UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Film "300" breaks box office records in the United Arab Emirates

Record ID: 644126

  • Title: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Film "300" breaks box office records in the United Arab Emirates
  • Date: 12th April 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) IRANIAN-AMERICAN WOMAN, ONOME EMAMI, SAYING: "Firstly, I thought it was a really good movie, I really liked the fighting scenes but I don't know, I didn't really like how they portray the Persians but I dont think it's such a big deal for them to make such a controversy on TV about it but it was a really good movie. It was a good watch basically. I don't know how accurate it was historically, or whatever."
  • Embargoed: 27th April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Arab Emirates
  • Country: United Arab Emirates
  • Reuters ID: LVABU1WXFZSBE1SV40PFM8OW9XTN
  • Story Text: This spring's surprise hit "300" is continuing its run of success in the international box office.
    More than 129,000 tickets were sold in the first ten days of the film's showing in the United Arab Emirates, breaking records for the biggest opening weekend in the Gulf State this year.
    Based on a graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller, "300" sees U.S. director Zack Snyder using cutting edge technology to tell an ancient tale in his new film, an ultra-violent depiction of the legendary battle between Spartans and Persians at Thermopylae in 480 BC.
    Severed limbs fly, decapitations get the slow motion treatment, Persians are gorged by a charging rhinoceros, elephants are dashed on the rocks and the blood flows everywhere. And it is all achieved thanks to computer generated special effects, including the almost exclusive use of blue screens behind actors on which the background was later superimposed.
    Iran has in recent weeks denounced the film depicting the battle between the Persian army and a band of Greeks, as "hostile behaviour which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare."
    But despite the controversy surrounding the film's depiction of the Persians, '300' is expected to continue to top movie theatres in the Emirates this week and the film has been largely praised by movie goers in the neighbouring Gulf State of the UAE.
    "Firstly, I thought it was a really good movie, I really liked the fighting scenes but I don't know, I didnt really like how they portrait the Persians but I dont think its such a big deal for them to make such a controversy on TV about it but it was a really good movie. It was a good watch basically. I don't know how accurate it was historically," said Iranian-American Onome Emami, who has seen the film twice in Dubai this week.
    Iranian government officials have branded the film an insult against Iran, where the first Persian empire emerged to become the world's most powerful in the sixth century B.C. before it was conquered by Alexander the Great two centuries later. "I know that they (movies) have a lot to do with politics but I don't think that was the goal of the movie, not at all," said Ricky Frampton a Danish tourist who watched the film in Dubai.
    Iranians take great pride in their history and the empire they founded, and any perceived slight against that heritage often sparks criticism across the political and social spectrum.
    An Iranian circulated a petition against the film on the Internet, saying the film was both "fraudulent and distorted."
    Western historians have often said the battle was the first major conflict between the East and the ancient Greek city states, seen as the cradle for Western values.
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