The film
300 is one of the most powerful examples of Zionist propaganda to come out in recent years. Also, in contrast to the other films I have looked at here, this was a big budget blockbuster with cutting edge filmmaking techniques and massive ad campaign before release. How convenient that it fits right along the rails of ZC: demonizing Ancient Persians, twisting history, glorifying war and most important, it’s all done to fit into today’s political unease between East and West.
Most viewers were undoubtedly lost in their enthrallment with the film’s striking visuals. The film on a technical level is quite well done with first rate special effects, impressive battle choreography and a music score that really amps up the excitement in the viewing experience. The film’s director, Zack Snyder, comes from a background of directing music videos and commercials. Such a career path leading to film direction is not uncommon these days, but it makes apparent on why special effects are getting better, while the honesty in story-telling is slowly festering. Commercials aren’t meant to be intelligent or though-provoking, they are meant to instill product loyalty in consumers, which in turn, sells more and more material products and generates more and more profits for the corporate owners.
300 is just that - a well-made commercial. But what is it selling? Well, upon closer examination that shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
The film is very striking from the very start, it hits the viewer. The colors, the music and whole look of the film is unlike our real world thus it hits the senses like a good advertisement. The film is also a quite faithful adaptation of the source material, thus doubly impressive for fans of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. Visually it is also a very faithful adaptation of the source and Snyder and his team actually scanned every frame in the book and put them into a computer program, after which they added simple animations. This was part of a demonstration given to studio executives meant to show that the novel could be successfully adapted into film. Thus, the focus of making this film can be rightfully determined as visual impact. It was the main convincing point to gain funding from a studio and so the themes conveyed in the visuals are the main intended message. Now, if a commercial and music video director actually knows that he is telling a story and not just presenting some exciting visuals is a bit beyond the examination of this essay, however, whether in full knowledge or in ignorance, the makers of this film have sown some very potent seeds of hate.
Scary Middle Eastern Demons
This is the film's most vital propaganda aspect. The action sequences may be “kick ass” and intense, but they are taken in as such because the film conditions the viewer to identify only with our highly fictionalized Spartan heroes as they destroy hordes of vile creatures that are said to Persians. Many representations of war are one sided, but because they show a war from one side’s point of view. ZC propaganda, however, goes out of its way to over sensationalize the whole spectrum; the side ZC supports is shown as innocent and defending itself from some impending doom, while the other side is demonized.
The Lord of the Rings also had this good vs. evil arrangement, but that story relied purely on symbol and metaphor and there was no mention of real world groups, thus cannot be seen as propaganda. Though, inevitably, Tolkien was writing with an unconscious Euro-Centric bias as Europe was where he had spent most of his life and where he did his writing.
The so-called Persians in this film are so vile and disgusting that they cannot be seen even as evil humans, maybe as humanoid demons, at best. The initial Persian characters have the most traces of humanity, such as the Persian messenger, but even he exhibits ignoble traits of misogyny (being impolite to his host’s queen) and relishing in his own pomp and material vanity (that costume). The portrayal of the Persians gets worse and worse as the film goes on. The agent who bribes the Spartan ephors with gold and whores is a bit more menacing and the fade to black that ends the scene accentuates his glaring eyes. A Persian emissary that comes to the Spartans and urges them to lay down their arms so that they may live shows even more vanity as his vehicle is a throne carried by slaves. He is also noticeably obese and overflowing with materialistic pomp. His arrogance leads him to having one of his arms severed as tries to whip the Spartans for disrespecting him. The ensuing battle scenes can be best described as wholesale slaughter akin to most Hollywood “war movies.” In the first battle scene, the Spartans slice and dice their way through countless ranks of faceless enemies, however there isn’t yet a really outright demonization at this point, but a strong desensitization toward the Persians. We are supposed to enjoy watching them be dismembered and massacred.
The likening to demons begins with the second battle. The Persian King Xerxes has dispatched his most elite fighting force and personal guard, the Immortals, to deal with the stubborn Spartans. These soldiers initially wear masks that bear a grim expression and they are also barefoot (a subtle detail), which is odd for a military unit, let alone an elite force. But it is this small detail that leads to the revelation of what these soldiers really are, when one has his mask knocked off, we see a monstrous face. This demonic visage goes hand in hand with their blunt aggression and obvious lack of tactics in battle. So much for “elite fighting force.” This scene also has a large humanoid mutant creature that is unleashed onto the battlefield, a foreshadowing of what is to come, as the Persians are shown to be in possession of massive beasts of war and other abominations.
Persian Soldier seen through ZC filter
One that sticks out is a huge, fat being with some sort of blades for arms and Xerxes uses him to behead some of his commanders after they repeatedly fail to break the Spartan lines. This executioner creature is packed with so many absurdities that it must have been specifically made (or bred) for that role, for it cannot be a natural creation in any sense of the word.
It is this image that is the main ZC point on Persians; they are not just war-mongering, vanity obsessed, and militarily incompetent beings, they are demons not of this Earth and thus rightfully annihilated.
King Xerxes
The portrayal of Persian King Xerxes is worth noting. He is shown as an androgynous man laden with gold and piercings. Despite his unbelievably lazy lifestyle he has a toned body. Right before the second battle he approaches the Spartans whilst being carried on a mammoth throne by many slaves and he even uses their backs as steps to get to the ground. The film's Xerxes is a self-proclaimed god-king who promises to Spartan king Leonidas fame and fortune as long he kneels in reverence at his feet. Should Leonidas refuse, he and his men will be slaughtered, Sparta pillaged and the city state's memory shall be forever erased from the historical record and officially never existant, while uttering anything to the contrary will be a crime punishable by death.
ZC and Reality
This is almost pure absurdity. It was commonplace all over the world for the ruling class to view itself as superior to their subjects, so it is not like Ancient Persia is some exception to the matter. Conquest was rampant in the ancient world and practiced by virtually all major civilizations. In fact, ancient rulers are often praised, not demonized, for their feats of conquest, but they are also remembered in a much more complete fashion. King Xerxes accomplished much more than just the destruction of one small city state in southern Greece. In contemporary Iran, the
Achaemenid Empire of which the real Xerxes was ruler, is seen as a noble part of the country’s history.
The Perversion of Aryanism
The Spartans are also shown in a highly inaccurate manner. Sparta had strong militarist tradition, but was far from the beacon of rationalism and law as shown in
300. For example, soldiers were deliberately underfed as part of their training so that they master the skill of stealing food and familial relations were viewed as a necessary institution, not at all as compassionate and ultimately voluntary. While the Spartan military and society as shown in the movie seems to have many Aryan qualities there are several key factors that go against this.
First and foremost, the society of the film is purely preservationist. Given that the story here is but one episode from a presumably longer history, however opening scenes show that all young Leonidas learned was how to fight and survive, not to be a true Aryan leader that leads his society forward with vision and one who encourages action in his folk. The other Greek volunteers who offer their swords in service to Leonidas are poked fun at for not being “real soldiers.” Would a real Aryan insult his fellow folk from a different trade? Most definitely not. The film also gives the impression that the biggest and absolutely most important institution is the military, thus taking away from the true diverse and varied nature of folk and institutions in a real Aryan society. So not only is the ZC enemy shown to be vile and coming from the Middle East, the film also encourages Gentiles to praise blatant machismo, which can be easily exploited by manipulator for it is a servile mentality. The so-called Spartans in the movie are goys who have been manipulated into believing a threat from the Middle East. The surreal nature of the film is pretty much just a
brutish macho fantasy that was inspired by propaganda meant to rouse subjects into war. The movie Spartans saw the propaganda before they marched off to fight, the viewers are seeing it as they watch the movie. Notice that the film is narrated by Dilios who left the battle before final defeat. He is a goy telling other goys about the necessity of fighting against ZC enemies and even says that dying in such a battle is “for glory.” One of the film’s many promotional taglines was “Prepare for Glory.”
Political Engineering
The film’s political intentions are not just obvious upon viewing, but have been confirmed by many of the people involved in its creation. During
an interview on the radio program Talk of the Nation on NPR, Frank Miller stated:
"For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we're up against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These people saw people's heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to us. I'm speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture, and I'm living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built." A most ZC statement that also implies that Persia, which is contemporary Iran, was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Just over a year before, and a month before the theatrical release of the film version of
300, Miller, during
a BBC interview, was talking about his new story idea that involved Batman foiling an Al-Qaeda plot on Gotham City and had this to say:
"It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a piece of propaganda … Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America. That's one of the things they're there for." Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (both Jews) and is best known fighting a super-villain named Lex Luthor. “Lex” means “law” and “Luthor” almost definitely refers to Martin Luther, since the founder of the Lutheran faith proposed laws to keep Jews from exploiting his fellow Germans, thus Superman is fighting the “Law of Luther.” A little Jewish inside joke. Next we have the reference to Captain America, another comic book hero, who was created by the Jews Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. It doesn’t take much examination to see that Captain America promotes nationalist tribalism and allegiance to a colorful banner instead of Aryanist ideals.
The film also met its share of ZC approved criticism. The New York Post had
a review which stated that the film would please “Adolf’s Boys” and the film was
also compared to “
The Eternal Jew” in terms of race-baiting. Thus we can see where the ZC Talking Points are: if it is good it is because it is pro-American or pro-West. However, anything bad or hateful it is immediately compared to anti-Zionist images from the past since that is the ZC standard of evil.
Are the film's ideas and images a possible primer for something?
The snake-like sneakiness and overall thorough coordination of the ZC Propaganda Front makes it difficult to point out crystal clear motives in any one place, but the overall movement can clearly be seen as heading in one direction and herding the rest of the world with it.
Here are some other ZC details:
The Spartan ephors that accept the bribes are diseased and disfigured and so is the only Spartan soldier who ends up as a traitor; the ones who ally themselves with beasts are beasts themselves.
The Immortals are said to be Xerxes’s elite guard and given their color scheme, they are a not so subtly shown to be much like SS Men, just through the ZC filter. This reinforces the Spartan King as being like Hitler who has become in Jewish lore the epitome of all evil. Frank Miller mentioned Hitler in the BBC interview quoted above, thus the connection to Iran and the main Jewish boogeyman is being slowly, but surely, woven in the ZC web of deception.
Don’t let the ZC Hounds lead us to war,
Don’t serve that thing that they all so adore.
