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that most Americans watching the film wold come away thinking Persia was some ancient African kingdom. So, having your first three bad guys in the film be black men, well, is there a subconscious statement there that black people are bad? Black is bad, evil, and, white, is good? The answer to the question may be simply that Zach Snyder wanted to give some African American actors some parts and wrote the characters that way for just that purpose. Still, it leaves one wondering.

The Persians, as depicted in "300" might have a lot in common with modern America in the sense that they're very diverse ethnically, but, that's where the commonality would seem to end. The Persians are mindless zombies that are only interested in winning war through a blunt frontal attack and then burning and killing everyone in their path. Forget, for a moment, that the Spartans themselves don't take prisoners, the Spartans, at least, seem, by virtue of their very small numbers, to really respect human life. Each death hurts the Spartan cause and a father who loses a son on the battlefield goes mad with rage and grief. The dozens and dozens of Persian deaths seem to be passed over as not really mattering at all. The Persians, apparently, don't grieve their dead and don't have any qualms about sending their soldiers to the collective slaughter in fruitless attack after attack. The life of a Spartan is seen as being really worth something, the life of a Persian soldier, not so much, implying, by virtue of the way the two sides are portrayed on screen, that the life of white people has a higher intrinsic value than that of brown/black people.

Of course, all the racial difference comes with a profound geological one as well. The Persians, the baddies, come from the East. The Spartans, the Good Guys, are from the West. It's the Clash of Civilizations, little different from our war on terror, our fighting in Iraq and/or our fighting in Afghanistan. West vs. East. It's clear, from watching "300" that the West has superior values, after all, the Spartans are fighting for freedom, for justice and for honor. The only way they lose to the Persians is through treachery and deceit. No honor there. The Persians aren't brining anything positive with them, we are told, just destruction, death and slavery. In the battle of West vs. East in "300", it's clear that our only hope for the future lies with the West, the white West, as opposed to the brown and black East.

Sex in "300": Gays in the Military

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