Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken time away from his busy schedule of crushing the infidels in order to provide some freelance film criticism about the recent box office hit 300. In a televised speech, Ahmadinejad accused the West of "trying to tamper with history by making a film and by making Iran's image look savage." He never mentioned the name of the film but it was clearly 300 which was also attacked last week by the Iranian Cultural Minister as "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed against Iranian culture." Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.
Ignoring the fact that these days the U.S. conducts its wars with guns and stuff rather than relying on blue screen heavy movies, it’s almost funny that this, of all things, would end up in a major speech by a world leader. I would challenge President Ahmadinejad to put down his box of uranium and try to find three fanboys who equated any characters in 300 with modern day Iran. People weren’t sitting in the audience watching the blood fly and saying “boy, I agree with the UN Security Council on Iranian non-proliferation,” they were saying “holy shit, did you see that guys head pop off like a grape!” They could have changed the opposing forces to rabid Welshman and made basically the same movie.
Frank Miller wrote 300 as a comic book (oops, graphic novel.) Now, call me naïve, but I don’t think Miller was trying to think how to bring down President Ahmadinejad’s way of life. He was trying to entertain those young men who had already thumbed through his Batman and Sin City tomes. When Ahmadinejad claims that the movie is “trying to prevent our nation's development,” he might be overstating the case just a tad. When we want to prevent your nation’s development, Mahmoud, we will call it a “liberation” and you’ll see lots of tanks on your doorstep.
