Posted on 03/05/2007 8:57:24 AM PST by Proud_USA_Republican
LOS ANGELES, March 4 — Three weeks ago a handful of reporters at an international press junket here for the Warner Brothers movie “300,” about the battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago, cornered the director Zack Snyder with an unanticipated question.
“Is George Bush Leonidas or Xerxes?” one of them asked.
The questioner, by Mr. Snyder’s recollection, insisted that Mr. Bush was Xerxes, the Persian emperor who led his force against Greek’s city states in 480 B.C., unleashing an army on a small country guarded by fanatical guerilla fighters so he could finish a job his father had left undone. More likely, another reporter chimed in, Mr. Bush was Leonidas, the Spartan king who would defend freedom at any cost.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
They were just running around shirtless and sweaty. And Paul Newman was already established as a male sex symbol before peeling the shirt in Cool Hand Luke. I don't see any of these as homo-erotic because I'm not into guys.
I'm surprised to hear this typical lefty nonsense on FR.
The imbd boards, etc., are full of this: "Nyah, nyah, the Greeks had slaves too, so they were no different from the Persians." This kind of idiocy results from a complete anachronistic misunderstanding of history.
The Persians had absolutely no concept of citizenship or individual rights; everything, every animal, every plant, and every person was the personal property of the Shah-an-Shah. That's what "absolute ruler" means. Free Spartans, on the other hand, were citizens, and out of the concept of citizenship grows all of what we today consider human rights, property rights, voting rights, etc.
This is an ENORMOUS distinction. If you insist on viewing Sparta as though you're reading the latest Amnesty International report, they you badly need to read more history. And to look up the word "anachronism" in the dictionary.
It is a homo-erotic acid trip.
Only to people who are, um, inclined to think that way.
I didn't say it was a cartoon, I said it appeared to be animated, which means they don't seem to be using real actors but computer generated characters. This is, by definition, animation. Thanks.
Look at it this way... Gladiator had a lot of the same themes and I didn't see it as a gay movie at all. The Brad Pitt In A Miniskirt movie? Gay all the way.
I'm pretty sure they weren't trolls, just really ugly 'troll-like' humans. More akin to the people who find wearing 80 different body piercings attractive.
You know, I was thinking that the producers of the movie could have had a special opening at Michigan State to promote the film AND the college. Of course, I am biased... I am a Spartan.
BUMP
Civilization is not an evil. The contributions of American Indians to civilization compared to Athens is laughable.
Our Founders did not admire either slavery or Athens because it had slaves but because of the contribution to the theory of government and human thought in general.
Living 70 years as an Indian would not preferible to living 20 in Athens. The insubtantiality of the former was confirmed by it collapse when faced with superior cultures. Sorry but I am not politically correct so I speak frankly about these matters.
2. Oiled up soldiers playing around in bared chests on one side and weirdly squirming men on the other. That's just homoerotic.
Thucydides.
How does the false view of the Liberals change the truth about Sparta.
Are you saying Ghost Rider is a faggot???????
Correctoundo. You my friend are a true history junkie, like me!
I never suggested that the contributions of American Indians to civilization, other than various crops, was anything more than negligible.
I was merely thinking in terms of quality of life, especially given that one doesn't get to choose the terms of one's birth, either sex or social status.
The trouble with all developed pre-modern civilizations isn't that they didn't have their good points. It was that their BAD points, if you happened to have been born into the enslaved majority or the poor (which was most people), were really awful. Life in pre-modern cities was filthy, and disease ridden. The diet was bad because it was concentrated on a few staple crops. There was no clean water. People were stunted in height, except of course for the upper crust.
By contrast, if you were born a Chippewa at that time, you didn't live in squalor. Nature is harsh, but it isn't nasty with human feces and the concentrated stench of pre-modern permanent settlements. There was no hierarchy to speak of, and although males and females had different roles, the female was not nearly so effaced, nor the hierarchy among males anywhere nearly so dominant, as in settled ancient civilizations. As an individual unable to choose ones sex or one's station, if your choice in the genetic lottery was to be an Athenian, you might end up in the class of Plato and Pericles - and there were certainly no comparable figures among the Chippewa - but you would probably end up living in a dirty hovel; and you might end up a slave in chains for your short and miserable existence, or a female prostitute. The top was glorious, but the bottom of that social pyramid was hellish.
The bottom of the Chippewa pyramid was not much removed from the top. It was an altogether more sanitary and freer existence. It was not civilized, but it was quite familial and relatively convivial.
Given the choice only of WHERE one could be, but not WHO one could be, I would chose to be a Chippewa in 400 BC, not a Greek. I'd prefer living a pretty free and not very taxing life of hunting and games out in the Michigan wilderness over being anything but one of the male ruling class of Athens. I'd rather be a Chippewa female than ANY European female of the time other than a couple of queens. And I'd rather be a Chippewa male than anything other than a Greek noble. Stone buildings that have open rivers of shit running off of them are no prizes, and although some of the Greek plays, etc., are good, even in the 21st Century I prefer to head off to the woods to relax, not head into New York to go to Broadway.
You could have your Athens, and may you be fortunate enough not to be a female slave chained in a brothel.
For my part, I'll take my wooded hills and clean waters and hunting and fishing parties and ground corn and squash and beans and nightly games. My living conditions would be better, cleaner and healthier than yours, and I'd have a greater variety of food too. I wouldn't be literate...but unless you were born in the top third and male, you wouldn't be either.
Yours would be a more civilized life (maybe). Mine would be a life more like the life I would like to live, and the downside of losing the genetic lottery among my Chippewa would be a lot less horrific than the downside of losing the genetic lottery among your Greeks.
The Defence at Thermopylae is described in quite a bit of detail in the latter part of Book 7 of Herodotus' The Histories.
It is very exciting and it is very clear that Freedom is what they are fighting for and are quite willing to die for. In fact, the Spartans are sure they are going to die, but they would die thousand times for the cause of Freedom.
I am so looking forward to this movie. What a great story!
Regarding Black Snake Moan: I saw this yesterday.
The story has VERY strong Christian themes throughout, including a doubly-powerful anti-abortion theme.
Plus some good Blues. Check it out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.