The Brawler was delighted when he saw Jessica McBride was reviewing 300. Movie reviews bring out some of her best work. Who could forget this nugget from her review of United 93:
As Paul said later, there are some movies that leave everyone silent afterwards. As he described it, they are the movies when you go into the theater restroom later, everyone's deadly silent. This was one of those movies.
Actually, the silence more likely had to do with the fact someone said something mean about Paul Bucher right before he interrupted the conversation. But onto the review of 300, in which Jessica delves into Greek history to offer us some lessons for the present.
From the "review":
A lot of people are reading political statements into the movie "300." As the New York Times recently recounted, a reporter cornered the director to ask: Is George Bush Leonidas or Xerxes? The director said he intended neither metaphor.
The reporters have to ask whether Bush represents the heroic warrior protagonist (the Spartan king, Leonidas) fighting for freedom or the decadent, ineffectual and evil antagonist (the Persian despot, Xerxes) whose people are enslaved and brutalized?
The answer is obvious. Bush is Leonidas.
Huh? Did Iraq attempt to invade the United States the way Persia set out to crush the Greek city states and Bush defended our freedom? Don't remember that. I do remember the administration passing along a lot of false information about operational connections between Iraq and al Qaeda as well as dark hints that Iraq was trying to amass nuclear weapons. So I'm really not seeing the connection.
The madman of Iran identifies with Xerxes and the Persians. Ahmadinejad thinks the movie is an insult and is outraged by it. So obviously HE thinks Bush is Leonidas.
Weird! I totally take my cues on how to think from the madman of Iran as well! Jessica and I have more in common than I thought!
A lot of liberals and reporters don't. Those posting on liberal blogs believe he is Xerxes or worse. Telling. Think about that for a minute. The "could Bush be Xerxes" question is insulting. They are asking if he's the antagonist!
Don't want to insult the man who lied us into a war, now, do we?
Is it JUST a movie? Yes, of course. It's also a revealing political Rohrschach test. What I am not sure about is: Which are we? As a country? Both, I suppose. We are a country divided. That in and of itself is scary.
Heck, forget the Persians. The question is whether we want to be more Athens than Sparta.
See the movie. You will see what I mean.
What she's saying here is that the movies shows the Athenians are total fags! But in wake of the latest controversy surrounding Jessica's hero Ann Coulter -- you may recall she called John Edwards a "faggot" to the hoots and hollers of a gathering of conservatives -- Jessica knows better than to come out and say it. Jessica's journalism students take note: if what you want to say has no place in civil society, just use inuendo.
(And while I know Jessica could care less about the actual history, the Spartans indulged in hot man on man action. Indeed, the Persians found them braiding each others' hair! And those effete Athenians actually managed to inflict a grievous defeat on the Persian navy at Salamis, a much more important battle than Thermopylae.)
It's a fantastic movie, by the way. It's one of the most visually striking movies I've seen in a long time. Of course, the... shall we say, costumes, keep your attention too. If you're female.
The costumes would consist of long red capes and bulging leather jockstraps. Totally straight!
I drew an analogy to the war right away: The movie made me ask, What are we made of? What is our destiny? Who will we choose to be? I know which side I want us to emulate. I know which side our brave soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are emulating. How much blood are we willing to expend? The blood of 3,000 men and not one more? Of 5,000? Of none? Do we really want to be known as a country with all of the military might at its disposal... except for valor, honor, and will?
The Brawler has asked before and he will ask again: Why does Jessica think it a virtue, or even particularly difficult, to be willing to see more Americans killed in Iraq? We're four years and more than 3,000 killed in this war and we are nowhere near achieving this peaceful democratic state the Bushies promised us we would see. Four years. Longer than it took to defeat Hitler and Japan. Four years. The Iraqis have all the time in the world to fight and wait and fight and hang back and watch. They live there. Do we want to be there forever?
The Brawler has asked before and he will ask again: Instead of denigrating critics of the war or expressing outrage at a vandalism at a recruiting station, why doesn't Jessica -- to whom "valor, honor and will" is all -- go to a recruiting station and enlist? The world doesn't need another right wing yakker. It needs soldiers. You would think such an avid supporter of the war would want to be one.
She quotes some thumbsucking piece penned by some Iowan an concludes with this:
There is one analogy between Bush and the Persians. They had the superior fighting force in terms of numbers and technology. But in "300", they didn't have the superior will. Or cause.
There is a lesson in that. However, it's certainly not Bush who needs to learn it.
Jessica, can you tell me what the lesson is exactly? Sometimes we have to make a suicidal stand? Because last I checked, the Spartans lost. The Persians -- despite their "inferior" will -- won.
I deeply hope Bush stays far away from this movie.
Sparta was also a military state. Is Jessica the Dim suggesting we trade in our democracy for a dictatorship?
Posted by: Tim | March 21, 2007 at 08:03 PM