Is the movie 300 pushing the limit?

Question

I have a bunch of Persian friends who are very insulted with how persians are depicted in this movie?

Do they have the right to feel insulted? Apparently the movie completely alters what happened in those battles to make the spartans look good.

If you have watched that movie, did you walk out of there thinking
"WOW Persians are savages!?"

Answer 1

I already knew that Xerxes and Darius were civilized kings who let the conquered countries keep their local customs, governments and traditions. After seeing the distorted faces of the Immortals, i knew Hollywood was purely after entertainment and not historical accuracy. I enjoyed the movie for entertainment's sake and plan to go see it again, it doesn't change my view of the Persians. I'm glad us westerners defeated them at Thermopolye, at Tours, or any other battle where they have faced us....but that's just me.

Answer 2

Pushing the limits in what regard?????? Your friends have no right to feel insulted, its a MOVIE!!!!!!!! The whole thing is focused on and about the Spartans! Of course it will lean towards making THEM look better.

Movies are not about truth or reality, they're entertainment and are created to make MONEY! Telling a story of something.... stories flow according to ones perspective, (in this case the persons who made the movie). Tell your friends to make a movie of their own depicting that story from a Persian perspective!

No I didn't think that afterwards. During that era most or all cultures were extremely savage! They had to be to survive. Take a good look at how things are now all over the world! You think anything has really changed??? All the same things are still happening, just with cute names and titles added to them to mask their reality.

Answer 3

Don't fool yourself if you are there to see a historical reenactment of the Battle of Thermopylae. What you get is Frank Miller's Comic book.
I was looking so forward to watching this movie and I expected a one sided story, but not to this extend!! The producer protrayed the Persians as Barbarians and devil worshipers, ruthless warriors, they protrayed the women as prostitutes, and slaves. Contrary to this protrayal, Persians were the only empire with the richest history and full of culture. An empire that lasted more than 2500 years dominating the world. This to this date is longest any empire has ever ruled.
Even 100 years prior to the Thermopylae Battle,The King of Persia Cyrus the great Unlike any other Conqueres did what was unheard of even for centuries after, which was to conserve and protect the culture they had invaded and let the people choose the God they wanted to worship and free the slaves and even free the Jews from Babolonian captivity. Which his act of kindness is mentioned and appraised in the Jewesh Bible, and even imortalized in the Christian Bible in several passages "the anointed of the Lord". This act of humanity was followed by his successors. I could go on and on. However It is understandble that in Hollywood in order to sell box office tickets you have to appeal to an audience and to make the story more exciting they have embellished the story. I just did not expect so much discredit of one's rich culture, and fallacious depiction of true empire! This heavily fictionalized film shows the Greeks battling wild beasts, giants, and Rhinos totally degrading one of the key battles in Greco-Persian history. They face not the army of Xerxes described by Herodotus, but creatures from a sci fi movie! But if you are there to watch Frank Miller's fictional comic book, like blood and gore it is a fun movie to watch.

Answer 4

Tell your Persian friends that the story was taken from a COMIC BOOK. If they aren't aware, many comic books are written for pre-adolescent males. That is who buys the comics. Good and evil are always shown as "black and white".
If they know the blessings of Persians civilization at the time, then they do not need to worry. If they are still insulted, they are free to read their Persian history and report back to us. I have not watched the movie yet, but EVERY historical movie (especially those based on comic books!) that Hollywood makes has to be taken with several mouthfuls of salt.
It is sad, but it is true. Tell your friends the filmmakers chose entertainment over historical accuracy, as they do in 99.9% of the movie they make. They are in the entertainment business, to make huge profits, they are not teaching anyone History!!

Answer 5

Your Persian friends should not be insulted, all they had to do is read their history. Persia, repeatedly tried to conquer Greece, and each time it was defeated by a handful of Greeks until Alexander The Great, marched against Persia and ended once and for all their dream of expansionism.

P.S. You have to bear in mind that at the time, Greeks considered non-Greeks as barbarians and the Persians were not any different. And by the way, who asked the Persians to conquer Greece, what did they expect, a red carpet laid out for them? The Persians were ruthless conquerors and they got the lesson that they deserved.

Answer 6

let the persians make a movie and call it 10 million (or however many soldiers they had in their army) and depict it from their perspective. this is the greek's perspective on how the greeks won with such few fighting men (although quite hot lol). why would persians get offended anyway? they lost in the war. there's nothing you can do to change that.

Answer 7

I saw the previews and wondered how all those orcs got involved in the Battle of Thermopylae. Considering that they were supposedly Persians, I can see how some would be offended.

Answer 8

I didn't see the movie yet, but it may have been inspired by the novel Gates of Fire which is surprisingly good and accurate insofar as it follows Herodotus very closely but makes the story entertaining. Gates of Fire doesn't insult the Persians except to say they got their butts kicked, which is true. The movie may be another matter.

Answer 9

i dont think you can take only few hours of history, that you barely know of, and name it history!!! the battle between greeks and persians was much more than this 300 movie. The producers/ writers have extremely over exaggerated the movie.

Answer 10

Well, why it is loosely based on history, it is more closely associated with the comic book of the same name. And besides, is cinema, they need to make someone the savage bad guy in order to draw people to the theatre.