Persians in 300

[Karathos]

What's this then? Movies not being historically accurate? Truly, a shocking revelation!

/Sarcasm off.

In all seriousness, it's a no-brainer situation. As has already been said: the graphic novel of 300 was not historically accurate, and a movie based on the graphic novel isn't going to be any different. As for Prince of Persia and Jake Gyllenhaal being cast - name me one major persian actor that can be expected to carry a big summer action movie (possible) blockbuster.

Now that I think about it, isn't Jake Gyllenhaal of jewish descent? I think MovieBob (in Escape to the Movies) said something about Jake actually being the only person with any blood from the correct general geographical direction, in terms of playing someone in the Persian empire.

I digress a bit, but do carry on

 

[Ultimatum86]

Oh im fine with the prince of persia part of tht review
actually made me wanna see the movie

but he complained bout 300's depiction of persia
which i found a bit stupid as it was never supposed to be realistic at all
I know i made an issue out of 0.5 seconds of a review
but I keep hearing it and it annoys me....a bit

 

[RJ Dalton]

While we're on the subject, why don't we complain about how inaccurate a representation of various Arabic cultures Disney's Aladdin was?

 

[Czargent Sane]

or the inaccurate representation of the irish by a box of lucky charms.

 

[Enigmers]

300 is just a movie made for entertainment. It's a little more accurate than most fantasy movies but it's not a documentary, so don't expect it to be.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

Iranians, Kurds, Azeris,most Arabs, Ossentians/Caucusus people, and some Turkish groups are the modern day decendants of the Persian empire.

So any of those could be used in a movie like Prince of Persia, though an Arab or Iranian would make more sense (there are many Iranian, Middle Eastern and Turkish actors who could be recruited for such a role...so there really isn't any excuse not to be accurate at least once).

Many people like to say that it shouldn't matter, but they said the same thing for when they casted white guys with spray-on tan to be Native Americans in Western movies back in the 60s.

I'm not even politically correct, I just want authenticity for once -_-

 

[Johanthemonster666]

How was it? They look Arab and since the this was during the era of the Arab Empire of the caliphates,the wealthy didn't have to cover their princesses, wives or anything like today (if you were rich enough, you didn't have to be modest).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Thousand_and_One_Nights

P.S- It's Disney..what did you expect?

 

[Wicky_42]

it's a panel-by-panel adaptation of a comic book.
frank miller thought that'd be cool, don't blame the movie creators.

same for the prince of persia movie with casting a white guy.

Second post, and you'd nailed it. It's a damn COMIC. Any historical accuracies are almost purely coincidental, lol. Those 'Persians' are simply a quasi-demonic nemesis for the 'super awesome macho men' to almost vanquish. Simple as.

Unless Frank Miller was in some way pushing pro-Greek, anti-Middle East propaganda through the medium of a comic...

 

[Johanthemonster666]

To add one last point, I don't care that they casted Jake for "Prince of Persia'. It's based on a game for the love of Kami! But I'm of course refering to any future or past movies where they cast someone like Brad Pitt as the an Indian or Near Eastern prince lol

 

[InconceivableTruth]

Iranians, Kurds, Azeris,most Arabs, Ossentians/Caucusus people, and some Turkish groups are the modern day descendants of the Persian empire.

Wrong.

Persia has always been called IRAN. Darius stated this. Iranians were the first to coin the term 'Aryan', which was not meant to have racist connotations. Darius called himself "an Aryan, having Aryan lineage". The capital of the ancient Achaeminid empire is located in Iran, for example. Iran is a cognate of Aryan. Moreover, if you study Reza Shah, you'd see how a period of intense nationalism for Iran's Zoroastrian roots popped up. Granted, he was worse than the new IRI because he was controlled by the American CIA.

The Achaeminid empire had no slavery and had the first human rights declaration (i.g., the Cyrus Cylinder). One small influence includes how America's founding fathers had to read both the Persian Expeditions and The Prince.

One of the biggest travesties in history was done by Alexander. When he destroyed Persepolis, he also destroyed the HUGE libraries. There is very little information on the Achaeminid empire except from the bias Herodotus. Recently, new information has been popping up (most from France) due to new techniques in archaeology and etc.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

I'm aware of all that, but the Persian empire covered all of the areas I mentioned at at least one point in history.

Yes, modern day Iran has always been the center of Persian culture, but you forget the Arabs conquered Iran and brough Islam (modern day Iraq is a mix of Arabs,Assyrians Iranians, Kurds. Turkish people ect).

Technically "Aryan" people use to considered anyone from Norther India, across Afghanistan and into Iran.
You don't have to take my word for it of course, look it up.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

http://www.livius.org/aa-ac/achaemenians/achaemenians.html

 

[Johanthemonster666]

The Shah worse than modern Iran?

Please -_- they just exchanged one authoritarian despot for an authoritarian theocracy

 

[Jfswift]

You can't take 300 too seriously. It's completely made up and purely entertainment. Mostly I just found the over the top Leonidas and Spartans entertaining along with the nifty filter and filming technique they used.

 

[Johanthemonster666]

You can't take 300 too seriously. It's completely made up and purely entertainment. Mostly I just found the over the top Leonidas and Spartans entertaining along with the nifty filter and filming technique they used.

Yes, the comic book style was rather interesting (though I didn't care much for the film itself lol)

 

[InconceivableTruth]

Yes, modern day Iran has always been the center of Persian culture, but you forget the Arabs conquered Iran and brough Islam (modern day Iraq is a mix of Arabs,Assyrians Iranians, Kurds. Turkish people ect).

I know this. At 600 AD they destroyed the Sassanid empire. Also, Ferdowsi wrote the national epic Shahnameh and kept parsi (i.g., he used no Arabic words) alive. This is why farsi is still considered an Iranian language with some Arabic influence. The Shahnameh is a pretty cool epic too.

Technically "Aryan" people use to considered anyone from Norther India, across Afghanistan and into Iran.
You don't have to take my word for it of course, look it up.

There is a theory about this, but I personally consider it a cultural word.

Also, I know about the Achameinids, I mentioned them. They fell apart after Alexander's ruthless invasion.

The Seleucid Empire, Parthian empire, and Sassanid empire succeeded it.

 

[Plurralbles]

300 (comic book) wasn't supposed to historically accurate.

Therefore, 300 (movie) wasn't going to be either.

And anyone who takes the movie seriously enough to be offended by it should be slapped by every other person on the planet.

if you lined every person in china up you would never reach the end, people would be born, grow old, and die before you reached the end, increasing the length infinitely.

hehe, an infinite ***** slap for the rest of one's life. Awesome punishment.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

Jesus Christ I'm really tired of this shit: To Iranians, you are not Persian! Persia was destroyed by Alexander the Great! Then after it was reformed, it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire over 500 ears ago! You don't see Italians running around calling themselves Romans, do you? Sorry that shit just really pisses me off.
-More on topic: It's a fucking movie! Don't like it? Go ***** at Frank Miller.

 

[Low Key]

Big effin' deal that Persians aren't represented by Persians in movies. I guess we should all vilify Monty Python for dressing in drag for all of their skits too while we're at it.