According to AP writer Nasser Karimi, many Iranians apparently think the international box-office phenomenon, The 300, is an insult to their Persian heritage.

TEHRAN, Iran -- The hit American movie "300" has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran. "Hollywood declares war on Iranians," blared a headline in Tuesday's edition of the independent Ayende-No newspaper. The movie, which raked in $70 million in its opening weekend, is based on a comic-book fantasy version of the battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C., in which a force of 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army at a mountain pass in Greece for three days. Javad Shamghadri, cultural adviser to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the United States tries to "humiliate" Iran in order to reverse historical reality and "compensate for its wrongdoings in order to provoke American soldiers and warmongers" against Iran. State-run television has run several commentaries the past two days calling the film insulting and has brought on Iranian film directors to point out its historical inaccuracies."

Commentary

I have seen more than my fair share of movies about Iran. During the seven years l lived in Boston, I regularly attended the yearly Iranian Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts. It's where I met some of my Iranian friends in Boston. Two things upon which serious film buffs agree is that Iranian make some remarkably fine films and that they manage to do so despite heavy censorship. What the Iranian cultural advisor either doesn't know or doesn't care to admit is that American films are not written and produced at the behest of the US government. Nor are they routinely positioned as vehicles for the advancement of US foreign policy. US filmmakers have other prerogatives, first and foremost of which is the profit motive. They are allowed to make movies about anyone and everyone they see fit. They are not Washington's tool.

That "The 300" is released right at the point of especially heightened tensions between Iran and the West is merely a coincidence and, incidentally, an a profitable one for the producers. It is not, however, part of any Western conspiracy to denigrate Iranians or their heritage. It's just a comic book/ graphic novel adapted for the big screen. Not that one would expect officials from a country with no respect for free speech or individual rights to understand that. The battle at Thermopylae was, after all, about self-determination and the battle against subjugation to rule of a foreign despot. Some didn't get it then and some still don't get it now.