Monday, March 26, 2007

300 Spartans + 15 sailors

Last Friday’s capture of 15 British sailors in Shatt al-Arab waterway dividing Iranian and Iraqi territory ruined my attack plan against the new movie 300. Last week we had a problem with 300 Spartans, this week we have the additional problem of 15 British sailors and new UN sanctions. We are not afraid problems. We are a nation of problem-solvers. Hey you guys out there: any problems you can’t handle? Hand them to us…


Tony Blair said
, "We have certainly sent the message back to them very clearly indeed. They should not be under any doubt at all about how seriously we regard this act, which is unjustified and wrong." (http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=465272007)

Yes I do believe it was a big mistake from Iran’s part and I am willing to say this incident may be even worse for Iran than the UN Security Council resolution 1747. Why do I think that? I will get back to that in other positing. But let me now get even with the movie 300. I do recommend that you see this film. The best way is if you and 100 other friends buy one DVD together, Otherwise you would be paying too much.

We saw the movie last week, when all was well in Iran and people were getting ready for a lovely new year. A friend invited us to his house to see it. Unlike other times when we were invited, there were no drinks on the table waiting for us. That night we were dealing with very important issues. 300 against 70 million. I cannot complain about the film from an artistic point of view: it seemed like it was beautiful in a fascist sort of way. Since I am not a woman, I cannot complain that there was only one woman in the movie who spent most of her time in bed. And I don’t think my black friends should complain either since they such huge roles in the movie. How that happened, I don’t know.

There were 7 people in the room, behalf of me and Esther. They were all these big guys from foreign newspapers, a few Iranians and our superstar foreign correspondent visiting from a Northern European country who I almost kicked out of the window because he was talking about himself too much. His comments about everything were getting to me. He was like one of those people who thinks he is an expert in the politics of every country that he visits even if he has only visited once and for no more than a week. His first comment to us was, “I hate Americans.” I said, “Then you are in the wrong place because Iranians love Americans.” Then he said, “Some of my best friends are Americans.” (Doesn’t that kind of line make you sick to your stomach? Just like when people say Iranians are terrorists but my neighbor is Iranian and I like him.)

First let me be honest with you, what I feel here is what I am almost 100 % sure you would be feeling if someone made you and your country look like monsters. This is not just about Iran; this insult can be made about any other country, because you don’t have to be right or historically correct. You can always make up stories about any nation and I am sure you can find research to prove what you want to say. From the other side what Azadeh Moaveni wrote:” It is going to take an act of foolhardy courage to distribute that film in Iran. It will truly be 70 million against 300” is ridiculous because yesterday I saw at least 4 places selling the movie 300. They were openly yelling out “300, 300, 300…” It was no secret.

Selling 300 on the streets of Tehran:


and here too:



Iranian newspapers are saying that the making of this film distorts historical facts and makes Iranians look like monsters. Many other Iranians believe that it was made in order to prepare the American public to start war against Iran. One of my friends asked Esther if it was true that America always made a movie like this before going to war. “Wasn’t there a movie like this about Saddam Hussein?” He asked her.

This is part of big conspiracy that the US government is responsible for everything and that US has plans for everything, any time and everywhere. This may be true if you think Americans have super powers and that they are so good at planning. Anyone who has ever visited the US should know that it is not true that everything is so well-planned. This is just part of line which people use to blame everything on others. I wonder why we Iranian buy into this kind of BS all the time?

You can only ask others to be fair if you are fair. Iranians may be upset about this movie, which makes us look very bad, but everyday some of us get up and go to the street to shout down with America. We need to tell our own stories. We need to look at our own propaganda and be more critical of it. Hundreds of people here ask me all sorts of crap about western families: do sons and daughters sleep together? Do they care more about dogs than their own children? Where do they get those ideas? From our own distortions.

I’ll leave you by saying that everyone in the group watching the movie (even the American and the Brit who wants to be known as Scottish, not British) thought it was racist, ridiculous, and dangerous. They all knew it was a fantasy. Esther could not figure out who we were supposed to have sympathy for. “Ahoo!”

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

look who is condemning racism! There are hundreds of movies and TV series in Iran (you ever watch the TV?)and other racist Arab coutries showing Jews like ugly monsters and accusing them of every evil. Now they are upset whey in some stupid movie the ancient Iranians, who by today's goverment are considered evil anyway,are not shown nicely. They should be happy the Iranians in the movie dont' behave like today's real Iranians!watch memriTV.org

Kamran and Tori said...

Anon and Vince P, you guys are so ready to condemn Keivan for his feelings about the movie, that you neglected to read his post carefully. And I quote:

"You can only ask others to be fair if you are fair. Iranians may be upset about this movie, which makes us look very bad, but everyday some of us get up and go to the street to shout down with America. We need to tell our own stories. We need to look at our own propaganda and be more critical of it. Hundreds of people here ask me all sorts of crap about western families: do sons and daughters sleep together? Do they care more about dogs than their own children? Where do they get those ideas? From our own distortions."

Defend the movie all you want, but in my opinion its only redeeming characteristic was as soft porn for straight women and gay men. The men were hot.

Anonymous said...

Why does everyone have to say that the movie makes Persians look bad? I mean if Iranians think that they (that is if they identify themselves with that army) look bad it doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the world thinks this. It is obviously an artistic portrayal of that distant event and people see it as such. Meanwhile movies become so realistic with all the computer effects that people just see this one and the likes as a tale. It's like reading a story to a child where, say, a goose is a so-called villain and the next thing you know this child goes berserk and decapitates every goose in the vicinity he comes across... This is ridiculous. Or is it? Is it what really is happening?

Kamran said...

"The men were hot" she means us in the room and not those in the film. Just for the record.

Anonymous said...

Just so you know, most Americans are pretty horrible at history, especially other countries histories. Until Iranians started making a big deal of this in the news, I don't believe that very many Americans would have connected the Persians of the movie to modern day Iran. It's just a movie. Not propaganda.

papillon said...

I shouldn't comment really. Just to refer people to IMDB forum pages of the film.

**

The title of the post reminds me of anxious behaviour of the British media over past days.

Anonymous said...

"This is part of big conspiracy that the US government is responsible for everything and that US has plans for everything, any time and everywhere."

Easy to dismiss everything and anything we don't agree with as a "conspiracy theory". Not sure who you were referring to in above statement, but if you ever looked at and read the comments by AMERICANS on various websites and those who actually saw the movie, many said that it had a clear political message and could be perceived as preparing Americans for another war with "muslim" Iranians. Regardless of the fact that Iranians during Xerxes time were NOT muslims.

Kamran and Tori said...

vince p, Things are not so clear-cut here. At first there was an effort to kind of erase Iran's pre-Islamic identity, but that did not work. Most Iranians are very proud of their history and culture.

Iran is not a monolithic state that is so carefully controlled that its people have become puppets. It is a lively society where ancient traditions and recent traditions intermingle.

If anything, the Islamic regime has strengthened the people of IRan's ties with their history and particularly with Cyrus and Darius and Xerxes. (Not through any plan, but through their very existence)

And yes, Tom, I know that most Americans don't even know that the PErsians or the Spartans were even real...

Unknown said...

Hi there,
I have to say that I'm surprised Iranians think the movie makes them look bad. (I have no interest in seeing the movie--looks like a farce--and, honestly, I had no idea who the Spartans were supposedly fighting in this battle).
Goodness, this would have happened some 2 millenia ago! Americans show all kinds of unflattering movies about ourselves about events that have taken place within the last 100 years.
Sadly, we don't care what happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago, that's part of why America (though I do love my country) is faltering. We can't learn from a history we don't know.

I can't imagine the American who could look at a film like 300 and go, "yep, them Iranians, just look at them." It's just not going to happen. No one cares about this _at all_.

Amy

Anonymous said...

TOM ABOVE IS CORRECT. MOST AMERICANS HAVE NO IDEA THAT PERSIANS ARE ANCIENT IRANIANS. INDEED, MOST OF MY FELLOW CITIZENS COULDN'T FIND IRAN ON A MAP ON A BET. HOWEVER, I AS A TEACHER, FIND THAT MY COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE APT TO STEROTYPE "MUSLIMS" AS TERRORISTS. WONDER WHERE SUCH A BAD NOTION ORIGINATES?

Anonymous said...

The following article refutes the anti-Iranian propaganda of the film:
- The 300 Savages at Thermopylae: A Response to the Hollywood Film '300'
By Dr. Samar Abbas, Bhubaneshwar-751005, India. 27 March 2007,
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/mar/1324.html

Anonymous said...

Curious to see your comments


Operation Ajax

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1022065,00.html

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB28/index.html

British SAS Terror Operation in Basra: Photographic Evidence

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050923&articleId=989
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0510/S00052.htm

Anonymous said...

Vince P,
1. Learn how to quote and cite from a reference. What is this Volume 4 something? Does this book have a name?
2. Ever read old testament?

Anonymous said...

vince p is another of the fundamentalist bible thumpers who thinks he is on some sort of mission to save the world by bashing Islam, pretending he knows alot using sites like Wiki, Robert Spencer and the likes to bash every Muslim.
Also they love to ruin any sort of conversation and discussion when it doesn't go their way.

And vince p, thats some quote from some crazy guy thats not in the Quran or any major Hadith. At least its not like the Old or New Testament with stonings and killings every 5 pages

Unknown said...

Equating the Persians depicted in 300 with modern Iranians is like comparing the "barbarians" from Germania in the opening scenes of Gladiator to modern Germans.

300 is a special effects, bloody action extravaganza and nothing more.

Anonymous said...

I honestly have no desire to see this movie. it came out here a few weeks ago and I could care less.

As far as conspiracy theories go though, the Americans don't need to make a movie to prepare themselves for war. Most Americans here are already frothing at the mouth for Iranian blood. It will just take a brain dead politician to push us into that point, and I'm fairly sure we have the PERFECT brain dead idiot for that job.

Anonymous said...

danielspengies, no they are not. I don't know who you are talking to, but Iran is not getting any media play, I consider myself pretty up to date with current events and have many friends of the same. No one I know wants war or thinks that it is near. How many people are against the war in Iraq, like 75%. How can you say 75% of the people are against that war, but ready to jump into a third front? Plain and simple you want to portray the US as the evil Satan; which we are not.

Anonymous said...

Actually Scott, I think US policy and its historical interaction with Iran have already painted it as "the great satan," whether or not the civilian population is worthy of that title. And there are many blind patriots here in the US that believe Iran to be a dangerous fascist nation that should be wiped off the face of this Earth. I don't' think a war with Iran is going to fare well with popular support, but the neocon psychotics in this country will be drooling at the chance to see more "brown people" shot and killed. It's what the neo right wing in America gets off on the most. Well that and raping oil profits.

Anonymous said...

And the reason why Iran's current government in power is....






Here's a hint: IT'S THE FAULT OF THE UNITED STATES.



And you assume that the government of Iran doesn't have the ability to become more moderate with time...

Anonymous said...

Any clue why the Iranian revolution happened Vince?

Any at all?

I gave you a clue. Google "Operation Ajax."

Anonymous said...

Actually I would argue that you do, since I doubt very highly you understand what "operation ajax" even was. I can go into detail if you'd like, but i"m sure you will be happy just screaming out LIBERAL and claiming that all Muslims are evil..

Anonymous said...

This is the forum to address your bullshit Vince, snce you are in here spreading it so willingly.

And I'm not the one who is generalizing about the entire religion of Islam. That would be you, and your precious website.

Again I challenge you to understand Operation Ajax and the twenty so years following said operation. That information will allow you to figure out why the Iranian revolution occurred and why the attitude of the country became very anti-western afterwards.

I'm tired of America's supporters excusing everything it does, and trying to cover up past history like it never happened.

Anonymous said...

America is indeed horrid. You have yet to deny that our policies have had a horrific effect on Iran. You just keep poo-pooing it hoping I'll drop the argument.

Anonymous said...

Vince, operation ajax IS NOT a talking point. It is a real event that took place in August of 1953. It lead to years of oppression for the Iranian people under their shah.

This is history, and the reason why the Iranian revolution came to be.

If you aren't willing to look at HISTORICAL evidence to weigh your opinions, then please just log off the net and stop trying, because frankly you are clown shoes.

Anonymous said...

Wow,last i heard we all bleed the same color regardless of foreign policies or religious beliefs.Anybody remember that we are all human?

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