Frank Millers Graphic Novel/Film '300' Getting Rave Reviews

I saw it tonight and was unimpressed. Did anyone else see it as allegorical to the Iraq War? I thought it was a clear positive commentary on it. ("Freedom isn't free," "don't abandon the troops," etc.)

 

Yeah, I saw it too.

Xerxes=GWB
Leonidas=JDV

 

Except that the graphic novel providing the material was written before that.

 

Dude, I think you were reading too much into it. Miller wrote that long before the current war.
I saw it Friday afternoon, first showing and was pleasantly surprised by all the geek/fanboy loosers there. It was almost a packed house.
Enjoyed the show, but knew I would. I'd been looking forward to it for six months.

 

It was a bloodbath at the U.S. box office this weekend. Warner Bros. told me this morning its much-buzzed 300 about the epic Battle of Thermopylae shattered the record for biggest March opening ever with $70+ million.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/r-rated-300-makes-huge-numbers-25-mil-friday-for-expected-60-mil-wkd/

 

Who cares if the thing was written in 1998. The film was made now (for a reason) because the story has direct correlations to our situation in Iraq.

A quality review on the matter...

http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.cfm/id/1279/page/___.html

 

Sounds like some people are hurting their little heads trying too hard. It's being made now because of the success of Sin City showed Hollywood types the potential of Frank Miller's work.

 

And because the technology is there to make it right.

When they make Watchmen, I can't wait to see how people twist it around, just like they did V for Vendetta.

 

There are zero parallels between "300" and the Iraq War. W. is miles away from being Xerxes (despite what a few moonbat bloggers think) or Leonidas (despite what a few neocons with big-boy crushes on him think). God knows the U.S. isn't some tiny nation facing overwhelming odds against a larger foe...and we're not some nation hell bent on expansion, crushing peaceful nations under our boots.
I liked the flick. It was big, dumb, stupid, macho and violent. You know for the next five years high school and college football coaches will be showing the movie to their teams...

 

Frank Miller, the executive producer of the movie, without whom it would not have been made, who pillories anti-war Americans in the same way he pillories Athenians in the movie, said on NPR that Iraq declared war on the U.S. But you're right, the movie is not meant in any way to be a reflection of his beliefs.

http://hangrightpolitics.com/2007/01/26/frank-miller-on-the-state-of-our-nation/

NPR: […] Frank, what’s the state of the union?

FM: Well, I don’t really find myself worrying about the state of the union as I do the state of the home-front. It seems to me quite obvious that our country and the entire Western World is up against an existential foe that knows exactly what it wants … and we’re behaving like a collapsing empire. Mighty cultures are almost never conquered, they crumble from within. And frankly, I think that a lot of Americans are acting like spoiled brats because of everything that isn’t working out perfectly every time.

NPR: Um, and when you say we don’t know what we want, what’s the cause of that do you think?

FM: Well, I think part of that is how we’re educated. We’re constantly told all cultures are equal, and every belief system is as good as the next. And generally that America was to be known for its flaws rather than its virtues. When you think about what Americans accomplished, building these amazing cities, and all the good its done in the world, it’s kind of disheartening to hear so much hatred of America, not just from abroad, but internally.

NPR: A lot of people would say what America has done abroad has led to the doubts and even the hatred of its own citizens.

FM: Well, okay, then let’s finally talk about the enemy. For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people’s heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I’m speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I’m living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built.

NPR: As you look at people around you, though, why do you think they’re so, as you would put it, self-absorbed, even whiny?

FM: Well, I’d say it’s for the same reason the Athenians and Romans were. We’ve got it a little good right now. Where I would fault President Bush the most, was that in the wake of 9/11, he motivated our military, but he didn’t call the nation into a state of war. He didn’t explain that this would take a communal effort against a common foe. So we’ve been kind of fighting a war on the side, and sitting off like a bunch of Romans complaining about it. Also, I think that George Bush has an uncanny knack of being someone people hate. I thought Clinton inspired more hatred than any President I had ever seen, but I’ve never seen anything like Bush-hatred. It’s completely mad.

NPR: And as you talk to people in the streets, the people you meet at work, socially, how do you explain this to them?

FM: Mainly in historical terms, mainly saying that the country that fought Okinawa and Iwo Jima is now spilling precious blood, but so little by comparison, it’s almost ridiculous. And the stakes are as high as they were then. Mostly I hear people say, ‘Why did we attack Iraq?’ for instance. Well, we’re taking on an idea. Nobody questions why after Pearl Harbor we attacked Nazi Germany. It was because we were taking on a form of global fascism, we’re doing the same thing now.

NPR: Well, they did declare war on us, but…

FM: Well, so did Iraq.

 

Sorry but anyone pimping 300 because of its relation to the "great" remake of Dawn Of The Dead just lost me.

The Dawn Of The Dead remake was a vapid imitation of the original.

 

Again...he wrote it BEFORE the latest war with Iraq started.

It's a fucking movie based on a comic book. Get over it.