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April 12, 2007
VDH
Behind every event, there is a cause, and if the event is negative, we might imagine that the cause is too.
The movie 300 brought about a strong reaction from the Iranian community, including me. Many have been very critical of the film, some with hurt nationalistic feelings, and some (I like to include myself in this) because they see it not as an innocent film, but one with an agenda. In response to this latter group, a segment of ultra-modern Iranian expatriates have taken to calling the whole thing an over-reaction. I accept that taking it too seriously or too literally might be over-reacting, but ignoring it is not a good idea either.
I, for one, have tried to look for the root-cause of the making of the film. People often remark that it is just a film based on a comic-book. I agree, but not just any comic-book, I propose. You cannot seperate a work of art from its artist, and artists are humans with real feelings, ideas, and agendas. The author of the book is Frank Miller whose ideas about the world you can read about here.
However, the new edition of the book has been published with a forward by Victor Davis Hanson, emeritus professor of Classics at CSU Fresno, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute, a friend and adviser to Dick Chaney, and apparently a fixture on Neo-Con retreats. He also finds the time to write regular columns for the National Review Online and maintain a weblog.
This man has written a book on "Mexicanisation of California" (or Mexifornia), absolutely adores Oriana Fallaci, not for her enlightened interviews with the world leaders, but because of her strong warning against "Arabization" of Europe, and seems to not only make his "Private Papers" a place of archiving his own "work", but a collective journal for anyone who wants to take a shot at the rest of the world.
For those who warn that Americans do not equate ancient Persians with the Iranians today and that we are getting too sensitive about this, Prof. Hanson seems to be on a mission to remind them that ancient Persian and Iranians are the same "West-hating" people they have always been, whether in articles or interviews.
Of course, they are some nice mockeries of his unabashed use of his "historical" knowledge in the service of politics and his extension of history to anything and everything. But what matters the most is that this man has been involved in "advising" every movie that has been made about ancient history in the last 10 years in Hollywood! So, the next time you thought the movie is just an innocent attempt at entertainment, please think again!
Posted by Khodadad at 07:21 PM | Comments (4)