300

I see the new film `300' is stirring up controversy as an `anti-Iranian piece of propaganda.'

The constant harping on about films as propaganda is somewhat wearing -- whether it's conservatives spotting gay or communist sub-plots in animated films about penguins or teletubbies, or Iranians having a go at the latest Hollywood blockbuster.  Some thoughts come to mind:

1. Of course the movie is propaganda.  All films are in part propaganda, presenting some construction designed to achieve some end.  What is patronising is the (a) the selective way this category is applied (i.e., only to films with whose propaganda we happen to disagree; and (b) the idea that the audience is made up of such an uncritical bunch of plonkers that they will confuse the propaganda for reality.  That's actually a rather crude Marxist/Frankfurt School approach, even though it seems rather popular on the Right.  Is Pat Robertson really part of some giant, double-bluff communist conspiracy, I wonder....????  I think we should be told.

2. Thermopylae is without doubt one of the great moments in Greek history.  And if you want a better historical take on it than the movie, read the latest book from my old Cambridge history supervisor, now Professor of Greek there, Paul Cartledge, Thermopylae (Overlook Books).  Cartledge was, quite simply, the most provocative, intelligent and inspiring history teacher I ever had, and all that he writes is well-worth reading (though the Amazon reviewers are somewhat muted on this one).