Michael Giltz: Is 300 a Vile, Racist Diatribe ... or Harmless Fun? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/is-300-a-vile-r_b_58638.html [4/5/2009 8:58:37 PM] APRIL 5, 2009 HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING STYLE GREEN WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY 23/6 VIDEO BLOGGER INDEX ARCHIVE Make HuffPost Your HomePage Get Email Alerts Twitter: Follow Us BIG NEWS : Angelina Jolie | Madonna | Chris Brown & Rihanna | Paul McCartney | More...</p><p> LOG IN | SIGN UP Michael Giltz | BIO | I'M A FAN OF THIS BLOGGER Email Print Be the First to Submit This Story to DiggIs 300 a Vile, Racist Diatribe ... or Harmless Fun? Posted July 31, 2007 | 06:50 PM (EST) Read More: Warner Bros., Zack Snyder , United States , Iraq , Finland , Breaking Entertainment News The movie 300 -- a tale of Spartans dying gloriously in battle -- comes to DVD ($34.98; Warner Bros.) as the most surprising and polarizing movie of the year.</p><p> It grossed an astonishing $70 million on its opening weekend in March thanks to a cool look that rivals The Matrix .</p><p> Everyone was caught off guard, but it steamrolled on to more than $200 million in the US and $450 millionworldwide.</p><p> Is it a vile, racist diatribe? Is it a veiled look atthe world from Bush's eyes, with Iraq as thelast stand of freedom and goodness againsttyranny? Is it just a homoerotic video gamecome to life? Or is it all of them combined,indicated by one critic who said the movie was"what a Nazi propaganda film would look like if it had been drawn by Tom of Finland." Watch the film again on DVD and it's hard to burden the story with any of the weight critics have placed on it.</p><p> Director Zack Snyder chats away on the commentary track in full geek mode -- detailing moment by moment what shots were CGI or on a real set, whether a sword was plastic ormetal, which arrows were real and which inserted later, how they got the capes to billow out and onand on.</p><p> If a political or social or military thought ever entered his mind, he disguises it well.</p><p> AllSnyder wanted to do was make the coolest, goriest, awesomest adaptation possible of the FrankMiller graphic novel it's based on.</p><p> It doesn't mean those subtle prejudices aren't there.</p><p> All the bad guys are dark-skinned.</p><p> And it's pretty outrageous to insinuate that the Persians are "deviant" when the Spartans likely celebratedpederasty and men taking young male lovers as much as any other society of Greece.</p><p> But leaningon tired clichés isn't quite the same as celebrating them.</p><p> And Bush was surely the farthest thingfrom Snyder's mind.</p><p> Mostly, it's just a mindless, kind of cool looking action film.</p><p> Perhaps in the future the buried Popular Stories on HuffPost Fashion Face-Off! 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SNL: Madonna And Angelina In Weekend Update...</p><p> Reality Star Jade Goody Buried In Lavish...</p><p> Robert De Niro Nanny Sues For $40,000 Alex Da Silva, Celebrity Choreographer Accused Of...prejudices of 300 will seem embarrassing.</p><p> That's the case with P opeye The Sailor: 1933-1938 ($64.98; Warner Bros.).</p><p> This lovingly packaged collection of the 60 theatrical shorts made by the Max Fleischer Cartoon Studio begins with a warning. "The animated shorts you are about to see are a product of their time," says the disclaimer. "They may depict some of the ethnic, sexist and racist prejudices that were commonplace in American society.</p><p> These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.</p><p> While the following shorts do not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these animated shorts are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed." Now if only Disney would copy this reasonable stance, they could finally release "Song of the South" without fear of being accused of racism. (Adding on commentary tracks from historians and the like would help, too.) The worst sins of these Popeye cartoons include vile stereotypes of Japanese as World War II approached and the sight of two men fighting over a helpless woman.</p><p> Among the extras are many commentary tracks, quite a number of bonus cartoons and two substantial documentaries, including "I Yam What I Yam: The Story Of Popeye the Sailor, which is relatively frank about the decline of the cartoons after the era covered in this set. (By the Seventies, Popeye wasn't evenallowed to hit anyone.</p><p> What's the point, wondered one animator?) Some DVD releases this week actually battled stereotypes instead of reinforcing them.</p><p> The TV show "Hawaii Five-O" was manna from heaven for Hawaiians who saw the beauty of their state celebrated on TV every week and Kam Fong playing the most distinguished Hawaiian in TV history as Detective Chin Ho Kelly. "Hawaii Five-O Second Season" ($49.99; Paramount) as it barreled into the top 20, where it would remain for most of its 12 year run.</p><p> So here's the question: are you offended by the inclusion of racist stereotypes in a collection of old cartoons? Or do you think presenting them with some historical context takes care of it? And were the critics right who lambasted 300 for trafficking in tired, ugly clichés? Or did they make too much out of a fanboy fantasy that had nothing on its mind but gore and super-cool violence? 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(Thenational gay & lesbiannewsmagazine) by Michael Giltz Affairs to remember:Farley Granger beddedAva Gardner, ShelleyWinters, and LeonardBernstein.</p><p> In hisautobiography, IncludeMe Out, Hitchcock's muse... (The national gay &lesbian newsmagazine) by Michael Giltzchemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of...</p><p> HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Bloggers Index Read All Posts by Michael Giltz This Blogger's Books from Michael Giltz: Is 300 a Vile, Racist Diatribe ... or Harmless Fun? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-giltz/is-300-a-vile-r_b_58638.html [4/5/2009 8:58:37 PM] HOME POLITICS MEDIA BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT LIVING GREEN STYLE WORLD CHICAGO COMEDY FUNDRACE ARCHIVE Advertise | Login | Make HuffPost your Home Page | RSS | Jobs | FAQ: Comments & Moderation | FAQ: Huffpost Accounts | Contact Us Copyright © 2009 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. | Archive | User Agreement | Privacy | Comment Policy | About Us | Powered by Movable Type
