valeriemercier

Christ. This is crazy. Sparta's described as having this nightmarish culture where children are left out to die of exposure, men are ritually abused by each other to demonstrate toughness, the disabled are rejected in spite of their potential skills because they fail to fit into the military system, and international law is null and void (this is madness! No one kills a messenger! This is Sparta!). And yet Frank Miller would have us believe they're better than the cultured Athenians (who're habitually described as boy-lovers, in spite of the Spartans being big macho maries themselves), that they can rationally reject their religion (the priests are painted as corrupt) and that what they're fighting for in their battle against the Persians is WESTERN CIVILISATION ITSELF. In the end, the invading Persians (who offer to enrich Sparta in exchange for her vassalship) sound a lot more like today's America. And the Spartans look a lot more like today's Iran, proud and smart enough to develop nuclear capability and cunning enough to abuse a few British sailors for the sake of political advantage. However, the stupid Americentric wankfest does read well. (shrug)

2022-10-29 03:07