- I saw the movie 300. The Internet is abuzz with the suggestion
that 300 may be veiled war propaganda. Veiled? Hardly. 300 is the most
blatant brainwashing pro-war propaganda I have seen in many years. It's
the kind of film Leni Riefenstahl would be proud of.
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- Leni Riefenstahl produced propaganda films for the Nazis.
Like 300, Riefenstahl's movies dazzled with their visual finesse and extraordinary
aesthetics but ultimately served to glorify the Nazi ideology and promote
war.
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- 300 is a very entertaining movie, with great special
effects and spectacular visuals. But it drips with dishonest and manipulative
war propaganda.
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- Throughout the entire movie, the warmongering Spartans
are glorified as righteous and superior. Even when they break laws and
start a war and kill foreigners, they're supposedly justified. Anyone who
opposes them, including pacifist Spartans who want peace and not war, are
portrayed as traitors. The intented analogy aimed at democrats and left-wing
antiwar protesters is clear.
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- Supposedly the war-mongering Spartans are "fighting
for freedom" (nevermind that Spartans had slaves) and "the enemy"
is an inhuman, soulless horde of foreigners, mirroring the xenophobic distrust
many republicans display towards the United Nations.
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- Over and over again do characters in the movie say things
aimed at elevating Spartans above all other nations or races. The mention
of 1000 nations fighting against Sparta are an obvious reference to the
worldwide anti-Americanism and the fact that the US is pretty much alone
in its so-called "war on terror."
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- All throughout the movie, non-Spartans (read: non-Americans)
are derided as inferior. Even the allies of the Spartans are described
as inferior soldiers of negligible value - precisely the way warmongering
neocons see the so-called coalition of the willing in Iraq.
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- The voice-over in the movie even uses the word "soulless"
to describe the foreign troops. And all the foreigners are either black,
gay, horribly disfigured or hidden behind masks and veils, so that they
never quite seem human.
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- Dehumanizing and demonizing "the enemy" is
the whole point of war propagada... fool your own citizens into thinking
of the enemy as sub-humans that deserve to be killed.
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- Thousands of foreigners die in 300, but they're faceless,
soulless masses. Their deaths don't matter - just like the American public
completely ignores the deaths of hundreds of thousands of faceless Iraqi
civilians. But when a Spartan dies, it's a tragedy - just like Americans
only care about fallen American soldiers.
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- Among US Army troops the cry "hooah" or HUA
(Heard. Understood. Acknowledged.) is an old tradition to signal unified
approval. In 300, the Spartans scream "haooh" whenever their
king gives a rousing speech about the merit of slaughtering foreigners.
Coincidence? Hardly.
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- Watching those Spartans scream "HAOOH!" with
the melodramatic music in the background actually gave me goosebumps. It
really is a rousing, emotional sensation to see so many men scream as one.
Now I know how those Germans felt who attended Hitler's speeches. I'm sure
you've seen the old black and white news reel footage... Hitler talks of
total war and death before dishonor, and thousands of Germans scream "Sieg
Heil" with one voice. Watching a movie like 300, you feel that emotional
pull, that urge to scream along with all the other voices.
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- Leni Riefenstahl couldn't have done it any better.
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- You'll keep them dumb and I'll keep them poor, said the
politician to the priest.
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- http://www.mostembarrassingmoment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=132518
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