Forget Troy, here's the Ancient World on screen

The 300, a superb film about Thermopylae, is causing rucks all over the place. Thats because it is the first non-post-modern, non-knowingly-wry, non-world-weary, non-orthodox-anti-war war movie to be made by Hollywood in a long time. It shows men who want to be free fighting against the men who would enslave and kill them. And thats about it. From the moment I saw the trailer I knew there was going to be trouble. Most of the 'ancient history epic' type movies that have been made in the last fifteen years are blow-dried, freshly shaven, gonadless, non-threatening pap and have white mens guilt writ large across the proscenium. See Troy, Kingdom of Heaven etc ad nauseum. They are fluffy and history-free and most especially the history which might show great deeds done by small groups of highly-motivated free men.

The 300 has developed its own mini-industry of critical mock-horror. A common thread is to compare it directly with Nazi (as in Germany) propaganda. No shilly-shallying about with Soviet propaganda or any of the other propaganda that has existed since time immemorial. Noooooo. Nazi propaganda. I get the distinct impression that for many Americans and Europeans, there have really only ever been two significant historical times- Nazi Germany and Nazi America. Oddly, nobody mentions in these screeds how one of the great liberal causes of the last 250 years, the Greek fight for independence from the Ottoman empire, was sustained and overtly linked back to the original Greek war for independence from the all-conquering Persians. That was back when liberals tended to a) be better educated and b) understand what being a liberal implied. Hint: Liberals are meant to be on the side of freedom, not oppressive tyranny.

So I guess the reviewers are sympathetic to the present day Persians- the men who declare day after day their desire to conquer the world and force it to obey Allah and his messenger Moham-n-cheese. Men whose treatment of infidels, women, gays, Christians and everybody else who isn't one of them reminds me a bit of the Nazis. But I mustn't equate the two, must I? Although the facts fit rather better than comparing some filmmakers in Hollywood to Nazi propagandists. Still, the best thing to do really is describe things as they are, in the particular, without resorting to pointless and inaccurate historical parallels that you don't have any basis for... any movie critics reading?