Jingoistic Bells... Jingo all the Way in Movies 300 and Borat
300
The movie300 couldn’t have come at a better time to help inflame passions with mythological West/East rhetoric. Persia, the ancient name of an empire that fanned out from modern Iran, is depicted as a collection of monsters. In contrast, the Spartans, are depicted as an Adonis like, virtue filled, college football team struggling against adversity. It is a cartoonish good vs. evil morality play.
The Greeks are often emblematic of the “seed” of Western Civilization. A hotbed of intellectual ferment and democratic genesis that led to all the things we admire about Western Culture. But similar to Borat’s exposé below, our ignorance of ancient and modern Persian culture is vast. The Persians are depicted as the archetypal bad guys decending on this small merry band of six pack warriors like a plague.
This is a dangerous place to be considering the current imaginary East/West division that is being drawn by some. Just what we need when U.S./ Iranian relations and West/Islamic world relations are on such unstable ground. The Iranians have rightly protested their depiction in this film. The BBC has some excellent articles on this topic.
We live in a globalized society where Iranians are watching the same movies (possibly black market) we are at the same time we are. What are we thinking?
The Persian Empire was a civilization with equally great accomplishments as the Greeks, and not a cruel evil caricature as depicted in the movie.
On a lighter note, the cinematography and battle scenes were enjoyable to watch.
Borat
Borat is a mildly funny and fascinating symposium on American ignorance and racism. An English Jewish man, speaking Polish phrases in a Romanian village pretends he is a Kazakhstani reporter and goes to the United States.
While in the United States, Borat deftly peels away the sheer geographic ignorance and racism of some individuals. This is the most redeeming aspect of the film. If he had concentrated more on accentuating this very enlightening and entertaining aspect, instead of moments of inane “Jackass” style humor, it could have been much better. The moments of self depricating black humor are some of the best in the film
Humor can be an effective tool to pull out subtle and uncomfortable truths about our society. Steven Colbert is a master of this in his Comedy Central program The Colbert Report. Men like Baron Cohen (Borat) and Colbert are masters of reveling the dark underbelly with humor.
The movie300 couldn’t have come at a better time to help inflame passions with mythological West/East rhetoric. Persia, the ancient name of an empire that fanned out from modern Iran, is depicted as a collection of monsters. In contrast, the Spartans, are depicted as an Adonis like, virtue filled, college football team struggling against adversity. It is a cartoonish good vs. evil morality play.
The Greeks are often emblematic of the “seed” of Western Civilization. A hotbed of intellectual ferment and democratic genesis that led to all the things we admire about Western Culture. But similar to Borat’s exposé below, our ignorance of ancient and modern Persian culture is vast. The Persians are depicted as the archetypal bad guys decending on this small merry band of six pack warriors like a plague.
This is a dangerous place to be considering the current imaginary East/West division that is being drawn by some. Just what we need when U.S./ Iranian relations and West/Islamic world relations are on such unstable ground. The Iranians have rightly protested their depiction in this film. The BBC has some excellent articles on this topic.
We live in a globalized society where Iranians are watching the same movies (possibly black market) we are at the same time we are. What are we thinking?
The Persian Empire was a civilization with equally great accomplishments as the Greeks, and not a cruel evil caricature as depicted in the movie.
On a lighter note, the cinematography and battle scenes were enjoyable to watch.
Borat
Borat is a mildly funny and fascinating symposium on American ignorance and racism. An English Jewish man, speaking Polish phrases in a Romanian village pretends he is a Kazakhstani reporter and goes to the United States.
While in the United States, Borat deftly peels away the sheer geographic ignorance and racism of some individuals. This is the most redeeming aspect of the film. If he had concentrated more on accentuating this very enlightening and entertaining aspect, instead of moments of inane “Jackass” style humor, it could have been much better. The moments of self depricating black humor are some of the best in the film
Humor can be an effective tool to pull out subtle and uncomfortable truths about our society. Steven Colbert is a master of this in his Comedy Central program The Colbert Report. Men like Baron Cohen (Borat) and Colbert are masters of reveling the dark underbelly with humor.
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