More on 300

In reading some of the critical reaction to 300, I was amused to see the analysis of it as a political statement. A lot of the negative reactions to the movie were upset by the politics of it all in the context of the war in Iraq. But what as funny was that they couldn't agree on who represented who.

Some found it objectionable that Snyder portrayed George W. Bush as Xerxes, the megalomaniacal leader of overwhelming forces sent to invade someone else's homeland. Others took issue with the handsome, honorable lily-white westerners taking on the evil, deformed, dark-skinned middle easterners.

Obviously, since no one can agree on who's who, the Iraq war parallels don't hold up. Even more obvious, given that it's an almost shot-for-shot remake of a ten year old comic book, published before Bush even took office. The latter scenario with the racist overtones, though, sounds like it may have a little merit at first glance. But what they missed, and this is revealed in the first minute or two so I don't consider it a spoiler, is that the film is framed around a Spartan man at a campfire telling a story to other Greeks, trying to rally them for the continued war agains Persia. So he makes them out to be scary and awful and anything that will motivate these guys to go out and kill them. It's the same reason, I'm sure, that American forces in World War II had some pretty awful things to say about the "krauts."

300 simply isn't political. It's blood and guts, a visually stunning experience, a thrill ride. You don't criticize the politics of a roller coaster, and you shouldn't here either.