Canoeing and Movies
We went canoeing on Saturday and what fun it was! I don’t think I’ve been canoeing since high school where we went on wilderness trips. Baloo suggested we go out sometime on Saturday. So, I packed a little picnic and off we went. It was an easy ride since the river was very low and slow. We got to the place a little too late so we didn’t have time to go on shore and have a nice picnic, but we ate sandwiches on the canoe, saw a blue heron, and lots of neat fish. We want to go again real soon once the water levels rise and the river is a bit faster.
Apart from that we also watched 300 and Stranger than Fiction. I enjoyed both movies. However, I had recently read an article on the Huffington Post about 300 being a propaganda movie. It was actually hard to watch the movie after reading that article. A large part of me wanted to just enjoy the cartoon violence and serious man candy, but I kept thinking about how the story unfolded. How a brave 300 men fought for their land and water despite the rest of their countrymen being against them. How the Persians were depicted as makeup wearing girly men who engaged in sexually deviant acts with ‘freaks of nature.’ How although the Spartans were fighting for the good of country, the Persians were evil blasphemers, fighting a war for religious reasons and for a man god. (Oh, and my history is a little dusty, but when did the Spartans start recognizing themselves as Greeks? I always thought the two were pretty much sworn enemies…) Despite what thoughts I had about the movie before I went into it, I doubt the common man would have thought so deeply about the plot. It was in the same vein as
So, what says you? Propaganda film about the
Labels: weekend
Haven't seen the film. But I've been reading through a backlog of Savage Love columns and there's one from March where Savage talks about how "300" is conservative, homophobic propaganda:
http://www.avclub.com/content/savage/mar-21-2007
(It's at the bottom of the column, after all the letters from horny women talking about how much they like sex.)
Posted by Jonathan Dewbre | Tue Aug 07, 06:22:00 AM EDT
I agree that the depiction of the Persians was quite unfavorable, and probably untrue. Given that I'm going to marry a man who is half Persian next year, I didn't quite appreciate the way the culture was protrayed (he didn't either, even though he still enjoyed the movie - go figure.) And Frank Miller was totally the homophobe - it was pretty ridiculous, really.
I didn't have high expectations of the movie (I saw Sin City- in my opinion, it f***in' sucked). However, I was appreciative (and quite turned on) by man candy in the film. It's an okay movie, as long as one can realize it for what it is - a fictitious (and most likely inaccurate) portrayl of two cultures, and a way for Frank Miller to use blood and guts to make money, and beefy men to keep women from walking out of the theatre....
~ Roomie
Posted by Anonymous | Wed Aug 08, 08:38:00 AM EDT
i also know that the persian community was generally appalled and tried to boycott 300 as much as possible because of the completely inaccurate portrayal of persian culture.
that being said, hot shirtless boys are hot shirtless boys and everyone needs a little man candy at home for those cold nights when you're all alone...
~pocketest of pockets
Posted by Anonymous | Wed Aug 08, 09:32:00 AM EDT