As biblical scholars did with The Passion of the Christ, classicists now can do with 300, that is, discuss the merits of the film relative to history. And there's probably none better for that task than classicist-cum-political commentator Victor Davis Hanson, who does so here.
Hanson's column takes on some of the common criticisms of the movie, namely (a) that it is stylized and not historically faithful, and (b) that it vaunts Greek culture at the expense of Persian in a jingoistic way. Hanson's responses, summarized, are (a) the Greeks stylized their own history too; (b) for all its faults Greek culture was better than its neighbors'.
We doubt that we'd care much for the movie, were we to invest in a ticket. But we like Hanson's analysis.
2 comments:
Interesting concept, a movie ticket as an investment.
Hanson did quite well in his response. Most importantly he made it quite clear that this was a movie based on a comic book with not intention of being an accurate documentary.
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