Critics disappointed with skewing of historical events in '300'
WATERLOO, Ontario -- Caroline Falkner, a classics professor at Queen's University, did not dare brave the long queues at the movie theatre when the epic battle film 300 opened last weekend. But she plans to go with some colleagues very soon, because as it turns out, this ancient history expert considers the film required course material.
"Oh, I have to see it because I know my students will want to know more about it in the fall," Falkner said.
Falkner believes any interest generated in learning about ancient cultures is a positive thing, but said adaptations are often rife with historical inaccuracies that, left unexamined, can leave people with the wrong impression.
"Whenever I see these kinds of films, the history side of me is dissatisfied," Falkner said. "Sometimes it's the result of trying to compress so much into two or two-and-a-half hours. Sometimes it's an artistic thing - that's the nature of movie-making."
Or perhaps it's something much more sinister. The movie is very loosely based on the historic Battle of Thermopylae, when a small contingent of Spartan and Greek soldiers clashed with a Persian army of far greater stature. In one scene from the movie, King Leonidas of the Spartans (played by Gerard Butler of The Phantom of the Opera fame) rallies his troops by declaring "a new age has come, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it."
Iranians around the world are extremely upset over the portrayal of the Persians as evil and tyrannical.
In an editorial in the Toronto Star, University of Toronto Hellenistic history professor Ephraim Lytle agreed that 300 unfairly idealizes Spartan society in a "problematic, even disturbing" way.
The movie's "Persians are historical monsters and freaks," wrote Lytle. "Xerxes [King of Persia] is eight feet tall, clad chiefly in body piercings and garishly made up, but not disfigured. No need - it is strongly implied Xerxes is homosexual which, in the moral universe of 300 qualifies him for special freakhood."
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Read entire article at Canadian University Press
"Oh, I have to see it because I know my students will want to know more about it in the fall," Falkner said.
Falkner believes any interest generated in learning about ancient cultures is a positive thing, but said adaptations are often rife with historical inaccuracies that, left unexamined, can leave people with the wrong impression.
"Whenever I see these kinds of films, the history side of me is dissatisfied," Falkner said. "Sometimes it's the result of trying to compress so much into two or two-and-a-half hours. Sometimes it's an artistic thing - that's the nature of movie-making."
Or perhaps it's something much more sinister. The movie is very loosely based on the historic Battle of Thermopylae, when a small contingent of Spartan and Greek soldiers clashed with a Persian army of far greater stature. In one scene from the movie, King Leonidas of the Spartans (played by Gerard Butler of The Phantom of the Opera fame) rallies his troops by declaring "a new age has come, an age of freedom. And all will know that 300 Spartans gave their last breath to defend it."
Iranians around the world are extremely upset over the portrayal of the Persians as evil and tyrannical.
In an editorial in the Toronto Star, University of Toronto Hellenistic history professor Ephraim Lytle agreed that 300 unfairly idealizes Spartan society in a "problematic, even disturbing" way.
The movie's "Persians are historical monsters and freaks," wrote Lytle. "Xerxes [King of Persia] is eight feet tall, clad chiefly in body piercings and garishly made up, but not disfigured. No need - it is strongly implied Xerxes is homosexual which, in the moral universe of 300 qualifies him for special freakhood."
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