King Leonidas and the brave 300: Persian attack

Just watched the movie 300 and, while enjoyed the visually satisfying scenes, could not help noticing the film's modern parallels. When you make a movie today about the Persians threatening European, and Western in general, civilization then you are obviously assisting the audience in forming their opinions in our modern world. Movies are a powerful medium which can influence people on a magnitude other, more truthful or careful, media cannot even dream of. Who can deny the pleasure of cheering together with the Spartans in massacring the oncoming Persian army, mostly consisting of faceless monsters and beasts.

But let's look at the implications here. The Persian civilization today is Iran and the Greeks can be easily equated with the West. In this fight between these superpowers of the ancient world a small number of Spartans leave their country and go abroad to defend their land against the approaching army of evil. Now that sounds very familiar if you think about American politics of the past decade. The story King Leonidas and his brave 300 is even better than that of Alexander the Great where the king invaded the Persians in their own land, bringing them the benefits of the civilized world. No, King Leonidas is no invaders, he defends his country against evil. OK, he has to leave the country to meet his enemies halfway but he is still defending Sparta.

Added to this, there are lots of satisfying images of violence and rage, etc. A great movie with a stupid and dangerous message to today's youth.