In 1967, with the Vietnam War protests raging, “The Dirty Dozen” was hugely popular. There is, of course, precedent for Americans showing a cultural cross-current in their movie preferences during wartime. “What we are seeing is that kids, from the youngest age on up, love these stories,” he said. ![]() “As ‘Gladiator’ proved, film can burn right through the impediments of verbal histories and archaeological studies - but only if it has a ‘look’ and ‘feel’ that strikes young people as ‘right on.’ ”īill Stutzman, an upper-school humanities teacher at Foundations Academy, a nondenominational Protestant K-12 school in Boise, Idaho, that stresses teaching of the classics, said one of his students showed a trailer for the film in class and described what it would be like living in Sparta as a woman. ![]() Vincent Farenga, who teaches classics at USC, said via e-mail that he believes the movie “300” strikes a chord with young people because they are “very curious about the ancient world. These dead warriors were considered heroes ever after.” It’s a hugely tear-jerking thing.” Furthermore, she said, history remembers these men as virtuous defenders of freedom and civilization. “They are making a statement of what it is to be a Spartan. “They fight even when they could have escaped,” she noted. This was a society that was totally devoted to creating fantastical warriors.”Īt the Battle of Thermopylae, the Spartans were hopelessly outnumbered, but they fight to the end, refusing to surrender. “For a long time, it was thought that you couldn’t conquer Spartan soldiers in battle. “The Spartans were the marvel of the ancient world,” she said. Kathryn Morgan, who teaches classics at UCLA, said there is much to learn from the Battle of Thermopylae. To scholars, the Spartans are an extreme example of a society trained for war and soldiers who were expected to go into battle without questioning authority. The clash between the Spartans and Persians at Thermopylae was classic war: force on force, enemies looked in each other’s eyes, no hidden improvised explosive devices, one nation versus another. and Iraqi casualties in Iraq have alarmed the American public, the movie seems to celebrate war, militarism and battlefield carnage. He was exonerated and is now a sheriff’s deputy in New Hanover County, N.C.Īt a time when mounting U.S. ![]() Pantano, whose book “Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy” details his experiences in Iraq and his criminal case on charges of murdering two Iraqis. “I barked and cheered my way through ‘300’ with two fellow Marine infantry officers who have shed blood and tears in the back alleys of Iraq,” said Ilario G. It probably comes as no surprise that Marines would like the film.
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