'Then we will fight in the shade.' -Stelios the Spartan Warrior

The timing for the latest Warner Bros Epic battle movie 300 is clearly unfortunate but maybe not so. Based on Veteran comic book artist Frank Miller’s gory depiction of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C, that is said to have opposed 300 Spartans to the massive Persian Army of King Xerxes the Great, it is an action packed, sexually provocative and bloody spectacle that clearly deserves its R-Rated label.  In a particularly tense climate of international politics where threats of an imminent  US or Israeli attack on Iran ( once known as Persia ) is on everyone’s mind it would be easy to see in this movie as many bellicose metaphors as there are sand pebbles in the entire desert landscapes of the Middle East. Before succumbing to what is our national sport that is seeing conspiracy theories of monstrous proportions in any non Iranian/Persian depiction of our land and history, let us take a closer look at what would be considered, by any one with a minimum of film knowledge, as merely a  B-Rated Film albeit directed with a visually stunning approach.

Zack Snyder’s 300 was initially a project that was in the Vaults of Warner Bros since the late 1990’s. It was to be a remake of a low budget Hollywood classic Sword and Sandals film entitled the 300 Spartans ( which I had already reviewed for the Iranian.com in 2002 under the title Battle for the West ) directed by Rudolph Maté and starring Richard Egan and David Farrar in the title roles of Spartan King Leonidas and Persian King Xerxes. The remake was initially to be directed by Michael Mann ( Heat, Miami Vice, Last of the Mohicans) and produced by George Clooney with Bruce Willis in the title role of Leonidas and rumors that Spanish machismo Antonio Banderas would portray the Persian King of Kings. The script was to be based on the Best Selling novel by Stephen Pressfield entitled Gates of Fire. However due to the fact that Mann went on to direct Ali a Bio Epic on Box Legend Cassius Clay aka Muhammad Ali starring Will Smith who hoped for an Oscar nomination in the title role, the Sword and Sandals project was abandoned.  In early 2000 newcomer independent Horror movie  filmmaker Zack Snyder ( Dawn of the Dead) suggested the adaptation of another version of this epic story based on Frank Miller’s dark and graphically stylized depiction of the ultimate Spartan sacrifice. The 1962 version has been a cult film for all aficionados of a film genre that went extinct after the mid 60’s due to the increasing appeal of the public for realism on film as well as a more contemporary related stories which the TV as a medium would also encourage and take credit for. James Bond Stunts with a quick hygienic and stylish kill were to replace the massive realistic battle scenes opposing foes in shining armour while Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry and Charles Bronson’s Death Wish films were to illustrate an unorthodox conception of Law and Order where the major characters were to render personal justice in the name of self defense often with a simplistic far-right conservative conception of how society should be dealing with its so-called scums and outcasts. This realistic and graphic approach to violence that were to rank such films as Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather sequels, or his equally violent Apocalypse Now as award winning masterpieces at such well known film festivals as Cannes or the Oscars were nevertheless far more violent with morally more ambiguous messages than most Sword and Sandals Technicolor films of the previous era or even that of the most recent Epic film: Ridley Scott’s excellent Gladiator that launched the film genre to critical acclaim and Box Office success.

Interestingly the rising stars of these “modern films”  like Marlon Brando, Al Pacino or the highly acclaimed and in my humble opinion overestimated Robert De Niro whose role in Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver was to inspire John Hinckley Jr. to commit his failed assassination attempt on Former US President Ronald Reagan. Strangely I have come across several Iranian actors or directors in the Diaspora including some of the most popular and talented in the Diaspora  who clearly hail such performances certainly fo