The Iranian mission to the U.N. protested the film in a press release,^[27] and Iranian embassies protested its screening in France,^[28] Thailand,^[29] Turkey^[30] and Uzbekistan.^[31]

Slovenian philosopher and author Slavoj Žižek defended the movie, from those who attacked it as an example of "the worst kind of patriotic militarism with clear allusions to recent tensions with Iran and Iraq." He wrote that the story represents "a poor, small country (Greece) invaded by the army of a much large[r] state (Persia)," suggesting that the identification of the Spartans with a modern superpower is flawed. Instead of seeing a "fundamentalist" aspect in the Spartan identity, he stated that "all modern egalitarian radicals, from Rousseau to the Jacobins…imagined the republican France as a new Sparta."^[32]

Reviews

Since its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 14, 2007, in front of 1,700 audience members, 300 has received generally mixed reviews. It was reportedly panned at a press screening hours earlier, where many attendees left during the showing and those who remained booed at the end.^[33]

Variety's Todd McCarthy describes the film as "visually arresting"^[34]

A number of critical reviews appeared in major American newspapers. A.O. Scott of the New York Times describes 300 as "about as violent as Apocalypto and twice as stupid," while criticizing its color scheme and suggesting that its plot includes racist undertones.^[35] Kenneth Turan writes in the Los Angeles Times that "unless you love violence as much as a Spartan, Quentin Tarantino or a video-game-playing teenage boy, you will not be endlessly fascinated."^[36] Roger Ebert, in his review, gave the film a two-star rating, writing, "300 has one-dimensional caricatures who talk like professional wrestlers plugging their next feud."^[37]

Some Greek newspapers have been particularly critical, such as film critic Robby Eksiel, who said that moviegoers would be dazzled by the "digital action" but irritated by the "pompous interpretations and one-dimensional characters."^[38][39]

Parodies

300 has been spoofed in various media, spawning the "This is Sparta!" internet meme,^[40] with parodies also appearing in film and television. These include the short United 300, which won the Movie Spoof Award at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards. Skits based upon the film have appeared on Saturday Night Live^[41] and Robot Chicken, the latter of which mimicked the visual style of 300 in a parody set during the American Revolutionary War, titled "1776."^[42][43] 20th Century Fox released Meet the Spartans, a spoof of 300. Universal Pictures is planning a similar parody, titled National Lampoon's 301: The Legend of Awesomest Maximus Wallace Leonidas.^[44] 300 was also parodied in an episode of South Park named "D-Yikes!"^[45]

External links

• Official website
• 300 Production notes
• 300 at Allmovie
• 300 at the Internet Movie Database
• 300 at Box Office Mojo
• 300 hype at Superhero Hype!
• 300 at Rotten Tomatoes
• 300 at Metacritic

• 300 Lies? Give poetics a chance, by David C. Ryan.
• 10 things the makers of '300' got right, by Mary Beard.
• "Inside 300" by HowStuffWorks

Preceded by Wild Hogs

Box office number-one films of 2007 (USA) March 11, 2007 – March 18, 2007

Succeeded by TMNT

Preceded by Norbit

Box office number-one films of 2007 (UK) March 25, 2007

Succeeded by Mr. Bean's Holiday

References

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