Today's post is brought to you by the number 300.

Because I just realised that all the significant events that happened to little ol' me yesterday seem to revolve round that the pretty little number.

Firstly, miracle of all miracles, when I was least expecting it, I broke my 300 barrier when I was shooting one round from 30m distance. The exact score was 316/360. Bloody hell it was amazing. :D

Although I do realise that the 30m round comes after the 50m round in competition, so realise that it's not really a "fair" approximation of my normal score.

But then that more or less confirms that my problem is keeping up my stamina, and in a way, it's a good morale boost. Hey, at least I raised my own glass ceiling. :)


And the second thing was the "300" movie.

There were sneak previews yesterday, and my dear Joseph just *had* to watch it as soon as was humanly possible, so I went along with him, after I'd quelled my cynicism and was sufficiently satisfied that it wouldn't be a mindless action flick, like the disappointment that the second Matrix installment turned out to be.

And really, it wasn't. In fact, it was a fairly inspiring film, and I *loved* the.. um.. sole actress in the whole movie. :P

I don't know what it is, but over the years I've become very sensitised to stereotypes that get employed in film and various forms of mass media. Personally, I'd say that maybe it's due to my training in the social sciences and humanities. Given that this film has a practically all-male cast, I was a bit of leery of what the portrayal of the only woman in the film was gonna be like, but the reviews I'd read so far assured me that she was gonna have at least some character development.



*SPOILER ALERT*
(Do not read the following half of this post if you haven't watched the film yet and don't want it ruined for you!)



And I loved her within the first half an hour of the film, when the Persian emissary asked Leonidas why she, a woman, would think that she could speak among men, and she answered that it was because "Only Spartan women give birth to real men."

Something, I'm sure, which has escaped the notice of most patriarchal states; for all that you esteem the men, only the women can bring them into the world.

So.. okay. The female character passes; she has character development, she has depth, she has more than five lines in the entire film and I love her delivery of the Spartan women's send-off for their men. Curiously enough, I was telling Joseph earlier in the day that it was said that when Spartan women sent their husbands and sons off to war, they would tell them to come back with their shields, or on them-- to return in glory still bearing their shields, or be borne home upon their shields after dying an honourable death.

And Queen Gorgo says it in the movie. With such force and passion that you really can believe that this is a Queen who *knows* exactly what her place in her husband's heart is. If you ask me, that scene was just beautiful in all its simplicity.

I like that she doesn't just fade into the background or become some story by the wayside of the main theme. She's instrumental to Leonidas' campaign for freedom in the film, and my opinion is that by her speech before the Spartan council, she lays the foundations for Delios' tale later; she makes them open to Delios' persuasion, as he spins his tale of valour.

But something I began to notice as the film progressed was this: there seems to be a very consistent portrayal of the Persians (and by association, all the peoples of the Asian continent, especially as Delios' narration begins to refer more and more to the Persian army as "the forces of Asia" and "the creatures of Asia") as being barbaric peoples.

Uncivilised peoples who keep slaves, torture animals and produce such freaks of nature as the Persian Immortals in the film and their chained bloodthirsty man-beast which nearly brings about Leonidas' death.

Asia becomes a land of slaves and bondmen, while Greece, Sparta and the European world are the lands of "free men".

It strikes me as a kind of racism, if you ask me; why only mention the "free men" when Greece and Sparta had slaves and bondage of their own?

I'm nitpicking, I know, but hey, as they say, film buffs (not that I'm claiming to be one) only get really picky about the films that they like. :) In the end though, I know that it's not exactly supposed to be an accurate historical representation of events; I know that film can't be perfect; I know that some themes are more important than others and prejudice has its own part to play in making the world easier to understand.

But I don't agree that we have to condone it.

So even if making everything black-and-white does make us root for the bravery of the Spartans and makes their heroism and sacrifice so much nobler, I still say that not every Asian in the Battle of Thermopylae was out for European blood, and self-proclaimed, power-hungry god-kings were not found in Asian cultures alone.

And that, as one of my lecturers likes to say, "we need to look at the history of things to really understand what they mean now".