The movie “300” has already had its day in the sun, but I just ran across this belated assessment by M. Duss at Alterdestiny.

Duss avoids seeing the film through the simplistic swords-and-sandals/freedom-vs.-tyranny lens through which most critics, whether they liked or not, have viewed it. Instead, he believes it is “as good an illustration of Edward Said’s ideas about Orientalism as I ever expect to see on film”:

I find Said’s work most compelling when he focused on the use of literature and art in the production of knowledge and the maintenance of Western popular assumptions about the Orient. 300 could function as Exhibit A in this regard. The Greek (rational, well-organized, frequently bathed, and white) and Persian (prone to magic, a horde, much less frequently bathed, non-white) ethnic and cultural stereotypes are so blatantly offensive that they come very near subverting themselves. There were parts of the film that really made me wonder if the filmmakers were indeed winking at the audience, such as the Spartans’ “Before we sally forth in defense of reason, let’s consult the Oracle!” bit, but I don’t think so.

[...]

I find it interesting that quite a few people I’ve spoken to have criticized the movie’s representation of the Persians in terms that that I can only describe as Saidian. That is, they recognize the role that popular culture plays in reinforcing assumptions about the Other, and the way that these assumptions service certain political ideologies. The fact that some tech dudes at a party, who had never heard of Edward Said, were casually pointing these things out to me between tequila shots can, I think, be seen as a victory for the better parts of Said’s work.

I’m a sucker for a good allegorical reading.