'300' - the Spartans open in Central Asia!

Yesterday I watched the old epic "300 Spartans", the movie that inspired Frank Miller to do his comic novel '300.' For those of you with sharp eyes and a good memory you may have noticed some visual cues from the movie in Miller's artwork, e.g. the helmet worn by the Persian herald in the comic, and worn by the deformed traitor in the movie. It got me thinking that, despite some very real qualms I have about '300' - e.g. its use of dark skin and physical deformities as emblems of evil - , it is an exciting, high energy romp that gets close to what the ancient Greeks might have appreciated.

Yet not everyone is happy. The Iranian government for example, which points out that it is insulting to the greater Iranian nation. In fact, it is insulting to all Central Asians (I can't say they don't have a point) since the Iranian Empire used to rule Central Asia. So much so that they are trying to get countries like Uzbekistan (and probably Tajikistan and all the other Stans) to ban it.

So far the Uzbeks, who don't like Iranians very much any way, are holding firm to their new found freedom to watch any damn piece of Western trash they want!

Good for them.

[though the Iranians DO have a point]