The art advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged a visiting Hollywood delegation to apologise for “insults and slanders” about Iranians in films, the ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
“(Iranian) cinema officials will only have the right to have official sessions with… Hollywood movie makers when they apologise to the Iranians for their 30 years of insults and slanders,” Javad Shamaghdari said.
“The Iranian people and our revolution has been repeatedly unjustly attacked by Hollywood,” he said, citing ‘300’ and recent Oscar nominated movie ‘The Wrestler’ as among offending films.
In 2007, the war epic ‘300’, a smash hit in the United States for its gory portrayal of the Greco-Persian wars, drew the wrath of Iranians for showing their ancestors as bloodthirsty.
Similarly ‘The Wrestler’, was booed in Iran and heavily criticised for the scene of breaking and tearing of the Iranian flag by the picture’s star, 2009 Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke.
The following are excerpts from a rally with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which aired on the Iranian News Channel (IRINN) on August 1, 2006.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Look, they are destroying homes with the people inside. They are burning fields. Neither children nor adults are safe from them. With laser-guided bombs, they attack shelters of defenseless women and children, leaving them in a pool of their blood.”
Crowd: “Death to Israel.”
“Death to Israel.”
“Death to Israel.”
“Death to Israel.”
“Death to Israel.”
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “They have no boundaries, limits, or taboos when it comes to killing human beings. Who are they? Where did they come from? Are they human beings? ‘They are like cattle, nay, more misguided.’ A bunch of bloodthirsty barbarians. Next to them, all the criminals of the world seem righteous.”
“Roxana called on February 10 to say that she had been arrested on January 31,†Reza Saberi told FOX News. “She did not say why she had been arrested or what for. She could not even say where she was when she was calling.â€
Reza said he believes Roxana, who moved to Iran six years ago and had previously reported for NPR, the BBC and FOX News, had her press credentials revoked some time ago, and was therefore not working as a journalist.
“She said that she had bought a bottle of wine and the person that sold it had reported it and then they came and arrested her,” he told NPR, adding that that was just an excuse to arrest her.
Reza said he believes she was writing a book about Iran.
Roxana, 31, had told her parents, who reside in Fargo, N.D., on Feb. 10 not to tell anyone about what had occurred and that she would be released within two to three days.
Why would anyone visit Iran? This isn’t the first time someone has been detained…
[…] as Dan Collins helpfully notes, when it comes to expressing sentiments that offend a people we’ll see you a “over the […]
Because they seriously believe in that “Citizen of the World” bullshit. They’re enlightened and so open-minded, how could anyone ever wish them ill?
How about we just give you some dough instead, money being fungible and all?
that is a great script!
whadda-ya-whadda-ya–whadda-ya think?
green light it!
call sean penn on his house boat phone/asap
Iranians getting upset at the movie 300 are idiots. That happened almost 3000 years ago with Persia, its like Brits being mad at how Celts are portrayed in a film.
There’s a much stronger connection between Achaemenid Persia and moder Iran than between Brythonic Britain and modern England; indeed, it can be reasonably argued that, for better or worse, the true heir of Iron Age Britain is Wales, not England.
Nonetheless, there is more than a little irony at the Iranians snarling, “We object to you depicting our ancestors as cruel and bloodthirsty…and we’re going to torture, rape, and murder you until you apologize!”
Mahmoud you know you want it
Μολὼν λάβε, bitch.
Yes, we know how utterly anti-Arab Hollywood has been … what with those hundreds and hundreds of films about 9/11, the first Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
I mean, look at the films about life and death of Danny Pearl, right?
Oh, sorry … reality is that Danny Pearl’s father, who teaches at UCLA, gets Judenhass death threats and the campus shrugs.
But never you mind, American Jews, just shut your eyes and keep voting Democrat.
I hope those Jews who voted for Obama are ok with that 900 million going to Gaza …
Of course Iranians would object to the way Persians were depicted in 300. They have one of the cultures that ancient times were their cultural high point. If anything Persia and then Iran have done nothing but degenerate since the times of Xerxes. There own version of society is such a POS in comparison that they’d rather identify with a society 3000 old.
Meanwhile we have these Outlaws, from the left:
“I wanted the Bush policy on Iraq to fail because the war and the ideas it was based were in complete opposition to my basic principles about how The United States should use its wealth and power. However, I was hoping that a magic genie would be found in Baghad that would create a situation where Bush’s policies didn’t work but with no loss of life, damage to property, expense or harm to our nation’s reputation.”
The problem is – I’m not Bobby Jindal so I don’t believe in magic.
So I repeat – damn right I wanted the Iraq war to fail.
Obama admin foreign policy is shaping up to appear rather like a metaphorical Williams Syndrome sufferer, sweet, loquacious, music loving (where the music is Obama’s vision of diplomatic exchange itself, talking endlessly to no worthy purpose), babbling on and on — when you suddenly realize, this speech is quite retarded, utterly pointless and going nowhere good at all. They really haven’t got a clue, have they?
Yet, they still insist Limbaugh is a traitor to America because he wants Big Zero’s policies to fail…
Is Joe our latest anti-American, anti-military leftist troll? He sucks, too.
Take a look at this fellow nikkolai. He’s anti-war on economic grounds but would you class him a leftist? Hardly.
I think the entire thing was a quote, nikkolai.
Blockquote it your friend, Joe.
I’ve always been willing to entertain the argument against the Iraq War on economic grounds. But once our guys were on the ground over there, I didn’t want to hear about it.
No, Nikkolai, Joe was quoting the Puffington Host. Curiously, the Huffpo author is actually defending Limbaugh, in arahter backhanded manner. The “they” I referred to is the commenters and most of the rest of the loony left.
It is to laugh:
Blockquote is not my friend when I mistype it…
I don’t think you’re getting to the question I had in mind there, nikkolai, but in fact you’re engaging in a deflection. First off, Joe is no leftist, that, I think, is easily discernable from his many posts. Second, jumping to the conclusion that merely being anti-war brands one a leftist is just plain wrong. Third, what Carin said. If you just click the link you’ll easily see the entire quote, clearing up the question instanter.
On the topic of the original post, the Mad Mullahs (and their Lebanese puppet Nasrallah) are just gangsters in turbans, making loud-mouthed street-gang demands. Fuck ’em.
Let me go on record: I, too, want Obama to fail.
And, to be on topic – I hope those Hollywood folks got on their knees and apologized. Ha. what a hoot.
Brett Stephens in the WSJ with another one of those handy-dandy historical analogies. Post-Post-9/11 Looks Just Like Pre-World War II
Exactly like the left, the Islamic radicals will always tell everyone what they will do themselves and who precisely they are by ascribing all their own traits and future actions to their enemies. Projection, pure and complete.
I want Obama to fail to fuck up the country.
Fortunately for Obama, the country comes pre-fucked-up, so whatever he manages to do may not even register.
I’m all in favor of Obama finding some set of solutions to our economic problems and setting us back on our feet again. Even if he only does it by accident.
I’m all in favor of Obama finding some set of solutions to our economic problems and setting us back on our feet again
It remains to be seen if his commitment to Liberal fascism is more powerful than his oath of office and that commitment to basic American principles and values.
Does Obama take the Constitution seriously or take what he thinks the Constitution should say (in the alternative Leftist universe of an infinitely malleable Constitution).
His latest “populist” rhetoric is not encouraging. He seems hell bent on the using his 52% “mandate” to unAmericanize America.
I didn’t mean to paint Joe with the lefty brush–didn’t know he was quoting HuffPo. Of course one could oppose the Iraq War and not be a leftist. My point was, once we made the choice to go in, give our guys what it took to win the thing, then get them out. Just because a person did not support the war from the start should not give license for same fuckhead to root against us. And there was alot of that. Particularly from lefties.
He seems hell bent on the using his 52% “mandate†to unAmericanize America.
He has one year and eight months to do it before the 2010 House elections, and the trend in his numbers is not encouraging for him.
Pay particular attention to the trend in the “strongly disapprove” column.
i want obama to ski
on skulls
that would be awesome
marine one-do you have room for james carville
for the contrast-plus he tells such sick jokes
twang-y like
The Greco-Persian Wars were when? 2,500 years ago?
Seems *someone* has a problem with the words ‘trireme’ and ‘phalanx’.
The people he should be pissed about are the Macedonians. They turned the Persian Empire into their own personal romper-room.
Mahmoud is mad Andy never called him back…why do guys always do that?
A movie should be done on the Anabasis, just to really twist Ahmadinejad’s tail.
I’m all in favor of Obama finding some set of solutions to our economic problems and setting us back on our feet again. Even if he only does it by accident.
Yea, well, he’s not going to do that unless he fails to get what he wants.
i want obama to get a new jacket
it always opens in the breeze when he walks
down steps[ air-force one]
he needs another button[shout out to pdbuttons!]
dis-concerting-to see his shirt
oh- and the trillions he spent
Outlaws!
and RedState on Little Bobby Jindal!
H/T: Allah
A movie should be done on the Anabasis
You mean like this?
Oh, you meant a good movie. Heh.
Or maybe just a movie actually worthy of Xenophon. Couldn’t hurt for them to try.
Oh, God. I’d never connected that movie to its inspiration.
God damn you all to hell! Now I have a strong compulsion to see it!
Obama probably sees his “civilian defense force” as modeled on the Gramercy Riffs with him as Cyrus. However the left I’ve seen come across more as all Luthers.
BTW. I like a number of Walter Hill films. They all seem to be set in some alternate universe, close by but twisted somehow.
So let’s see… “The Warriors” (Anabasis)… “Reign of Fire” (Beowulf)… I need another one. Shakespeare would be too easy, and wouldn’t fit the ancients theme.
i find out a movie i like
then find the director
stanley kubrick is
to me
great
oh. here I guess. But they have to change the title for it to count I guess? I’m really tired of that guy. He did some good movies but he’s no Jared Padalecki that’s for sure.
Oh, lord, ‘feets, that’s just sad.
If they don’t have David Drake involved in it, they’re fools. He had at least one SF book directly based on the Odyssey.
And does the following phrase make anyone else ill?
i’m sad
peeps don’t like kubrick?
hell
he even made ryan oniell[sp] palpable
paths of glory
dr. strangelove
2001 space odd
clockwork orangethe fucking shining!
zzzz
i’m done
my friend tends a bar
[father too-in cambridge]
he told me marissa tomei and q
were ion the bar
so natch- he kept it open
then he calls me 2 days later “guess what!”
yeah
u had a fucking oscar weinner
in ur bar…
but u didn’t wake me up?
fyi
any oscar weiner in ur bar that is not chuugin’ milk
call me!
I had a boss that loved Kubrick to where he collected Kubrick things. His favorite movie was Barry Lyndon. I still haven’t seen that one. Or Strangelove. I saw Eyes Wide Shut. I went out for a cigarette during that one I remember.
dunno
paths of glory
the shining
dr strangelove
2001
i feel like an idjut
u haven’t seen these films?
[btw- barry lyndon makes rye on kneel look good]
yeah
i said it
yeah
i said it!
not 2 hi-jack this thread
but school me on movies
double- dare ya!
I saw The Shining. And Full Metal Jacket, kind of. Not to where I quote it ever. I don’t see a lot of movies these days. I saw one the other day but I don’t think I liked it cause of it was retarded. It had that kid in it. The one I liked better the first time when he was called John Cusack. Oh. Eagle Eye is what it was. It was witless.
oh. I forgot to tell Rob… Tony Scott is maybe doing a The Warriors for 2010.
may i ask
happy feet
nom duh nom nome
i’m pd buttons cuz i could n’tspell button dick buttons
alway thought u were a movie freak
animated
that penguin movie
who knew?
Dick ‘buttons before she dicks you.
I was a movie freak but it was mostly indie movies and B movies. I love B movies. Then I started watching tv cause I hadn’t watched tv in five years or so and I was curious. So I watched and watched. Now I don’t very much like to watch things. I’m catching up on the Sarah Connor thing just cause I’m watching Dollhouse. Also it’s never too early to start saving good movies to watch for when you’re in a nursing home and no one will bring you any oreos.
The storyline centres on the 10-year journey home of Greek general Odysseus
Let me guess: his wife has an eternal scrapbooking project going on, and he’s recognized by his pet Ewok when he finally arrives.
oh. I picked my name cause you can’t google it and also it was a cheesy propaganda movie that I was hating on when I first started commenting. It was in theaters at the time I think. It actually is two words, the movie is. But people mess that up all the time.
The Bible has been stripmined almost as much as Shakespeare, generally to poor effect in both cases.
Kurosawa could do it without fucking things up. Not many others can.
guinsPen
i’m stoopy-id
please splain
tanks!
dick buttons!
here is one. This is cool cause it compares regular snapping turtles to gator ones. nishi has a snapping turtle. Just the regular kind. It’s name is gamara I think.
if shame was
i’m totally..
shame
if i asked how u link
i’d be a dink
please i wood
idaho potatoe make u think!
is there a button[ oh- sham- ur 2 funny] or some magic stick
have empathy on the buttons
one day he may snap on you!
[if i hit the lottery/ 6 of u are millionares]
nice pictures of john murtha
See Barry Lyndon, or rather, better, listen to Barry Lyndon. Or maybe listen to Barry Lyndon while reading Tom Jones? Between Kubrick and Scorcese I’m not sure who had the better grasp of film scoring, but for me, they’re the top two. (Excepting possibly the use of Howard Hanson’s Symphony no. 2 “American”, by Tony Scott in Alien)
here, buttons.
I guess I could see Barry Lyndon. It’s really that good?
Picaresqueshubertian good.
Barry Lyndon is pretty good. Not big on the action (although there is some), but very thought provoking.
You may not like it if Kubrick’s morally ambiguous characters bother you, because it has those in spades.
There you go. That’s how you sell it.
Ya know what would make a decent movie? The Roman Civil War.
A bitch and a half to do well, but, man, the spectacle!
Or even the Gallic Wars.
Oh, and I tried to watch that horrid “Troy” movie that came out a few years ago. The trailer had so much promise — the fleet, for one thing — but, man that movie was just bad. And that “Alexander” flick, too — how can you take the story of a guy who conquered everything from Greece eastward to India before he turned 30 and make it boring?!
I thought the Rome miniseries on HBO was well done, Rob. It was told from the viewpoint of a couple of regular soldiers.
The costumes and sets were excellent, even to the point of having dirty Latin graffiti scribbled on building walls.
It’s out on DVD, and is well worth a look.
Movies are mostly for shorter fiction works. Longer works need a mini series or even several seasons of 1 hr. shows to flesh out. Unless the screenwriter and the director are bloody geniuses. Rare that.
i agree with commentor 73
Who wouldn’t?
All this blathering is so, er, yummy or whatever, but has anyone any info on the fate of this journalist in Iran? Anybody remember Zahra Kazemi?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zahra_Kazemi
http://www.zibakazemi.org/
The stupid, it burns, yes, so who here wants to raise their hands and say, “Yeah, she deserves the Kazemi treatment?”
Canada is not a nuclear power. What’s our excuse?
commentator# 76 has a good point
say it-don’t spray it