Movies and Politics

I have heard a lot of interpretations of the movie 300 than I care to really think about, and the fact of the matter is most interpretations of the film are wrong. It is not homophobic, anti-Iranian, a liberal treatise on the fight against hegemony or a neo-conservative wet-dream about soldiers fighting and dying for "what the believe".

None of these are the case. 300 is exactly what it appears to be: a big dumb action movie without any inherent political statement at all. Except for maybe that when a movie like this is is seen by people far and wide, it becomes political litmus paper. You paint this canvas with your own psyche.

The Spartans can be the Americans, if you are a conservative that likes the idea of the righteousness of the warrior, or the Persians can be Americans, if you are a liberal that sees the current actions of our country's government as being hegemonic and imperial.

And of course, how can a movie with so much flexing man-meat on display actually be homophobic? Because the bad guy is a bit swishy? I don't think say.

The Spartans themselves don't even make a good stand in for America, historically speaking--they were exclusive and isolationist. They despised the more liberal democracies of Greece and produced no art, outlawed immigration and warred constantly with their neighbors.

The Perisans don't either--dynastic empire with forced conscription.

They're better suited to being stand ins for the Soviets and the Chinese.

Of course this movie isn't history, it is a fantasy. So that point could go either way, really.

But the fact is this movie is pure violent eye-candy and nothing but, and damn good eye-candy at that. I've seen it twice and think it is a great, fun movie.

The political movie of the season that people seem to be ignoring it Antoine Fuqua's Shooter. This movie is an American Centrist statement against outlaw government agencies, independent mercenary armies and the use of a good man with gun for ill by the powers that be. It is seeped in righteous indignation, wells used political statements and is being accused of being what it isn't: a big, dumb action movie.

Shooter has for the liberal/centrist set the shadowy government agency acting outside the law, the conspiracy to cover up bad dealings and a Blackwater stand-in. It rails against the military industrial complex and out government's use of mercenaries.

For the centrist/conservative it has the lone man standing up for justice, out of control government that allows for bad things to shuffled under rugs, the military-industrial complex doing the bad things, a law and order system that actually works and shouts out a big commercial for private gun ownership.

And in the end of the movie it drives home an American idea, or maybe myth, that one man can make a difference, even if it is a just a drop in the bucket of the wrongs of the world.

And it's good eye candy with great action sequences.