Saturday, May 25, 2019
Monday, October 10, 2011
Film ''300'' Explained by Riley D.
مقالۀ زیر توسط "رایلی"، دوست جوان آمریکایی من که از روز نخست همراه خستگی ناپذیر جنبش آزادی خواهی مردم ایران بوده نوشته شده. رایلی دوستان ایرانی زیادی دارد و مطالعات زیاد و علاقۀ و احترام ویژهای نسبت به ایرانیان و فرهنگ و کشور ایران دارد. او میگوید که میخواهد پس از آزادی ایران به آنجا مهاجرت کند و به مردم ایران در ساخت کشورشان کمک کند. به نظر رایلی زنان ایرانی زیباترین، شجاعترین و مستقلترین زنان دنیا هستند.
این مقاله از دید یک جوان آگاه امریکایی به این موضوع میپردازد که چرا بسیاری از امریکاییها و هم نسلان رایلی برداشت اشتباهی نسبت به ایرانیان دارند. مقصر کیست؟ چرا فیلمهای ضد ایرانی مانند فیلم ۳۰۰ در کشور آمریکا ساخته میشود و مورد استقبال عمومی قرار میگیرد. چرا جنبش سبز آنطور که باید مورد توجه و حمایت مردم آمریکا قرار نگرفت و در این کشور چه چیز در پشت ذهن عوام وجود دارد که باعث این همه کدورت میشود. نقش و کوتاهی رهبران جنبش سبز در رفع این کدورت چه بوده و بسیاری نکات مهم دیگر که حتماً توجه شما را به خواندن آن جلب میکنم.
من شخصاً فرصت ترجمهی همهی مقاله را نداشتم ولی اگر زحمتش را کشیدید من و رایلی بسیار سپاسگزار خواهیم بود.
The 2007 film ''300'' about the battle of Thermopylae between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the Spartan Greeks was made in response to the anti-Americanism of Iran's current rulers and their supporters, not out of jealousy of ancient Persian civilization.
First of all let me say that I'm an American of Irish, German, Norwegian and English descent (Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon, Alemanni and Norse Viking civilizations). I'm also an American with great knowledge and enormous respect for Iran's history, although I admit to having very limited knowledge of the Persian language. I'm also one of the most vocal supporters of the pro-democracy Green Movement, I'm also a young man who absolutely ADORES Persian (Iranian) women, as there is no women in the world as beautiful, or as brave, or as fearless, or as independent as Iranian women. So in absolutely NO way am I defending the filmmaker's grotesque portrayal of the Persian people or their great ancient civilization nor am I trying to justify the violent racial hatred against Iranians in the USA in the 1980s. But I want to tell Iranians that it was not jealousy of Iranian civilization that led Frank Miller to write the graphic novel nor is it what led Zack Snyder to make the film, nor is it what caused the film to be so popular among the American public. If you want to blame someone, blame the Islamic Republic of Iran and the hundreds of thousands of their supporters in Iran who attend anti-American hate rallies while burning the American flag and chanting for the destruction of the American nation-state and its citizens. Blame Ayatollah Khomeini and the revolutionary students who took American diplomats hostage in 1979, an act widely seen in the United States to this day as an outright attack on the average American citizen, and an act that is often compared to 9/11.
The massive size and scope of such rallies and the large numbers in attendance give the average American television viewer that such hostile displays of hatred toward their country, the USA, the perception that the vast majority, if not all, Iranians in currently residing in Iran share the same hateful views displayed at those rallies. Contrary to what you might hear from Al-Jazeera, or from the Australian comedy show ''Chasers'', most Americans are quite knowledgeable about world history. Most know that Iran was once called Persia, and that Iran's current inhabitants are the same inhabitants as the people who lived there during the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid eras. They are also aware that ancient Persia is completely different from modern-day Iran. What Americans and the filmmakers of ''300'' don't know, is that Iran was not always an Islamic nation, or that those same people who burn the American flag and chant ''down with the USA'' are also seeking destroy any remnants of Iran's ancient pre-Islamic civilization that was so inaccurately depicted in ''300''. Nor are they aware that those same flag-burners and America-haters are the same people who are terrorizing their fellow Iranian citizens with threats of arbitrary arrest, rape, torture or outright massacre if they voice an opinion different from theirs. However, the Green Movement isn't viewed in a positive light either, mainly because Americans are aware that the leaders of the movement have refused to renounce their role in what most Americans, young and old, view as an egregious, unforgivable act: the seizure of the United States Embassy in Tehran and the taking of Americans hostage in 1979. Indeed, one of the influential figures of the post-election movement is none other than Massoumeh Ebtekar, the spokeswoman for the hostage-takers, referred to in the American press as ''Tehran Mary'' or ''Screaming Mary.'' Her Green Movement-affiliated blog was recently shut down by authorities. And on the 31st anniversary of the hostage taking, the opposition-affiliated news-site Jaras News referred to hostage-taking as ''fitting revenge.'' One diplomat, John Limbert, was threatened with death at gunpoint if he didn't tell the other embassy employees to comply with the students' demands. And these are the people now leading Iran's quest for democracy and human rights? What the hostage-takers and the Green Movement's leaders were (and still are) unaware of is the American public bore no responsibility for the Shah's crimes against his own citizens, nor did the American people give the authorization to the CIA in 1953 to overthrow Iran's democratically elected government.
Another cause of negative American public opinion towards Iranians is the Iranian people's conspiratorial nature. For example, his recent arrest and imprisonment of the three American hikers. Many Iranians from across the spectrum, both from the ranks of the regime and the Green Movement, posted comments on social network sites and new site comment sections claiming that the hikers genuinely were spies. Americans responded like this: ''If we Americans decide to take a trip to Iran, are you going to accuse us of being spies and demand that your government arrest us?''
Now let's talk about the connections that Americans made between the villainous Persians in ''300'' and the modern day Iranian regime. When older Americans saw Xerxes in the film, they didn't see an ancient Persian king, they saw Ayatollah Khomeini. When they saw the Persian Immortals and soldiers in the film, they didn't think of them as Achaemenid soldiers, they saw them as the fundamentalist students who seized the US embassy and took Americans hostage in 1979. When they saw Leonidas, they didn't see a Spartan king, they saw the American military men who died in a helicopter crash during the attempt to rescue them. When young Americans saw Xerxes, they saw Ahmadinejad. Moviegoers said things like this: ''If they can burn our flag, we can make movies like this.''
And when Americans heard of how negatively Iranians reacted to the film, it only confirmed their belief that all Iranians love their regime. And what certainly didn't help was comments from young Persian chauvinists on Facebook pages like ''300 is a Lie!'' about how Iranian civilization is so much superior to the United States and that America is a weak, inferior, stupid, history-less nation with nothing to be proud of, with no ancient ruins like Persepolis. However, these Persian chauvinists have never heard of places like Cahokia Mounds, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Chaco Canyon, and Montezuma Castle, the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, Taos Pueblo and countless other Native American Indian archaeological sites in the United States.
Another misperception from Americans is that the Green Movement failed to overthrow the regime in Iran because it is the minority. It is not the minority, however Iranians right now seem to be too afraid or pessimistic about the ability to change their government so most are now leaving the country to the government's supporters.
Another reason: Claims from among the Iranian public that the United States is waging a ''cultural war'' against Iran. In an interview with Current TV in January of 2009, an Iranian man in Tehran with sunglasses claimed that Iranians prefer a ''native dictatorship'' over ''a foreign-imposed'' democracy and that the regime's restrictions are necessary to prevent things like ''Jennifer Lopez from being forced down our throat.'' So what does this clown suggest? That the US government stopped Jennifer Lopez from performing music altogether???? Travel writer Rick Steves reported that during his trip to Iran an elderly Iranian woman poked him in the chest and said ''we don't want our children growing up like Britney Spears.'' Again, should Americans ban Britney Spears' songs and music videos????
And yet another reason is the fact that the regime came to power through a popular revolution that the vast majority of Iranians participated in. So Americans therefore believe that because the regime came to power through a revolution at the behest of the Iranian public, all Iranians support everything it does. However, Iranians were chanting for freedom, not for a defunct backward theocratic state that is not afraid to torture and murder to stay in power.
Yet another reason: Popular Iranian public support for the regime's nuclear program. Americans notice that most Iranians, regime supporters and Green Movement activists alike, voice support for construction of the nuclear program, at the same the very regime that produces that nuclear program is calling for elimination of the American nation state.
So the story ends with this: Unless Iran's regime is overthrown or collapses, unless the participants of the 1979 hostage taking apologize to the American public for their actions, unless people in Iran stop attending anti-American rallies, unless the anti-American murals are removed from the sides of buildings and skyscrapers in Iran's major cities, films like ''300'' will continue being made, and the American public will never see the truth about Iran and it's great civilization. But there are hopeful signs. Many Americans are now aware of the fact that Iran was the only country in the Middle East where a candlelight vigil was held for the victims on 9/11. And an article on Expatify.com, an Internet magazine for American men living abroad, including Iran on a list alongside Brazil and Sweden, as one of the countries with the world's ''hottest women.'' Also, in 2008, the Iranian national basketball team was given a huge warm welcome in the state Utah and even attended a rodeo and toured a local elementary school and played basketball with American kindergarten students. One of the Iranian players even said the world's best basketball players are American. And in 2010 Disney produced the adaptation of the popular video game ''Prince of Persia: Sands of Time'' and that film was well received by both Americans and Iranians. So things might be changing for the better, although work remains to be done on both sides.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)