恶人谷

It's in today's FT, Arts section. Funny comments on 300, an in-season topic here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Calm down dear, it’s only a movie
By Nigel Andrews

Published: March 21 2007 17:29 | Last updated: March 21 2007 17:29

Paranoia is the price of piety. Fanatics see mischief and insult everywhere, much as the repressed see licentiousness. Iranians have got into such a tizz over 300 that we, the democratic and decadent west, can only respond in the manner of a Michael Winner TV commercial. “Calm down dear, it’s only a movie.”

Iran feels that to represent its Persian ancestors

My beef with this kind of "hey, lighten up" is the self delusion. Are you telling me that this movie is NOT screaming the fear and anxiety of the modern white man? To me it's obvioiusly the macho day dreams of the wimpy white man: Feeling deeply threatened by the godless monsters from the middle east and the "large" and virile black man, he must dress himself up (in his imagination) in super-masculinity and beat back the monster to stroke his own ego. This is nothing more than mental masterbation for the "civilized" Anglo-Saxon man.

I have no problem with movies like 300 and all their political incorrectness, because I prefer they speak their mind. This way we all get to see what some people really think and how scared they are. But don't shut me up because "it's just a movie" and "unleash the imagination." Don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's raining.