Soon Leonidas meets Ephialtes Andrew Tiernan. The historical Ephialtes of Trachis, whose name is synonymous in Greek with "nightmare," was a Malian Greek who betrayed the Spartans for Persian gold, showing them a secret path in the mountains through which a contingent of archers were able to flank and ultimately destroy the Spartans.
In , we meet an Ephialtes who is a mass of visible disabilities. He's got a hunchback on his hunchback, he's stooped, he limps, his eyes are splayed apart and move like a chameleon's, but he's wearing a Spartan uniform. Leonidas' captain reacts like a good Spartan to Ephialtes' unusual body: he recoils in horror and brandishes a weapon.
But Leonidas, good king that we're meant to believe he is, reacts with kindness. Ephialtes tells his story: he was born a Spartan, but his parents fled rather than lose their child to the brutal tradition. He was nevertheless raised as a Spartan, trained to fight with a spear, and given his uniform by his father. He wants to join the battle, and offers information: knowledge of the presence of the secret path that could be used to flank the Spartans.
Leonidas' kindness turns to condescension as he explains that Ephialtes' body prevents him from raising his shield, and that therefore he would be useless indeed, fatally destructive to the Spartan phalanx key to their tactics, in which each man's shield protects the man next to him. Leonidas offers Ephialtes a different role: tending the wounded and tidying the dead.
Ephialtes is enraged; he yells a curse at his parents: "Mother! You were wrong! At the court of Xerxes, Ephialtes finds himself surrounded by people with unusual bodies; hermaphrodites, giants, amputees, transgendered people, and people with exotic deformities.
Ephialtes is welcome here, one more freak in a freak show, and Xerxes showers him with gifts both material and sexual in exchange for his betrayal of Leonidas.
For some strange reason, Ephialtes does not reveal the location of the secret path; instead, he offers to lead the Immortals Xerxes' fearsome elite force of, inexplicably, ninjas. Leonidas' last words are to Ephialtes on the battlefield before he is engulfed by a shower of arrows: "I hope you live forever. Ephialtes, shamed, bows his misshapen head under his shiny new Persian helmet. This is not mere ableism: this is anti-disability.
No Persian generals were black, nobody in their army was black. I guess, it's kind of cool that they are black in the movie - it's politically correct. Why not call me a cnt, but call me a fake on Y! Fabrication has nothing to do with political correctness and I wish people would stop abusing "political correctness" as an excuse for things that are not correct As opposed to its correct usage of breaking open taboo subjects.
The only thing incorrect is that it is incorrect. It's like pointing at a black person and saying he is an Eskimo. It's a very ignorant thing to do and being in the wrong can never be justified. What makes you the moral authority on this matter. I will watch what I want when I want. If you don't like a film don't watch it.
Shut up and let everyone have their freedom of choice. No matter how valid your points may be, your intolerance for the rights of others to choose what they wish to see is the most blatant form of censorship and myopia.
No Persian generals were black A Persian general was shown being beheaded by a beast-thing that had swords for arms and guess what - he was black. Even the exaggerations are extreme Imagine a bad guy in your novel and draw your impression in your mind. Some people will not agree with your impression. As far as personal opinions go I guess it fit You guys are all a bunch of whiners. This is stupid. They tend to have lots of stage acting experience and do that whole intense Shakespearean thing really well.
Theres a diverse cultural pool to draw from. Is this movie accurate about that? Who cares. It includes demon creatures that are deformed and more akin to strange creations of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings.
Its absurdly overextended in its representation of things. Its more like a Legend, based on true events, exaggerated to be more entertaining and exciting. This is also almost the way history was told back them. The first history really ever written was by Herodotus, which is where we get a lot of our stuff about Sparta, but it was extremely biased.
In that period it was felt that history wasn't as much about being accurate as it was about telling the story that was believed or was popular. The notion that history should be unbiased and objective wasn't really taken to heart until Thucydides wrote his own History of the Peloponnesian War which while he was a first hand observer, he went out of his way to get interviews and first hand evidence to support what he wrote. This wasn't exactly scientific by today's standards but it was the first step at what we call unbiased history.
SO, after all that blather, what am I saying? That its a freaking story, like an epic more than a piece of history. Fact is we should be thankful its an exciting and satisfying epic rather than the usual historically inept product which Hollywood tends to give us. Usually someone wants to do a period piece and we end up with something altogether whored out for mainstream success.
Take Saving Private Ryan. Very serious looking, the opening 20 minutes being extremely well respected as an accurate depiction of war. Then we go on some stupid adventure that has nothing to do with war really, filled with all sorts of inaccurate non sense that doesn't really give us an accurate picture of war how about a head on assault of an entrenched machine gun position where they leave the grunt behind but take the Medic with them Its got the serious tone of true history but really just goes off masturbating for 2 hours.
Look at Doesn't pretend to be a textbook come to film. Its based on a graphic novel, the purpose of which was to create an epic representation of Sparta which had captured the imagination of the author. Stop being stupid and bringing up the race card. I am so sick of people with their politically correct BS about racial crap. I don't remember one racist thing said in this movie.
It was a movie that was off in left field, not at all about our own culture or society. It isn't applicable to our social dynamics and as such its just trite and idiotic to complain about race in this thing. Also I haven't heard one person here really complain about the demon thing. There were demons in Xerxes army, and what we're worried about is whether the mixture of dark skin is PC enough? Check out Xerxes, Persian Immortals, check out the regions where the empire was located.
North Africa was apart of his empire. With all this is it funny, because if you go to Iran you wont see a single black person. Persian or non-persian. I speak from experience when I way this. Actually you are wrong, there are a very small amount of black persians. Actual Iranias told they are descendants blacks soldier, slaves etc. So you are wrong. Everyone is descendants from blacks at some point if that is what you mean.
People in ancient Persia and the kings etc. What I was trying to get at is not the skin color per se but how the Persians where portrayed as animals. If they wanted to make everything as inaccurate as possible they could have at least made up a people fighting in a made up battle.
This is set over years ago. Iran and africa aren't exactly close, it is not like people could just take the next plain their. Even if you were to imagine that ridiculous scenario, then why are not the current Persians black? Why should it necessary to depict things realistically when it is CLEAR that the film, and comic, is not supposed to be accurate?
Indeed, the presence of the grotesques is one of the things that makes it bloody obvious that is not supposed to be a historically accurate. Where's all the outrage when a movie like "Django" has a black hero killing up whitey? There is none. Most villains in Hollywood movies are generic white guys. There are many races portrayed in the Persian army.
You only see the black villains because you want to see racist intent. Open the pod bay doors, Hal. They didn't "get it wrong," they were never trying to emulate reality. And Xerxes is not black in the movie, nor are any of the speaking Persians aside from the messenger.
Blacks being apart of the largest empire isn't absurd at all. Dude they ARE black, and so is Xerxes.
Jesus, just look up a picture on google or something before embarrassing yourself. Funny how people keep saying he is black when the actor is South American. If anything Xerxes is SA with a spray on tan. It amazes me how many people who have the nerve to whine about historically accurate portrayals are living in a world of denial about history.
You had better check your history before you cry your little heart out. The Persians, while they may have originated in the area of present day Iran, spread throughout the world around them, including Africa. Due to human curiosity, along with the need to power and riches, peoples covering many ancient ethnicities wandered and mixed. Today, it is quite possible those with Persian heritage may have African ancestry as well. If your whining is based strictly on skin color, I have met a few Persians.
Some appeared more Caucasian than anything else and some appeared incredibly dark, darker than "black" people I know. If you have a problem with the international dilution of ethnicity, blame the ones who weren't happy to stay home. It amazes me how Hollywood has the nerve to pervert a historic event that has been aggrandized for centuries by West European romanticism by making a mockery out of it and then to not-so unexpectedly garner stupid fans like yourself complaining about a legitimate concern.
So suddenly an African becomes a Persian? Great logic you've got going there, asshat. At least my ancestors had the decency to separate the subjects from their overlords 2, years ago, you despicable troglodyte. With your logic then, Herodotus' "Histories" from which the main source of this story is derived was himself a Persian by extension of your ludicrous logic.
According to the world's foremost expert in genetic anthropology, Luca Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, the Iranian phenotype is closely related to that of Italians, Danes and Greeks. If your human curiosity was worth a damn you'd also know that the very word "Iranian" is derived from the ancient cognate of "Aryan"; the very same term that was politically hijacked by Germanics with a cultural inferiority complex.
Even more curiosity would reveal that even Nordicist racists like Carleton Coon considered the so-called "Iranid race" to be firmly within the Nordic parameters.
Even racists misused and abused to death by white supremacists disagree with you. Read a book for once. I am sceptical to your observations, but I am inclined to agree that within the so-called "white race" there is a vast biodiversity. Darker than black people? No, then you have bumped into someone different altogether. It is academical fact that Iran has a small minority of African blacks from Ethiopia and Somalia that settled on small settlements along the south Iranian coasts during the Safavid era; they are referred to as "Ahl-e Hava" or "People of the Wind" and could never be mistaken from an ancestral Iranian.
Furthermore, the pigmentation of hair and eyes has minimal relevance in charting genetic markers; an anthropologist worth his money will state that the only way to chart genetic differences is solely by the synthesis of skeletal structure, mDNA and yDNA. Greeks were apt to recognize the origins of the subjects that lived within the Persian empire. The array of the imperial army at Thermopylae is proof of this meticulous tradition and of exactly where the film absolutely fails.
I have posted this comment on another related topic here Persians versus Romans but now I am going to post it again here as well. First of all let me tell you that I am an Iranian that comes from a Persian ethnic background who is really shocked by the huge amount of superficial and brainwashing contents that are producing everyday by those smart brains behind the curtains for some very specific goals to feed the mind of almost all the people on this planet everyday through the global media, mainstream movies, music and etc.
And its rotten smell not just affected this IMDB place but also the whole world. Lets get in the queue for the mass globalization of the world cultures! And yes, for your own information I also went to the universities and at the present I am a PHD candidate in the field of the Philosophy of Religion and Just like anyone else who is interested in the true FACTS of history and is seeking the truth among the loads of thrashes called history I am trying to recognize the facts from fictions, especially in the field of ancient history and philosophies which makes it even more difficult.
One thing I do not understand is that why people in general won't accept or at least try to think a little bit about other people's opinion first then begins to comment, I have read this whole thread plus all the other related ones here and realized that almost all people who are obviously drunk and happy to be blind with the movies such as and similar ones are in one side and Megatherion in the other hand is trying his best to help them get sober.
Seriously people, think for a second, it won't hurt if you use your brain just sometimes. I am an Iranian who beside studying, published academically articles, have written books and as I mentioned before I am also trying my best to while keeping myself sober and separated from this huge river of stupidity also try to wake others as well or at least try to not darken the paths of lights which others illuminated on. You people really need to reconsider your thoughts and mentality and I honestly wants you all to REBOOT your minds again and read all the Megatherion posts again as I am sure next time you will see there was no need to argue with him or if after reading his posts again you felt you still wanna play with empty words here and keep drinking from the same pool of ignorance then I refer you all to this article by one of the best scholars in this field named: "Touraj Daryaee" As I believe that if after reading his article you still keep thinking in the same way you used to think then I have to say it shows how much the poison of global mainstream media have been powerful that affected your subconscious mind in a way that even the best psychotherapist won't be able to help you.
Frank Miller: Well. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. Is anyone telling me that the movie has not then consciously portrayed the Persian army of king Xerxes like the Taliban terrorists and the Iraqi insurgents who use IEDs to kill American soldiers? Moreover, you people tell me, how many movies have been created about Greeks, Romans and their glorious history and stuff like that with more or less accurate historical facts and how many in the other hand created about the cultures of Persians, Indians and Eastern nations in general?
Tell me again, how many movies have you seen about the Persian or Indian cultures and histories? I doubt you even heard many of these names before.. Did you know the latest discoveries relationally proves that the both Persians and Indians Upanishads, Vedantic cultures and philosophies and the ancient eastern schools of thoughts in general in actuality affected the minds of many great philosophers of the so-called West?
Like Plato, Plotinus, Nietzsche, Goethe and many others? I do not want to lecture you here as I believe this is not an ideal place to do so, but please, turn your TV off for a second, Stop wasting your time and money by going to theaters to watch million budget movies like Transformers and movies like that for a while and instead of wandering around here and there, read more books, expand your knowledge and try to see what they do not wants you to see.
Persia, Greece, China, India and many other great nations on this planet were and still are the backbone of our civilizations, do not let them ruin the true glory of humankind by watching, embracing and supporting the movies they make to keep us fooled as they can govern a nation of fools much easier than governing people who are wise and knowledgeable enough to challenge their ideas.
At the end I wanted to apologize for my not perfect English as well as it is not my native language. First of all, I'd like to greet you welcome to this unfortunately less than pleasant forum. You write with the power and shock of a cataphract and I for one would be extremely pleased if you continued to contribute with more posts. I am a bachelor degree student of the Kapodistrian university of Athens and my field of study is ancient history, wherein the early Byzantine era And numismatics is my specialty.
I am also an avid fan of epic films and I am currently writing a public paper on historiography and the role of film-making, where especially the film "" takes a prominent position Of scrutiny, that is; I have little good to say about this rather nasty film.
I would also wish to remain anonymous until my paper is published Though I do not listen to any rock besides Queen. The reason why I know quite a bit about Iranian history is above all because it is expected from a modern historian to possess knowledge that provides context. You cannot study the Greeks if you do not study the world they lived in. And when I say the world they lived in, I do not merely refer to any presumed cultural bubble; I am literally referring to the world. Ultimately we may choose if we wish to stick to a simplified 5-piece puzzle, or a challenging but far much more inclusive 50,piece puzzle.
I have met Touraj Daryaee during a convention he held at the UC Irvine; he is a nice chap with great ambitions of establishing Sasanian studies and he did write a witty repartee as a response to the film. I am also aware that Kaveh Farrokh also wrote a lengthy But of his usual diplomatic self rebuttal of the film. I have also spoken to the person who dwells under the alias "legofish" who successfully made a Google-bomb Upon which I congratulated his success.
I know quite a few Iranians And the customary tradition of learning the cuss-words in Farsi who think of Greece very much alike their ancestral homeland. Your anger has clouded your vision, leaving you unable to objectively respond. Many movies are historically inaccurate. If Persians interbred with Africans, would the offspring not be both African and Persian you imbecile? I most definitely know those who claim Persian ancestry who are darker than those considered black in my country of origin.
How can you argue with my experience? You did not have it. Name-calling with get you nowhere and only stands to highlight your personal offense regarding comments on this situation.
I have read many books, thank you very much. Quote reputable sources or your attempts to validate your knowledge through the use of an extensive vocabulary is just that. Now, crawl back into your hole and sniffle over someone daring to distort the history of whom I assume you claim as your people, considering your reaction.
If you dare quote numerous sources of information, realize I will laugh at you for wasting your time. If I ever choose to concentrate my free time on studying any of this, which is not a probability, I will; however, there are many other subjects I find much more interesting than the amount of knowledge of this subject which a certain person bases his or her cyber persona's worth on.
SciFi-for those who understand the space outside the box is less crowded. He actually sounds more sober than you do. Because dissent gives you a headache? The Iranians in this film were portrayed, physically, as monsters.
Do you think this is an objective portrayal of the Persians? Why should Iranians abide to anything when US armed forces balked against the Turkish film "Valley of the Wolves" that portrayed the US armed forces as absolute monsters Which is not far from the truth, which makes it vastly more accurate than "".
The US are right now looking for reasons to wage war against Iran and to recuperate losses in the oil trade ever since the Iranians refused to remain US puppets. Should we deal with this too, or should we rather deal with the fact that you're a gullible idiot? Don't go calling others imbecile, you uncouth barbarian swine. The black actors in this film clearly have origins in Western, Central and Southern Africa, far from the Persian colonies established in Egypt, Libya, Nubia and Ethiopia, where people generally look nothing like the Afro-Americans.
No records indicate that the Persians ever advocated for Here's something else, before calling anyone else ignorant, do your own homework. It's basic courtesy. No, you don't. Here's how to argue with your "experience": You've made it up inside the thick heap of bones you call your skull. You sir, are a liar and a lousy one at that.
The only "black" Iranians today are the Ahl al-Havva Lit. People of the Wind who migrated to Iran during the Safavid-Qajarid era from the Horn of Africa and who have settled in enclaves in coastal Iran. And they are not really "black" considering many of them are Somalis. Here's the reality: You just want to defend your ridiculous preference for this racist film, but you want to believe you do so in good conscience.
You will go to ridiculous lengths and rationalizations to attain this. Name-calling with get you nowhere You're a liar, and that's not name-calling. It's a fact. Actually, you just want to call anyone who disagrees with you "offended", which is a ridiculous red herring attempting to divert the fact that you have brought no arguments for your stance on this discussion. This weakness of yours is glaring and you know it. Facts on what? Can you present this research and "advanced technology" to the rest of us, pretty please?
What a ridiculous person you are. You try to shroud and obfuscate your lack of support by implying evidence through postponing and evasive applying of terminology that would have us believe you know what the hell you're talking about. If you had proof, you would show it without hesitating.
Quote reputable sources or your attempts No, dimwit. That's not how it works. Do you expect us to disprove Russell's Teapot, while you completely shrug off the burden of evidence. We are not the ones claiming Persians are black. You are. Therefore the burden of proof falls on you. The Iranians are a nationality and are entitled to rights in coordination with the Human Rights Charter of the United Nations. You are in no position to tell them anything. You are an exposed liar and a proud racist who have no knowledge whatsoever on Iranians.
My recommendation for you would be to get lost before I pursue to verbally humiliate you. Except that responsibility is yours, jackass. If I ever choose to concentrate my free time on studying any of this You should focus on more simple things. Like breathing. And yet you're maintaining a position in a subject you don't know anything in. But then again, your "cyber persona" Which by now is a cop-out to imply you hold none of these opinions in real life is that of the pathological liar and the adamant ignoramus.
By the way, the challenge stands. Come back with proof saying that there are black Persians. If you can't, don't bother; I didn't like your stupid face and therefore won't miss you. Most Ancient nubians anyway had central african features. Egypt is far to the east. Even if the Egyptians were black they were not , they were not the same people as the west africans. Anonymous Coward quote- You obviously don't know what the Sahel is,or that one can walk through it from ocean to ocean east to west as Africans have since the dawn of time.
The Indigenous and Black African model relies heavily on writings from Classical Greek and Egyptian historians, as well as Hebrew and Biblical traditions. Several Ancient Greek historians noted that Egyptians and Ethiopians were black or dark skinned with woolly hair, [Herodotus] made clear ethnic and national distinctions between Aigyptios Egyptians and the peoples whom the Greeks referred to as Aithiops Ethiopians Najovits clarifies the perspective of the Classical Greek authors with the following two observations: For ancient Greek writers, the Nubians were Aithiops, "Ethiopians", as were the black African peoples.
This designation excluded the Egyptians. The very use of the two standard terms — Aigyptios and Aithiops — and their etymological meanings already indicated an essential difference in the Greek perception. The British Africanist Basil Davidson summarized the issue as follows: While at the University of Dakar, Diop used microscopic laboratory analysis to measure the melanin content of skin samples from several Egyptian mummies from the Mariette excavations.
The melanin levels found in the dermis and epidermis of that small sample led Diop to classify all the Ancient Egyptians as "unquestionably among the Black races. The pottery of the later Buto Maadi culture, best known from the site at Maadi near Cairo, also shows connections to the southern Levant. In the southern part of Egypt Upper Egypt the predynastic Badarian culture was followed by the Naqada culture.
These people seem to be more closely related to the Nubians and North East Africans than with northern Egyptians. It is now largely agreed that Dynastic Egyptians were indigenous to the Nile area. About 5, years ago the Sahara area dried out, and part of the indigenous Saharan population retreated East towards the Nile Valley.
In addition Neolithic farmers from the Near East are known to have entered the Nile Valley, bringing with them their food crops, sheep, goats and cattle. Fekri Hassan and Edwin et al. Originally Posted by Guaporense quote- Egypt is not Nigeria, never has been. Egyptians never were black in the modern sense of looking like Afro-Americans.
I don't need to speak about this anymore. Unbreakable quote- Well you clearly are unaware of the conclusions reached by modern contemporary research. Here is one: languages spoken today as far west as Chad, and as far south as Somalia. Archaeological evidence also strongly supports an African origin.
A widespread northeastern African cultural assemblage, including distinctive multiple barbed harpoons and pottery decorated with dotted wavy line patterns, appears during the early Neolithic also known as the Aqualithic, a reference to the mild climate of the Sahara at this time.
Saharan and Sudanese rock art from this time resembles early Egyptian iconography. Similarities include black-topped wares, vessels with characteristic ripple-burnished surfaces, a special tulip-shaped vessel with incised and white-filled decoration, palettes, and harpoons Scholars in the late and early 20th centuries rejected any considerations of the Egyptians as black Africans by defining the Egyptians either as non-African i.
In the later half of the 20th century, Afrocentric scholars have countered this Eurocentric and often racist perspective by characterizing the Egyptians as black and African Consequently, any characterization of race of the ancient Egyptians depend on modern cultural definitions, not on scientific study.
Thus, by modern American standards it is reasonable to characterize the Egyptians as 'blacks' [i. Oxford University Press. As stated in the encyclopedia however, African especially black Africans have the a great range of indigenous diversity.
According to most biological evidence the Africans whom they most closely resembled especially during the earliest phases were Sudanese Nilotic peoples who have a range from broad from elongated. The Fitzwilliam's Museum has recently dedicated an exhibit and a segment of their website to placing Egypt or Kemet back into it's "proper" black African context. Check out their "Black to Kemet" section and the lectures by renown PhD's on the subject.
It is as absurd to speak of a black Nigerian-type crude racial expressions are the only way to be clear, I apologise people once living in Egypt as it is fair-haired Nordic-types. Unbreakable quote- And why is that? What "Nigerian-type" could you possibly be talking about, as Nigeria has an array of indigenous phenotype ranging from people with stereotypical "true Negroid" features to black Africans who have been in the past falsely labeled "Caucasoid" for their elongated features Hausa and Fulani?
Contemporary biological evidence biological suggest that it was the "Nordic" theory that was completely false and was completely baseless. The Egyptians had a range of African cranial morphologies were from broad features like many West and Central Africans to elongated with tropically limb proportions which would only mean that they were recent migrants from the tropics to the south of Egypt , which would mean that they were black. This idea that some people have that both ends of this argument are wrong and that some sort of middle ground must be conjured up is quite silly and IMO shows a complete lack of knowledge in regards to this subject and it's long racial and ideological history.
The comments are in the link given atop. African Centred Egyptology aims to look at Egypt as part of African culture. People mainly look at Ancient Egypt through a European bias. This is because the majority of books on Egyptology are written by researchers of European, or North-American backgrounds. There are also increasing numbers of Egyptian scholars also publishing in English as well as Arabic. However, there are comparatively few scholars of African origin or descent who work on the subject of Ancient Egypt.
Their views, when African Centred, are often and wrongly dismissed by more mainstream Egyptologists. Historians and archaeologists rarely disclose their cultural identities in the same way that someone working in sociology the study of society and the people in it or anthropology the study of people and cultures would automatically declare in their books and articles.
The reason that some disciplines talk about the identity of the author is because how we view the world can influence how we interpret it. Our views can be influenced by where we grew up, where we received our education and to what extent we have been exposed to other cultures and groups of people. Where is Egypt and where was Kemet?
What does Kemet mean? All of these names were originally spelt without vowels, so for example Kmt. The meaning of Kemet has been much debated. The word was spelt with four hieroglyphs: a piece of crocodile skin with spines making the sound K; an owl making the sound M and a half loaf of bread making the sound T.
The round symbol represents a crossroads and shows the reader that in this context this is a place name. However, people have interpreted the reference to the colour black this in two different ways: In reference to the colour of the silt of the Nile and so the fertile soil of Egypt In reference to the colour of the people What does Kemet mean?
For this reason the gallery that you are currently viewing is called Virtual Kemet. There are many links between ancient Egyptian and modern African culture, ranging from objects such as headrests to hairstyles such as the side lock, and this and other evidence support the idea that it was an African culture in addition to being geographically in Africa.
For these reasons Egypt is seen by people of African descent as part of their cultural heritage and history. The concept of Egypt as part of Africa is not a new one. Some of the earliest travellers to Egypt came from the ancient cultures of Greece and Rome, including Greek philosophers, mathematicians, scientists, writers and poets who came to learn from the priests. To the Greeks and Romans, Egypt was an African country, and their artists depicted the Egyptians as Africans, with black skin and tightly curled hair, described by the Greek historian Herodotos in the fifth century BC as 'woolly'.
Were the people in Ancient Kemet the same groups of people who live Egypt today? It falls on the eve of Norouz, Persian new year, a time when Iranians typically gather in proud celebration, observing rites that date back over 3, years, way before Islam, to the age of Zoroastrianism, when their ancient land produced the world's first monotheistic religion.
It is not a particularly welcome season to be portrayed as pillaging, deranged savages. Since the entire country will be on two weeks of official holiday, there will be no shortage of time to sit about discussing the slight and what it portends for Iran's current confrontation with the United States.
For a people prone to conspiracy logic, the box office success of , compared with the relative flop of Alexander another spurious period epic dealing with Persians is cause for considerable alarm, signaling ominous U. While the hullabaloo over may dampen Iranians' holiday spirits, it offers common cause between people and their estranged government.
Top officials and parliament have scorned the film as though it were a matter of state, and for the first time in a long while, taxi drivers are shaking their fists in agreement when the state news comes on. Agreeing that is egregious drivel is fairly easy. I'm relatively mellow as Iranian nationalists go, and even I found myself applauding when the government spokesman described the film as fabrication and insult.
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