Digby: hey, Joey, you like Gladiator movies?" (the fuss over "300")

[The Count]

In case you missed the quote from Airplane, it's referenced in the title and informs much of the article:



Everyone thinks of George W. Bush as being something of a child, with a childlike view of the world. But I think Dick Cheney's a bit of a child too, at least when it comes to war, something which has been well documented if not well reported. He indulged in ridiculous fantasy scenarios in the first Gulf war and was so taken with Ken Burns' Civil War documentary that he came to believe he was Lincoln and wanted to fire Schwartzkopf for being too McClellanlike.

Keep this guy away from netflix, half baked conservative historians and comic book writers. It's dangerous. "
snip
RW blogger:
"No, "300" brings us back to the good-old days of propaganda. When propaganda was produced in support of our country. When propaganda was produced to remind us that we are the good guys and that our ideals are better than the ideals of our enemies.

Go see "300". If you don't like it you probably hate America. That, or you're gay.

[papau]

1. That is funny! The guy thinks my gay friends hate seeing healthy male bodies? Iran says

we are making fun of them because a movie about a thin beach next to a cliff that cut a month's walk through the mountains out of the walk to Athens, that had 300 Greek fighters that prevented its use for a few days, that is about an event that happened 2600 years ago, is making fun of the Persian people!

Some nuts even have government positions!

[Nevernever]

2. I often wonder...

If some of these a$$hats would think the same of a film made to celebrate the strategic and military genius of Cyrus the Great?

"I am Cyrus, King of the World. When I entered Babylon I did not allow anyone to terrorize the land. I kept in view the needs of its people and all its sanctuaries to promote their well being. I put an end to their misfortune. The great God has delivered all lands into my hand, the lands that I have made to dwell in peaceful habitation."

[mitchleary]

3. For the right/freepers to see themselves as the Spartans is just laughable

and W is supposed to be Leonidas? HA HA. Could you see W dying for anyone? If he is anyone in the film, it would be the corrupt senator who's will do anything for power, inclusding siding with the enemy. He does have a few qualities of the Xerxes character as he is willing to invade and destroy, kill all his own men to win, and somewhere in his corrupt pea brain thinks he is a god.
The iraq war is not 300. Sparta was going to be invaded, we were not.
Sure, it can be compared but it is total crap.
To see the US as an underdog is ridiculous.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. In fact, you could convincingly flip it over --

We are the oppressive, corrupt empire that is threatening a smaller, less powerful, less technologically
advanced nation, after having already conquered several of its neighbors. After the war, when the empire was finally thrown back (two years after the movie ended) the lesser power did not turn around and attack the larger, it just wanted to be left alone, being the big frog in their little pond - Sparta was never a threat to the Persian Empire.

[bklyncowgirl]

5. Bush as Xerxes yes I can see that.

Arrogant, willing to kill thousands of his own men, unwilling to listen to advice yeah that fits. Bush as Leonidas, forget about it. Leonidas was a warrior who was willing to sacrifice himself for the freedom of his city.

As an object lesson of how a small determined group who are willing to die for their country can stop a mighty empire in its tracks 300 maybe should have been required viewing for the pro-war faction in 2002.

And by the way, has anyone bothered to mention to the Freepers that ancient Greeks and the Spartans in particular, considered bisexuality to be normal and desirable. No "don't ask don't tell" in THAT army.