The politics of Frank Miller

[fpb]

Well, well, well. It seems that my rooted detestation of Frank Miller and all his criminal works roused more interest among my friends than any other controversial idea I could toss at them. Well, then, on your own heads be it.

I have a deep, personal, vindictive hatred for Frank Miller, the cartoonist who originated 300

Comments

[superversive]

I saw 300, partly out of morbid curiosity, partly because our very sane friend Mr. Ahmadinejad says it was made by order of the CIA as a blood libel against the Iranian people, to put the American people in the mood for another war. I react to such paranoia in rather odd ways. Either I went to see the movie to have a good laugh at the expense of all concerned, or because they were going to revoke my Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy membership if I didn’t obey the Secret Masters of Neocon, I forget which. I therefore rounded up a couple of friends to face the ordeal with me, and hoped some good might come of it. I reasoned that any film capable of making Ahmadinejad even more hyperbolically batty than he was before could not be altogether bad.

300 was not altogether bad. It did contain one historically accurate detail. When the Persians launched their frontal assault on Leonidas’ position, the line of contact between the two armies was correctly portrayed as an enormous scrum from which the football had been mysteriously removed beforehand

[fpb]

I am glad you think I did not overreact to the evil of mr.Miller's work; but you must remember I did not watch the movie. (I knew far too well what to expect.) Your description of it, by the way, reminds me of a BBC documentary on Roman war I watches a few years back: http://fpb.livejournal.com/3848.html.

[baduin]

Yes! Exactly. Leonidas first is lecturing about keeping the line, and then they are leaping about like Aragorn in the film. But those 10 seconds were perfect.

The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[avandeg]

Iran and their crazy leader are the focus of this film. When you create an enemy, you use contemporary fears and the effiminate egotistical megalomaniac (Xerxes) is supposed to be whoever is the biggest threat now. Life imitates art and vice versa. Whether it was the chicken or the egg that came first, by talking about it we are creating more chickens

Re: The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[superversive]

So you actually believe the production of this film was financed by the CIA? And that Frank Miller’s interpretation of Xerxes is U.S. propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Have some more tinfoil.

Re: The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[avandeg]

That's quite a leap there Super. Funded by the CIA? What did I say in this comment that made you think there was any influence in this movie besides Frank Miller's mind? Most likely to me, this is FM's interpretation of some model for society that he thinks is accurate in many places throughout history. He may not consciously think it's even accurate today for our culture, but he obviously thinks it's relevant. Whether it's a fear about what we might become or a hope that we might aspire to, his social dynamic is pretty clear in the movie. I was pointing out where I thought it applied to current situations that might be familiar to you and these are possibly things that Frank thought about too. You don't have to be a politician to produce propaganda and I don't know why everyone thinks propaganda is a bad word. It can be true just as easy as it can be false like stereotypes. Propaganda just means that it's repeated more than necessary to get a message across. As long as we recognize it, it's just another thing we all have to

Re: The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[fpb]

Yes, let's talk about the reality of Bible stories. Since I am both a historian and a Christian, you will be able to prove your offensive ignorance in two different ways. You are not welcome on this blog, because your mind is closed to any view except your conspiracy-theory trash (you probably think that Bush had the Twin Towers blown up, and, yes, I have met people like you before). You know no history and are incompetent to deal with external reality, because your mind is dominated by fictional villains dominating the world from the White House through manipulation and mass murder, and this obsession disables you for any practical or sensible debate. I have met one person of this kind before, but you are even worse; and the worst thing about your kind is your complete incapacity to even understand the criticism aimed at your crazed belief. And frankly, life is too short to try and wake you up to reality.

Re: The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[avandeg]

Wow! I didn't realize I stumbled into the fascist conservative propaganda machine here. I tried to present alternate views to discuss. I never said that my way was the only way and I didn't even say that any of your points were wrong, but I'm getting bombarded with ad hominems. I thought you wanted to discuss this topic. It appears that you just want a bunch of people to come kiss your butt and say you're smart. I'm not sure why you think that I'm egotistical. I actually read everything here. All the comments and I don't completely agree with them all, but I think they all have a perspective

Re: The wacko here vs the wacko there.

[fpb]

I just posted a response to this as a new post in this LJ.