"In which a small band of racially-pure Europeans save democracy and freedom from the mixed Asian hordes of an androgynous despot. They are betrayed by a cripple who should have been killed for his deformity, and who was seduced by the sexual lasciousviousness said despot was able to offer. Fortunately, good still triumphs over evil."
[For anyone who doesn't know, the movie is a shot-for-shot remake of Frank Miller's graphic novel].
Frank Miller used to be one my of my favourite comic book authors. As far as I'm concerned The Dark Knight Returns is just about the best superhero comic ever written, and though it took a while to grow on me, the long-awaited sequel The Dark Knight Strikes Again is at least as brilliant. But it's hard to have much respect for him these days. 300 is a good story, and I enjoyed it as such when I finally watched the movie version this summer with a friend. But as soon the movie was over, and we started talking about what the movie seemed to saying... things start getting a little creepy. Then I read Edward Said's Orientalism for a class this fall, and had to do a presentation on it, which really opened my eyes to all that's wrong with this movie.
Those behind the movie/book will (and do) say "relax, it's just a story" and "it has no meaning in (or relation to) the real world." But as Said argues, we in the West have a long history (going back at least as far as Homer's Illiad, and Herodotus' Histories) of portraying 'the East' as both dangerous and decadent. Not only have such attitudes and discourses -- often unconscious -- justified imperialism, they sure become convenient when marshalling support for the latest military adventure out in the Eastern world. Thumbs down, Frank Miller.
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