300

I watched 300 with an old friend of mine on Monday. I enjoyed the company and the movie as well. The movie was basically adapted from the Frank Miller graphic novel which was in turn taken from the Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas of Sparta managed to hold off a Persian Army numbering hundreds of thousands with only three hundred men. King Leonidas held out for two days and would have lasted longer if it wasn't for a traitor in their mists.

300 was not without its controversy. Splashed over the front page of the world section of a recent issue of the Straits Times was an article about Iranian leaders making a big fuss and protesting about how the Persians in the movie were depicted. Decadent, gluttonous and sexually deviant. In fact, a certain prominent Iranian leader was quoted as saying that the movie was a propaganda tool of the west to villanize Iranians Now you might be asking why would Iranians make a big fuss about how Persians were depicted in some movie, it is because Iranians consider themselves modern Persians.

It is of course understandable how something like that would cause offence, but if the Iranian leaders stayed silent and did not stir up this huge fuss, I don't think people would link modern Iranians to ancient Persians. Yes, given that it is historical fact that Iranians have Persian ancestory, it is still a stretch of imagination for any layman to form such an association. Most of us would just enjoy the movie as it is. Furthermore, any movie, even those based on real events would have exggerated their storylines for dramatic purposes, artistic license so to speak. In fact, stirring up such a huge fuss would only lend credit to such an association.

So I guess this goes to show that even if you are offended by something somebody did, a little tolerance and silence would go a long way to make you look good.