To the U.S. Marines serving at Camp Pendleton, there is much to learn from the Spartans, those heroic warriors of ancient Greece whom one might have called "the few, the proud" centuries before the Marine Corps adopted the motto.
In the hit new film "300," Marines see parallels between the current war in Iraq and the film's story, which tells of hopelessly outnumbered Spartans fighting heroically to the death against mighty Persian invaders at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.
There was periodic cheering Monday night at the Regal multiplex in downtown Oceanside, a few blocks from the main gate of Camp Pendleton, where young Marines attended showings of "300" on three screens. Some Marines nodded in recognition at lines in the movie that were familiar from their training -- such as when King Leonidas instructs his son that the more troops sweat in training, the less they will bleed in combat.
"When the Spartan officer says that Spartans are all about protecting the guy to the left and right rather than being worried about themselves, that struck a chord," said Pfc. James Lyons, 20. "That's what they tell us all the time."
The R-rated film set box office records over the weekend, pulling in more than $70 million.
Meanwhile, the film has sparked outrage in modern Iran, which denounced the blockbuster's depiction of the ancient battle as "hostile behavior which is the result of cultural and psychological warfare." According to Reuters, poor-quality pirated DVDs are already circulating in Iran and a broad spectrum of government leaders and bloggers have denounced the movie as portraying the Persians as decadent, sexually flamboyant and evil in contrast to the noble Greeks. Some elected officials in Iran are urging other Muslim countries not to show "this anti-Iranian Hollywood movie."
It probably comes as no surprise that Marines would like the film.
"I barked and cheered my way through '300' with two fellow Marine infantry officers who have shed blood and tears in the back alleys of Iraq," said Ilario G. Pantano, whose book "Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy" details his experiences in Iraq and his criminal case on charges of murdering two Iraqis. He was exonerated and is now a sheriff's deputy in New Hanover County, N.C.
At a time when mounting U.S. and Iraqi casualties in Iraq have alarmed the American public, the movie seems to celebrate war, militarism and battlefield carnage.
