Movie version of Frank Miller’s 300 parsed for political meaning.

Ragnell at Written World: I've heard he says he writes strong women too...:

The idea that is so strange that I know it will probably make the entire internet sit up, blink, and ask when I went so insane.

I won't watch The 300 (sic) because the trailer makes it look like Anti-American propaganda.

Okay, hear me out here. Yes, I know what Frank Miller has said about his patriotism and that, in all likelihood, this movie was meant as war propaganda in the USA's favor, but every time I see the trailer I get this little creeping feeling in my stomach that its not going to show that way.

What makes me think this?

Read the whole post to find out, and the discussion in the comments thread that follows.

In those comments, I add my 2¢:

When I see the trailers for 300, I don't see a pro or anti stance as to current politics. I see a movie thats incredibly faithfull to the look feel and spirit of the comic.

I see more of a hyperbolized version of Greek history. The only American parallel I can find is the Alamo.

The movie version of V for Vendetta was twisted around to be a commentary on conservatism, with an eye toward present day politics, as opposed to the book's more timeless theme of anarchism vs. authoritarianism. To criticize that film for being too swayed by present politics is fair. So there is precident for these fears of politically motivated storytelling.

It looks like 300 is not going to commit the same sins. This may be less motivated by a fear of politics, than it is by the success of the prior film adaptation, Sin City, which was extremely faithful to the source material. That films success set the formula to be slavishly dedicated to reproducing an exact retelling of the comic.

I think that any political analysis of 300 would tell you more about the person analyzing the film than about the film itself.

Sometimes a comic book movie is just a comic book movie.