300, take II

March 24, 2007

300, take II

Here's a letter I sent to the two corporate-owned alt-weeklies in Montreal. The Mirror didn't print it, and while I confess I haven't picked up the Hour yet, I'm not holding my breath.

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Dear Hour,

During a visit to New York last week, I went to see the movie 300 on its opening day. The consensus among the New Yorkers I spoke to was that the timing of the movie was "septic," its appearance coinciding with the Bush administration building for an attack against Iran (with Harper and the Canadian media close behind). There, it seemed obvious that a movie that depicted pasty-white greeks slicing up their attackers--veiled and masked Africans and Arabs led by an eight-foot tall dark-skinned king wearing eyeliner, facial piercings, and sporting a throaty lisp--was politically and ethically problematic. The racism and homophobia permeating this movie were never in doubt.

Morbid curiosity prevailed, however, and I went to see it with a friend.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I returned to Montreal to find 300 celebrated by several local papers for the fact that it was produced here in Montreal, and for its adrenaline-fueled battle scenes.

While the aesthetic and technical work of the filmmakers has won much approval from critics and audiences alike, this Montreal production is nothing to be proud of.

It is--or should be--a source of shame.

Beyond Hollywood's usual casual racism, this film is a clearly a call to war, or worse, to some kind of Aryan jihad. The filmmakers are at pains to depict the Scottish-looking greeks as defenders of freedom, reason and democracy against an "enslaved," dark-skinned, liberally pierced Middle-Eastern/African hoard. 300 is "Clash of Civilizations"
propaganda at its most gruesome. When we do see the foes' normally masked or veiled faces, they are disfigured and monstrous. The Spartans' swords and spears cut their flesh like butter, and blood flies like it does in video games. And you can hear the same video game justifications: "it's ok to kill them, they're evil monsters."

My friend, who is half-Greek and grew up with stories of these legendary battles, commented afterwards that 300 would "make Leni Riefenstahl blush".

The actual history is both more relevant and interesting. One doesn't need to get much more revisionist than Thucydides to realize that the ancient Greeks discussed, in their democratic assemblies, whether or not to commit genocidal massacres against those city-states that defied their imperial (their word) will, and whether or not to enslave (which means, inevitably, to rape) the women and children that remained. To ancient Sparta and Athens, the arguments for genocide and slavery were usually more convincing.

What's fascinating about ancient Greece is that democracy and
imperialism, freedom and slavery, coexisted so seamlessly. It may be what is fascinating about ourselves.

There are many lessons that Canadians and Americans could learn from ancient Greece. I hope they aren't the ones that 300 is trying to teach us. Meanwhile, the lack of critical coverage is embarassing.

Dru Oja Jay
Montreal