"Anybody who says that "300" isn't the latest example of Hollywood pro-war propaganda aimed at the young and the gullible just isn't paying attention."

That argument can certainly be made but on the other hand the director has denied any such intent. Instead, that the film was intended as entertainment, and had no political intentions.

Whatever the case I suggest reading Aeschylus's Persians which was written and performed in 472 B.C., only 8 years after Thermopylae and Salamis, and 7 years after Plataea (the battle that the Spartans charge into at the end of 300). The play gives an insight into how at least one Athenian responded to the Persian Wars and his interpretation of the East-West rivalry. You'll find some similarities and one striking difference between the play and 300. They are similar in that Aeschylus clearly defines the differences between Greek and Persian society, and while acknowledging Persian greatness, ultimately draws the conclusion that Greek culture is more humane and therefore superior. The striking difference however is in how war itself is treated. In 300, war is glorious entertainment. The film does not want us to question the consequences of war because if we do so then the violence becomes less entertaining; it's really cool when blood spurts in slow motion through the air, it's less cool when collects in a dark pool beneath the body of a dying man. The Persians however is structured around the idea that suffering is a universal human experience and that war, no matter how just and necessary, brings suffering to innocent people. Aeschylus therefore both glorifies Greek culture, and Greek victory in the Persian Wars, while also asking his Athenian audience to consider the suffering Greek victory wrought upon the Persians. Poignant stuff, and it's for stuff like this that I study Classics.

I enjoyed this scene quite a bit in the theatre because the first few moments of it are quite realistic. The bit where the Persians slam into the shield wall of the phalanx is exactly what phalanx warfare would have been like. It's unfortunate that they didn't have a first-person shot from within one of the helmets as that would've completed the effect. You'll notice that the helmets have no ear holes and have extremely limited peripheral vision. Couple that with the dust clouds that would be kicked up by that number of men, and your individual Greek hoplite would be unable to see or hear anything in the chaos of battle. What it would come down to is maintaining your place in formation and trying to find an opening for your spear against the enemy in front of you, an effect that I thought this scene conveys pretty well when the two bodies are pressing their shields against each other. The realism of course breaks down once the Spartans start killing people but it was nice that they throw in those few moments of realism for those of us who are interested in ancient warfare.

I know three languages: English, Classical Latin, and Ancient Greek, and will begin learning German in the fall. Those three languages are not equal in their expressive capacities. As an example, it is awkward and difficult to express parallelism in an English sentence. Frequently, we are reduced to the awkward expression "on the one hand this...on the other hand that...", which is hardly natural. As a result, English speakers tend to omit any explicit mention of parallel ideas, because the way to express them is so cumbersome. Ancient Greek however has the handy expression "men...de", which explicitly notes parallel ideas. Suddenly, parallel ideas can be quickly and naturally expressed and as a result connections that would be omitted and implied in English are explicit in Greek.

Another example, the demonstrative use of adjectives. English does use adjectives demonstratively but such adjectives tend to be very ambiguous. "The land of THE FREE and the home of THE BRAVE"; we understand the meaning but there are many unanswered questions with regards to these demonstrative adjectives. Are these free people or free things? Is it one or many? Are we talking about the concept of the free as a whole or just a specific instance of it? In Greek and Latin, those sorts of questions are answered by case endings, and, in Greek, the definitive article. As a result abstractions based upon purely conceptual ideas are much more easily expressed. If you ever pick up an English translation of Plato, you might be puzzled by references to the Good and the Just and the Noble; all of which are expressed much more lucidly in the original Greek.

The point here is that different languages and dialects provide you with different expressive toolkits. Some of these toolkits are better able to equip one to speak and write articulately than others. I do not know enough about the dialect spoken by Black urban Americans to say definitively whether or not it better equips one to speak articulately. It is however entirely possible that, by not having their speech and language "corrected", young, Black Americans are being handicapped in their ability to express themselves. One who cannot express his or herself is doomed never to break out of the working class.

I ended up buying the DVD just for this chase scene. I saw the new one this weekend and, while I really enjoyed it, it's carchase through Manhatten simply could not top this one. This is probably my favorite carchase, and along with the nightclub shootout in Collateral and the bank job in Heat, is among my favorite action scenes.

Derrida=hack

Although I suppose his "theory" did provide a generation of academics with jobs. Don't have any original ideas of your own? No problem, just "deconstruct" great literature in obscurantist prose that, if deciphered, either says nothing or says something trite and unoriginal.

Laughably bad video. Apparently the "truth" movement needs a lesson in logical fallacies. Although I don't anyone stupid enough to find this video convincing would understand such a lesson.

Very impressive climbing. I could of done without the commentary though. I used to do a bunch of climbing a couple years ago but had to take some time off after a finger injury. Watching this video is really making me want to get back into it.

This was one of the first movies I ever saw in the theatre, so it'll always have a lot of nostalgia value for me.

About 20 minutes into the Miami Vice remake from last summer there is a pretty insane, and realistic, example of the kind of damage one of these rifles can do.

I remember seeing something like this set to Quake III sound effects and music.

"have a printed code dispense at the place where customers give their order (the first stop) which they then must present to get their food at the service window (the second stop)."

Simpler solution: just have one window.

"this isn't "fake" ... this goes on all the time, it's at least an accurate reconstruction of real events."

I didn't say that accidental discharges don't occur when children play with firearms. Nor do I endorse gun ownership in households with children in them. I don't own a firearm but if I did I would never keep it in a household with children.

That said the video itself is clearly faked. It's using stock shotgun sound effects, both for the operation of the slide and the firing of the weapon itself. Again I don't know of many shot-pistols, as it were. Additionally, the kid looks to be about 12 and had a secure grip on the weapon. Even if he wasn't expecting the weapon to go off, it's highly unlikely that a pistol of that size would cause him to fly backward and lose hold of the weapon.

Meh, I've heard this on the radio a couple of times and I thought the lyrics were really, really corny.

Who would've guessed that a pistol could fire a shotgun round? Fake.

A little more explanation: different firearms produce different sounds when fired. A M2 Browning .50 machine gun has a slower but very loud thudding sound to it, similar to a jackhammer. Pistols tend to sound like firecrackers only louder. Shotguns sound like a very loud blast, in other words the stock sound effect that's played when there is the supposed accidental discharge in this video. I don't know about you but I don't of many M1911 pistols chambered to fire a shotgun round.

"And the old culture that's fading away always bemoans the loss of things the way they were."

So is the new inherently and necessarily superior to the old? That's seems a pretty juvenile assumption to make and yet that assumption lays at the foundation of your argument here.