http://english.people.com.cn/200703/12/eng20070312_356565.html

Quote :

"Iranian official lashes out at Hollywood movie "300" for insulting Persian civilization An Iranian official on Sunday lashed out at the Hollywood movie "300" for insulting the Persian civilization, local Fars News Agency reported. Javad Shamqadri, an art advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the new movie of being "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture", said the report. Shamqadri was quoted as saying "following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture," adding "certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies." The movie's effort wound be fruitless, because "values in Iranian culture and the Islamic Revolution are too strongly seated to be damaged by such plans", said the Iranin official. Shamqadri, who is also a filmmaker, said that production of more domestic and artistic films which portray Iranian achievements is a proper response to movies like "300". "300," an ancient epic about the famous Battle of Thermopylae in Greek history, set a new record at the box office in North America this weekend. The Warner Bros. adaptation of the 480 B.C. battle took an estimated 70 million U.S. dollars in its debut weekend, according to figures released on Sunday by Los Angeles-based box office track firm Media by Numbers. The R-rated film, based on comic book writer Frank Miller's graphic novel, tells the story that an army of 300 Spartan warriors led by their king Leonidas fought to the death to delay a massive Persian army's invasion, so that the Greeks could reorganize a counterattack. Source: Xinhua "

Wow....really people...get over yourselves

3/12/2007 8:32:58 PM

I actually heard it was a stab at Bush & Co.
Damn everyone wants to play the victim.

3/12/2007 9:32:19 PM

I heard that it attacks the Clinton administrations policy that "Oral sex isn't really sex."

3/13/2007 2:28:22 AM

Persians aren't black, wtf was up with that?

3/13/2007 8:09:20 AM

obviously george bush doesn't care about persian people

3/13/2007 8:36:22 AM

i heard every movie made in Hollywood pushes the socialist baby killing homosexual agenda.

3/13/2007 8:41:14 AM

wtf, Iran's censors didn't block 300 in the first place?

3/13/2007 8:47:40 AM

they didn't realise it was a movie - they thought is was just a Tool video

3/13/2007 9:10:46 AM

Quote :

"Wow....really people...get over yourselves"

Oh come on, think about it. The Iranians have a legitimate gripe about this movie. What if some movie studio in Vietnam created a film about the American armies and their mercenary allies invading their country? The hordes of conscripts, the elite vicious, inhuman units like the USMC and the ROK auxillaries, and their exotic killing machines burn villages, rape women, and shoot civilians for sport. Surely it was madness for the Vietnamese people to stand up against such a force. However, the valiant patriots of the Viet Cong and the NVA sacrificed themselves during the suicidal and irrational Tet Offensive to shatter the image of the invincible American war machine, to show that it can bleed. Afterall, if a handful of crazy farmers with AK-47s can scare the Americans so badly on a botched attack, what about the full might of the Vietnamese people?

Now imagine if this movie became a blockbuster hit across the globe.

And no, I'm not saying the American military and their allies are barbarians or monsters, so don't even try to deflect the point by accusing me of hating the military or disrespecting veterans. I'm simply trying to put this into perspective for you people. Perhaps you can start to have even the slightest inkling about how peaved the Iranians are about this movie, especially given the current geopolitical tensions.

3/13/2007 10:11:28 AM

Vietnam is mildly fresher in folks memories than ancient greece.

3/13/2007 10:20:14 AM

I think they are crazy.

Didnt the persians lose that war too? I dunno for sure, dont really care. All I could think about during this movie was Iran...its So obvious. I didnt enjoy any of the visuals bc I kept trying to figure out which elephant was supposed to be thier nuclear program.

I guess they will next complain about the movie Big. bc they seem to be children trapted in adult bodies.

3/13/2007 10:23:14 AM

Quote :

"Oh come on, think about it. The Iranians have a legitimate gripe about this movie. What if some movie studio in Vietnam created a film about the American armies and their mercenary allies invading their country? The hordes of conscripts, the elite vicious, inhuman units like the USMC and the ROK auxillaries, and their exotic killing machines burn villages, rape women, and shoot civilians for sport. Surely it was madness for the Vietnamese people to stand up against such a force. However, the valiant patriots of the Viet Cong and the NVA sacrificed themselves during the suicidal and irrational Tet Offensive to shatter the image of the invincible American war machine, to show that it can bleed. Afterall, if a handful of crazy farmers with AK-47s can scare the Americans so badly on a botched attack, what about the full might of the Vietnamese people? Now imagine if this movie became a blockbuster hit across the globe. And no, I'm not saying the American military and their allies are barbarians or monsters, so don't even try to deflect the point by accusing me of hating the military or disrespecting veterans. I'm simply trying to put this into perspective for you people. Perhaps you can start to have even the slightest inkling about how peaved the Iranians are about this movie, especially given the current geopolitical tensions."

pretty much said what i didn't have time to

3/13/2007 10:32:24 AM

damnit, sorry about the 2x post

[Edited on March 13, 2007 at 10:43 AM. Reason : .]

3/13/2007 10:42:14 AM

yeah, that was well put, I'm sure plenty of movies like that are made every year across the globe, we just don't see them because they're not hollywood productions

3/13/2007 10:42:54 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Wolves_Iraq

3/13/2007 10:56:45 AM

Quote :

"Oh come on, think about it. The Iranians have a legitimate gripe about this movie. What if some movie studio in Vietnam created a film about the American armies and their mercenary allies invading their country? The hordes of conscripts, the elite vicious, inhuman units like the USMC and the ROK auxillaries, and their exotic killing machines burn villages, rape women, and shoot civilians for sport. Surely it was madness for the Vietnamese people to stand up against such a force. However, the valiant patriots of the Viet Cong and the NVA sacrificed themselves during the suicidal and irrational Tet Offensive to shatter the image of the invincible American war machine, to show that it can bleed. Afterall, if a handful of crazy farmers with AK-47s can scare the Americans so badly on a botched attack, what about the full might of the Vietnamese people? Now imagine if this movie became a blockbuster hit across the globe. And no, I'm not saying the American military and their allies are barbarians or monsters, so don't even try to deflect the point by accusing me of hating the military or disrespecting veterans. I'm simply trying to put this into perspective for you people. Perhaps you can start to have even the slightest inkling about how peaved the Iranians are about this movie, especially given the current geopolitical tensions. "

Well in that case, people around here should be offended by all those Civil War movies portraying the South as the "bad guys"

The only problem is.....the South doesn't have an appointed Art Advisor....

[Edited on March 13, 2007 at 11:00 AM. Reason : .]

3/13/2007 11:00:21 AM

Quote :

"I think they are crazy. Didnt the persians lose that war too? I dunno for sure, dont really care. All I could think about during this movie was Iran...its So obvious. I didnt enjoy any of the visuals bc I kept trying to figure out which elephant was supposed to be thier nuclear program. I guess they will next complain about the movie Big. bc they seem to be children trapted in adult bodies. "

I'm pretty sure the Ancient Persians lost every war against the Greeks.

[Edited on March 13, 2007 at 11:05 AM. Reason : .]

3/13/2007 11:04:55 AM

^I guess thats not the way they teach kids in iran, prob why they are upset with this film.

3/13/2007 11:14:38 AM

HAHAHAHA


^ best laugh of the day for me so far

3/13/2007 11:18:46 AM

Quote :

" And no, I'm not saying the American military and their allies are barbarians or monsters, so don't even try to deflect the point by accusing me of hating the military or disrespecting veterans. I'm simply trying to put this into perspective for you people. Perhaps you can start to have even the slightest inkling about how peaved the Iranians are about this movie, especially given the current geopolitical tensions. "

The Persian military was composed of slaves, forced conscripts, and bribed barbarian tribesmen. When they invaded territories they burned buildings, raped women and killed children. This is standard behavior for ANY military power before catholicism. What exactly are the Iranians trying to argue here?

3/13/2007 1:58:14 PM

^ I agree with this. Sounds like alot of belly achin

3/13/2007 6:26:28 PM

A Persian in one of my classes did seem to think the film had an anti-Iranian message or some such.

3/13/2007 8:10:54 PM

well they won the battle and made it to Athens... however the greeks then teamed up and bitch slapped them a few times.

3/13/2007 8:18:17 PM

Quote :

"people around here should be offended by all those Civil War movies portraying the South as the "bad guys""

just like Germans should be pissed about all those movies makings Nazis the bad guys...yeah right

3/14/2007 9:25:45 AM

well if i was a nazi i would be offended

3/14/2007 10:53:39 AM

^well guess what Iran isn't Persia, hence the different name

Quote :

"Oh come on, think about it. The Iranians have a legitimate gripe about this movie. What if some movie studio in Vietnam created a film about the American armies and their mercenary allies invading their country? The hordes of conscripts, the elite vicious, inhuman units like the USMC and the ROK auxillaries, and their exotic killing machines burn villages, rape women, and shoot civilians for sport. Surely it was madness for the Vietnamese people to stand up against such a force. However, the valiant patriots of the Viet Cong and the NVA sacrificed themselves during the suicidal and irrational Tet Offensive to shatter the image of the invincible American war machine, to show that it can bleed. Afterall, if a handful of crazy farmers with AK-47s can scare the Americans so badly on a botched attack, what about the full might of the Vietnamese people?"

So you want to compare something that happened 35 yrs ago to something that happened 2500 years ago?

Oh, and I don't recall the English bitching when "Braveheart" came out.

[Edited on March 14, 2007 at 2:22 PM. Reason : k]

3/14/2007 2:21:07 PM

it's a good thing Ahmadinejad is not actually the one in control of things over there

3/14/2007 2:24:58 PM

Quote :

"Iran isn't Persia"

Iran is Persia. The modern name was simply a screwup of a translation.

Quote :

"So you want to compare something that happened 35 yrs ago to something that happened 2500 years ago?"

Its sometimes hard to appreciate given the short history of the United States and lack of a unified ethnic culture, but for nations with a history as long as Iran (Persia), these sorts of stories and battles can be very real sore spots to the national psyche. Yes, people may laugh about then when times are peaceful, but when tensions are high, bringing up these sorts of stories and then further exaggerating them (Hey look, the Persian armies were really a bunch non-human monsters!) can be a real insult.

The Japanese get pissed off when the Chinese and Koreans start producing movies and TV shows based on events in earlier centuries showing the Japanese as uncivilized, immoral barbarian killing machines. The Serbs were hyping up victories from four hundred years ago to insult Croats and Bosian Muslims when they were locked in civil war. When nationality and ethnicity are almost one in the same, insults like this have a very deep impact.

The English may not have bitched because they control Scotland, but the Scots were cheering and screaming as William Wallace slaughtered Englishman after Englishman. Yet the British were uneasy when the Patriot came out and voiced that concern, even with our close relationship and three hundred years to heal wounds.

3/14/2007 3:40:37 PM

It a movie about a comic book that sensationalizes non-verifiable events interpreted by archeological research. Its about as historically accurate as when Superman went back in time to fight the nazis.

3/15/2007 2:36:31 AM

^ ftw

3/15/2007 2:38:30 AM

The real craziness here is not that they got offended. That I can live with.

The real craziness here is that they think it's some sort of psychological warfare perfectly planned and timed by the US.

Rather than a cult hit movie based on a popular graphic novel.

3/15/2007 10:16:12 AM

Unfortunately, to some extent this is a function of Iran overestimating our knowledge of history and geography. I have a sinking feeling that if I asked the people coming out of the theater to point to Persia (or Iran, for that matter) on a map, the larger part of them would have been clueless. And they certainly would not have known that the one is descendant from the other.

Quote :

"Oh come on, think about it. The Iranians have a legitimate gripe about this movie. What if some movie studio in Vietnam created a film about the American armies and their mercenary allies invading their country?"

Oh, we'd probably complain, but not as much, and as a function of the lesser amount of our griping, we would also be slightly less stupid in having done it -- but only slightly.

Especially if the movie in question was an overtly and heavily fictionalized account based on a goddamn comic book (or whatever the Vietnamese equivalent might be). There are movies where we look like assholes. We make a lot of those movies. Show me an Iranian book that talks bad about Iran (other than the Shah) and I'll show you a book whose author has a bounty on his head.

There's also the fact that if the Vietnamese made the movie you described, it wouldn't just be after a much shorter time frame, it would be from their point of view. Greeks didn't make 300. Greeks weren't even in 300; it was Scotsmen and Brazilians and damn near everything but Greeks and Persians. That radically changes the propaganda value.

3/15/2007 12:02:32 PM

Quote :

"The real craziness here is that they think it's some sort of psychological warfare perfectly planned and timed by the US."

Quote :

"Unfortunately, to some extent this is a function of Iran overestimating our knowledge of history and geography. I have a sinking feeling that if I asked the people coming out of the theater to point to Persia (or Iran, for that matter) on a map, the larger part of them would have been clueless. And they certainly would not have known that the one is descendant from the other."

I completely agree with both of those statements. However, the fact that the movie did so well on its opening weekend probably feeds the Iranian paranoia (given our recent history with their country, it's not surprising).

Quote :

"Greeks didn't make 300. Greeks weren't even in 300; it was Scotsmen and Brazilians and damn near everything but Greeks and Persians. That radically changes the propaganda value."

Greeks didn't make the movie, given how deeply engrained the Greek influence is in this country, the fact that we owe so much of our cultural identity to them (civil, scientific, philosophical), it can still be percieved as a movie about the West beating down the East.

Yeah, the Iranians are overreacting and tainted by paranoia, but that doesn't wipe away the fact that they do have a legitimate reason to be insulted by this film.

3/15/2007 12:41:32 PM

Athenian culture is ingrained into our society; we didn't take a lot from Sparta. And the Athenians were made to look only marginally better than the French.

They can be insulted at the inaccuracy of it, then immediately be reminded that it's superheavily fictionalized and doesn't exactly portray the Greeks as perfect, either, and act rational.

3/15/2007 12:55:13 PM

Quote :

"Iran is Persia. The modern name was simply a screwup of a translation."

I thought it was the other way around. Persia comes from the Greek name for the Fars Province.

3/15/2007 4:32:44 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6455969.stm

Apparently the Iranian government isn't the only group upset about the movie's portrayal of Persia. Iranian ex-pat communities, by no means friends of the Iranian government, aren't happy either.

Quote :

"I thought it was the other way around. Persia comes from the Greek name for the Fars Province."

I can't remember which was the original and which was the screwup. You're probably right though.

Quote :

"They can be insulted at the inaccuracy of it, then immediately be reminded that it's superheavily fictionalized and doesn't exactly portray the Greeks as perfect, either, and act rational."

True, true.

3/16/2007 10:40:36 AM

Quote :

"Its sometimes hard to appreciate given the short history of the United States and lack of a unified ethnic culture, but for nations with a history as long as Iran (Persia), these sorts of stories and battles can be very real sore spots to the national psyche. Yes, people may laugh about then when times are peaceful, but when tensions are high, bringing up these sorts of stories and then further exaggerating them (Hey look, the Persian armies were really a bunch non-human monsters!) can be a real insult."

Very well put. I've been bringing this up in conversations with people about Iraq. At some point, unless you're the descendant of a slave, your ancestors made the conscious choice to leave whatever home was and set out for a country that was defined by more by its ideology than by its ethnic origins. This works to our advantage in many ways, but its clear that it causes us to severely misinterpret much of the rest of the world.

3/16/2007 3:15:47 PM

Quote :

"Unfortunately, to some extent this is a function of Iran overestimating our knowledge of history and geography. I have a sinking feeling that if I asked the people coming out of the theater to point to Persia (or Iran, for that matter) on a map, the larger part of them would have been clueless. And they certainly would not have known that the one is descendant from the other. "

hell, just ask them where greece is, they wouldn't know that. And i'm sure most of them didn't know that there was actually a battle in similar proportions in ancient times.

3/16/2007 5:27:59 PM

I wonder if the Chinese will ever develop this much of a masturbatory complex about their civilisation. Maybe they'll make movies about their first in world fleets and armies. I wonder if they would have been lesser tyrants if they actualised the potential in their gunpowder and superior technology.

3/16/2007 5:45:37 PM

Quote :

"Yes, people may laugh about then when times are peaceful, but when tensions are high, bringing up these sorts of stories and then further exaggerating them (Hey look, the Persian armies were really a bunch non-human monsters!) can be a real insult."

OK, no, this is bullshit.

You know what some real insults are?

"The Holocaust was a myth."

"Death to America!"

the name, "Great Satan"

And, because I'm equal opportunity, the name "Axis of Evil" to boot

You know what some real insults are not?

A goddamn comic book whose readers couldn't find its setting on a map if it was labeled in modern terms.

Ethnic history aside, threats and insults against people who are alive should be a bigger deal than farces about people who have been dead for longer than either of our religions have fucking existed.

[Edited on March 16, 2007 at 6:19 PM. Reason : ]

3/16/2007 6:17:43 PM

[Edited on March 16, 2007 at 6:44 PM. Reason : wiki says no]

3/16/2007 6:42:53 PM

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2067962,00.html

OMG the horrible Iranians...

Wait... then why would they help in the capture of a senior Al-Qaeda leader?

4/29/2007 2:12:24 PM

Sometimes the cynic in me wonders if the US government and Iran aren't in cahoots, promoting each other as enemies for domestic purposes while secretly working together to hunt down the Sunni al-Qaeda terrorists.

4/29/2007 2:48:04 PM

I would have never put this together in my mind to form a negative view of iran in a million years. and neither would 99% of the people who have seen this. Honestly, how many people could tell you what country modern-day persia is?

4/29/2007 3:46:25 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6605487.stm

Iran ban on 'Western' hairstyles


why you tryin to be pimpin' nigga? be a good muslim boy.

Quote :

"Iranian police have warned barbers not to give men Western hairstyles or use make up on them. The move is part of an unusually fierce crackdown on what is known locally as bad hijab, or un-Islamic clothing, that this year is also targeting men. Hair stylists have been warned that they could lose their licences if they do not comply. However, police have denied a report that they have ordered barbers not to serve customers wearing ties. Wild Police say that as well as avoiding Western hairstyles and make up, barbers should not pluck customers' eyebrows. Some young boys in Iran sport very wild hair styles, using gel to make their long hair stand on end in a fashion not seen in other countries. Meanwhile newspapers in Iran have quoted the police as saying that 16,000 women and 500 men have been cautioned in the last week over their improper clothing. It is not clear if these figures are nationwide or only apply to the capital, Tehran. Iranian television has said the crackdown on un-Islamic clothing has entered its second phase now where mobile police units will patrol Tehran to look for those who are not observing Islamic dress properly. According to the local media, Tehran's public prosecutor has suggested women who violate dress rules should be exiled from the capital to remote areas of the country. A member of the parliament's legal committee has said there is no legal impediment to doing this. "

4/30/2007 7:12:20 PM