300 and the Co-Opting of Film

http://home.comcast.net/~phoenixflames/300.mp3

By looking at our past, we can see elements of ourselves that are just human nature. It is our natural inclination to look for things we identify, but we shouldn’t try to find what is not there.

The film 300 opens on Friday, March 9, 2007. It is a true, but fictionalized account of the Battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago between the Spartans and the
Persian Empire. It is an underdog story; 300 men against a million. Based on visionary Frank Miller’s Graphic Novel of the same title, Director Zack Snyder recently told ABC News, “I took the battle of Thermopylae and turned it into a myth. I think my movie is the way a Greek would tell the story of Thermopylae months after it happened, not with 2,000 years of hindsight,”.

“In ‘300,’ the Spartan king Leonidas faces off against the Persian tyrant Xerxes. Some media reports speculate that one or the other is supposed to represent President Bush. Snyder, who also co-wrote the screenplay, says that he began the script long before Bush was elected, and that any connection is purely speculative.”

I’ve heard this before, this notion of mixing current politics with movies. I’m not talking about something like American Dreamz that was released in 2006, I’m talking about films like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in which the same sort of analogy was made. That President Bush represented someone in the movie, or that the movie was pro-war, pro-American and pro-Christian. These sentiments reminded me of a “kind-of-one-in-the-same-lately, right?” presence in our country ever since those attacks.

This has always bothered me, because it was another part of that jingoistic faux nationalism that was sweeping our country shortly after the terrorist attacks. Instead of doing research or reading the books, people just spouted ignorance, or what they thought they knew about The Lord of the Rings. The books were written far before this war on terror. They are not pro-America nor are they Christian in nature. They most certainly are not pro-war, in fact, quite the opposite if you pay attention to the writing.

So here we are again a few years later, and yet another wonderful movie is about to be co-opted into the wrong ideology. Worse yet, the history it teaches us is about to be corrupted by viewers who mistake the glory and honor of fighting for a way of life to a global war on terrorism. War is always terrible, and there is little good that ever comes of it. Which is why the Bush administration has done their best to blur the lines and makes us believe we are fighting for our very lives with slogans like, “we’re fighting them over there, se we don’t have fight them here.” A war on terrorism that has precious little, if nothing, to do with our country here at home is not what people should be comparing this film against.I assert that most people don’t want to learn the lessons of the past, but rather, want the easy way out of any given situation.

Sadly, the maxim is true that anything worth having is worth sacrificing for.

Thank goodness your liberty has already been paid for.

When you watch this film, instead think on their passion for living and dying. Think on their sacrifices for their countrymen.

Thank your veteran’s for their courage and commitment, regardless of when they served.

By looking at the past we can learn lessons. King Leonidas created a plan literally overnight and thwarted the Persian King Xerxes with a mere 300 men. It is too unimaginative to equate our situation to that of Sparta, simply because we are at war with someone who is in the same geographical area as Persia. In our current war, we are outnumbered, in foreign territory with a leader who is stubborn and hell bent on vendetta; and lacks the intelligence to get us out of the situation he put us in.

Thank him and those responsible the next time you vote by voting for someone other than a Republican or Democrat who put us into this mess. If we can learn from our past by learning lessons, we’ll all be better off for it.