Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

Setting Straight the Historical Facts about the fictitous movie 300

[Kaveh Farrokh was born in Athens, Greece, and is of Ossetian and Azeri descent. From an early age he exhibited a keen aptitude and interest in history. His talents were first recognized in 1980, during his senior year at the Institut Chateaubriand in Cannes, France, where he was granted the Lenoardo Da Vinci prize for high achievement in history from the mayor. Dr. Farrokh went on to obtain his undergraduate arts degree in May 1985 and his Ph.D. on September 24, 2001 from the University of Brit

Neal Stephenson: 300 ... History as a wedge issue

...Thermopylae is a wedge issue! Lefties can’t abide lionizing a bunch of militaristic slave-owners (even if they did happen to be long-haired supporters of women’s rights). So you might think that righties would love the film. But they’re nervous that Emperor Xerxes of Persia, not the freedom-loving Leonidas, might be George Bush. Our so-called conservatives, who have cut all ties to their own intellectual moorings, now espouse policies and personalities that would get

Nixon makes it to Broadway (Play)

Near the end of the new play "Frost/Nixon," about the former president's 1977 post-Watergate interview with television journalist David Frost, the phone rings in Frost's hotel room. Thinking it's his girlfriend calling to ask what he wants for dinner, Frost picks up and barks: "I'll have a cheeseburger." But it's Nixon, and he's been drinking. "Mmm. Sounds good. I used to love cheeseburgers," the ex-president says. "But Doctor Lundgren made me give them up. And

“From Revolution to Republic in Prints and Drawings” (Exhibit/NYC)

“From Revolution to Republic in Prints and Drawings,” an excellent and voluminous two-part exhibition at the New York Public Library, explores how journalistic images help shape a nation’s history in the way they portray military battles and political leaders. The first part, “Dawn of the American Revolution, 1768-1776,” focuses on the British Army’s presence in the colonies and the way it provoked the American rebellion. Henry Pelham’s famous engraving, “The Fruits of

Korean Publisher Withdraws Anti-Semitic Comic

A South Korean publisher agreed yesterday to withdraw a best-selling comic book from stores after Korean-American and Jewish groups complained that it spread anti-Semitic messages, The Associated Press reported. The book is part of a series called “Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries” that is intended to teach children about foreign lands; the series has sold more than 10 million copies since it began 20 years ago. A book about the United States published in 2004 blames Jews for the atta

Brothers who join the Irish Republican Army to fight for independence (movie)

In Ken Loach’s movies — he has made more than 20 in the last 40 years — characters frequently argue about politics, which is only fitting, since the films themselves are political arguments. There is no point in combing through Mr. Loach’s work for hints of ideological significance. Ideology — Marxist, anti-imperialist, aligned with the perceived interests of the powerless and the marginal — is the engine that drives his stories. The clarity and force of those stories is considerable, but their

Iran calls Hollywood blockbuster "300" cultural "warfare"

Iran denounced Hollywood's latest blockbuster film, depicting the 480 B.C. battle between the Persian army and a band of Greeks, as "hostile behavior which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare." Last week's North American opening of "300," while Tehran is embroiled in a standoff with Western nations over its nuclear program, led Iran and its film fans to see the movie as a Western effort to vilify their nation through history. The film

The demise(s) of Captain America

[Ms. Dudziak is Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Professor of Law, History and Political Science, University of Southern California Law School.] I was thinking of commenting on the reported death of Captain America, an event surely to capture the imagination of a generation of American Studies Ph.D. dissertation writers, but was having trouble finding a legal history tie-in. Then

Hip-Hop Is Rock ’n’ Roll, and Hall of Fame Likes It

It’s official: Hip-hop is rock ’n’ roll. Last night at the Waldorf-Astoria, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, who proved that hip-hop was more than party music with their 1982 hit “The Message,” became the first hip-hop group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Joseph Saddler, better known as the disc jockey and producer Grandmaster Flash, said backstage, “It opens the gates to our culture.”

With Redesign of Time Mag., Luce Turning Over in His Grave

Having just turned 84, Time magazine is coming out with a new look and editorial approach on Friday. In: A cleaner, simpler design, heavy on labels at the top of each page and the names of its columnists in World War II size type — the better to brand with. Out: The last remnants of Time’s signature syntax, parodied by the humorist Wolcott Gibbs with his phrase, “Backward ran sentences until reeled the mind.” Richard Stengel, Time’s new managing editor, said the inverte

Surprise! Spartans Assault Box Office

Even a film business that expects big numbers is likely to be double-checking the box-office receipts for Warner Brothers’ “300” on Monday and asking, “What just happened?” The sword-and-sandals epic posted an estimated $70 million in ticket sales Friday through Sunday as it surged past hostile critics and industry expectations to become the fourth surprise hit in a winter season that began with a limp. “We had projected it coming in around the mid-30s,” said Dan Fellma

How real is 300? A Historian's Assessment

[Ephraim Lytle, assistant professor of hellenistic history at the University of Toronto.] History is altered all the time. What matters is how and why. Thus I see no reason to quibble over the absence in 300 of breastplates or modest thigh-length tunics. I can see the graphic necessity of sculpted stomachs and three hundred Spartan-sized packages bulging in spandex thongs. On the other hand, the ways in which 300 selectively idealizes Spartan society are problematic, even disturbing

Las Vegas' Stardust Casino Imploded

From Stardust to just dust. The Las Vegas Strip's first mass-market casino-hotel was imploded early Tuesday in a hail of fireworks to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion megaresort Echelon. Hundreds of people partied beneath tents and on makeshift patios before Boyd chairman Bill Boyd's four grandsons pushed a plunger to detonate the former Stardust casino. The blast generated a massive dust cloud that chased the revelers into cars, buses and nearby casinos.

300 ... Gory epic 'good publicity' for modern Sparta

PARTA, Greece (AFP) - Blood-spattered spear in hand, King Leonidas leads his Spartan warriors into a whirlwind dance of flying Persian heads and limbs in "300", the new epic on the Battle of Thermopylae that premiered in modern-day Sparta on Wednesday night. "Spartans, prepare for glory...tonight we dine in Hell," bellows the king, moments before his warriors start hacking off enemy body parts. Nearly 2,500 years after they marched off to Thermopylae

The return of Tutankhamania

Donny Osmond was top of the charts, 'The Joy of Sex' was in the shops, but what really turned Britain on in the summer of 1972 was the tomb of a little boy king. As plans are unveiled for Tutankhamun's return to London, Paul Vallely remembers the original - and best - blockbuster show It was the year that T-shirts with political slogans came in big. Cosmopolitan, the first women's magazine that dared to talk about the female orgasm, was launched in the UK. Crossroads, the television

Was Dane’s Madness Just Method? Jury to Decide (Shakespeare)

WASHINGTON, March 9 — With just days to go before the trial, the opposing counsels were already squaring off. “We have an incredibly strong case,” said Miles Ehrlich, the prosecutor. “It is hard to find anyone in history who had a better proven appreciation for the nature of his actions.” The defense lawyer, Abbe D. Lowell, was equally confident. “The cry for justice, as sincere as it is, should not have us try those with mental illness as serious criminals,” he said. “

A Celebrity Warship (Monitor) Gets a Hall of Fame to Call Its Own

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — As sacred relics go, it doesn’t seem too inspiring. In appearance, Nathaniel Hawthorne said, it “looked like a gigantic rat-trap.” In life, it had little more than a single day of major achievement, and in that it was less than triumphant. In death, it was even less grand, sinking into the Atlantic during a storm, not even a year after it first lumbered onto the scene. So why, after 145 years, $15 million in oceanic explorations and more than a decade of dives an

Captain America Is Dead; National Hero Since 1941

Captain America, a Marvel Entertainment superhero, is fatally shot by a sniper in the 25th issue of his eponymous comic, which arrived in stores yesterday. The assassination ends the sentinel of liberty’s fight for right, which began in 1941. The last episode in Captain America’s life comes after the events of “Civil War,” a seven-issue mini-series that has affected nearly the entire line of Marvel’s library of titles. In “Civil War,” the government began requiring superheroes to re

Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" -- 50th anniversary

When Ayn Rand finished writing "Atlas Shrugged" 50 years ago this month, she set off an intellectual shock wave that is still felt today. It's credited for helping to halt the communist tide and ushering in the currents of capitalism. Many readers say it transformed their lives. A 1991 poll rated it the second-most influential book (after the Bible) for Americans. At one level, "Atlas Shrugged" is a steamy soap opera fused into a page- turning political thriller

"300" ... That Film’s Real Message? It Could Be: ‘Buy a Ticket’

Three weeks ago a handful of reporters at an international press junket here for the Warner Brothers movie “300,” about the battle of Thermopylae some 2,500 years ago, cornered the director Zack Snyder with an unanticipated question. “Is George Bush Leonidas or Xerxes?” one of them asked. The questioner, by Mr. Snyder’s recollection, insisted that Mr. Bush was Xerxes, the Persian emperor who led his force against Greek’s city states in 480 B.C., unleashing an army on a