Saving Private Sparta

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2011)

"Fascist aesthetics endorse two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude. It is a dance between a leader and a growing mass of identical, devoted subjects, shifting between ceaseless motion and virile posing." – Susan Sontag
Released in time for the West's rebooted Middle Eastern Crusade, Zack Snyder's "300" serves up what Susan Sontag called "pop fascism". Based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller, the film watches as a group of manly men in leather underwear battle against incredible odds to defeat an invading Persian army. As the film progresses, we watch as our heroes kill their sexually deviant enemies, slaughtering them in a series of CGI laden encounters. None whom our heroes kill have faces, except for the enemy's Persian leader, a homosexual warrior whose jewelry studded face is left exposed.
The film's kill-a-Persian pop-fascism, in which brown people are lovingly decapitated, pierced, (sexually) penetrated and mauled in slow motion by cape wearing Spartan superheroes, is typical of the work of comic book auteur Frank Miller. One can argue that superheroes are an inherently "fascist" idea of might makes right, but Miller seems to always be pushing this further. All his most popular stories boil down to superheroes, because of their total devotion to the state, forming an elite militant group which works in collaboration with traditional elites to abandon democratic liberties/ideals. This group of ubermensch then openly commits crimes (murder, torture, vengeance, the usual "cowboy" or "old west" justice) and pursues a kind of redemptive violence - all without ethical or legal restraints - for the purposes of either internal cleansing or external expansion. Miller often presents this stuff uncritically, pausing only occasionally to leer at strippers, prostitutes, and blood thirsty uber men.
"300", like the graphic novel upon which it is based, contains all the tropes of "fascist art", something shared by other well known films like "Saving Private Ryan", "Zulu" and "Black Hawk Down", all of which essentially tell the same story.
While it varies slightly from culture to culture, "fascist art" tends to contain the same general tropes. According to Professor/author Mark Wallace, these are as follows. One, such art offers a violent mythology and epic cartoon designed to blur and hide anything resembling actual history. Two, it believes in the moral corruption and physical/mental/sexual inferiority of the Other (be they German, Greek, Hindu, Dark Skinned, White, African etc). In this regard, "fascist art" uses the identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause, a perceived common threat or foe.
Three, "fascist art" believes that the only noble calling for a man is that of the warrior, and that there is no greater honour than to die for one's state/country/ideology, no matter how much pain or anxiety the warrior must suffer. Four, "fascist art" always promotes a violent form of conflict resolution, in which the military is deemed supreme and combat, masculinity and physique are glorified. Five, it sets up a false choice; between that of lawless, "terrorist" chaos, or violent, even vigilante, justice.
Six, "fascist art" believes that governments and democracy are corrupt, incompetent and/or hindrances to either the "true state" (often present as an invisible, unspoken ideology), or the great moral leaders who deserve the right to make decisions for all without the input of corrupt, morally and physically weak others. Seven, "fascist art" is an aesthetic of either cleanly lined architecture and images, whose goal is to emphasise physical strength, both of buildings and of the human physique, or clean lined demarcations, such as good/bad, friend/foe, soldier/enemy, straight/gay etc.
Eight, the fascist aesthetic obfuscates or actively corrupts notions of freedom, conformity, honour, sacrifice, nobility, democracy, glory, duty, morality, altruism, servitude etc. Nine, it stresses victim-hood, often pitting numerically disadvantaged heroes against a superior Other. In this regard, think the post 9/11 victimhood movies of the US, or the small number of American or British GI's trapped behind enemy lines in films like "Ryan", "Dawn" and "Zulu", all of which skewer historical truths.
Ten, "fascist art" often conveys a sense of being a small, embattled moral elite in a world of corruption and decadence. Eleven, it conveys a disdain for intellectualism, let alone anything other than violent recourse and emotional hysteria. Twelve, it offers a mythological, war torn landscape on which the fascist drama can be played out, one that describes even the environment of the world as a pure function of fascist values. No actual material messiness or complexities are allowed in the details.
Thirteen, "fascist art" makes heavy use of iconography (helmets, farms, Christ imagery etc), tapping into a mythological and idealised past specifically for the purpose of regenerating nationalism. Fourteen, it is often rampantly sexist with rigid gender roles (homophobic, whilst, ironically, being homo-erotic). Fifteen, "fascist art" makes heavy use of code words; euphemisms with political intent. Finally, there is always a clear ideological imperative to sacrifice the needs of the individual for those of the state/ideology, whilst at the same time celebrating the individual for having to "take on the burden" of "debasing himself" for the "larger good". ie - everyone from George Bush to Batman to Private Ryan is proud to "do the horrible task of killing" so as to "prevent you from making this tough decision yourself".
Of course not everything which adheres to this aesthetic is necessarily "fascist art". Films like "Starshipp Troopers", "Star Wars", "Incredibles" etc openly appropriate the fascist aesthetic for different purposes, often for critique, humour or parody. "300" is itself not consciously designed to make a fascist statement. Nationalism is inseparable from the desire for power, and most of these films simply trade in power as fantasy and violence as ego-porn, Snyder's superheroes allowing for a more heightened form of action movie gratification.
2/10 – Most action movies are homo-erotic and express a male insecurity (fascism is itself intrinsically homo-erotic and masochistic), but "300" pushes these anxieties to unintentionally hilarious proportions.