Mark My Words - commentary on news, politics, religion, philosophy, science and social issues

*This may be a bit of a spoiler for some*

It would seem there could be nearly 300 complaints against this movie, judging from the reaction of some critics. Let this then be a possible 301 in that long list.

I can imagine something like this occurring to some while they watched the movie.

The adorable hunchback, his life dream thwarted by the arrogant, physically perfect, western white guy; certainly this is the moment for the switch after this long baiting, wherein decades of the western white guy being bad and anyone else being good will occur.

Oh the tragedy! the coitus interruptus! that was sustained, to the very end, with careless disregard for the P&Ps*, helping drive so many to addled reviews, being worthy of even Freudian psychoanalysis.

That poor hunchback! they must have then raged, How dare these movie makers, these mythic story tellers, use his physical deformity as an expression of the twists within his soul! After all, it was only his life dream, to serve Sparta, to serve the king that was all he wanted. And that bad bad king turned him down! Sackcloth and ashes for poor Humpy, if only the arrogant white guy had listened to him, they would not have died and a kumbya of cultural sharing would have been the happy happy end result.

While I have yet to see a review making much of Humpy and his role in the movie, the weeping and wailing of other reviews, and their catalog of sins the movie supposedly commits, seems simply to have left little room for the inclusion of this one. So perhaps my reply is a bit of a pre-emptive shot at what I'm sure someone will eventually log as a complaint.

Beyond satirizing such a view of Humpy's role in the movie, there are the details within the storyline, that justify the King's decision, while also driving the P&Ps a little mad, gotta love a twofer like that. Certainly Humpy's desire was noble, to serve Sparta, to die for her. Sadly, this good was twisted into not being true service but only about raising personal desires to a right. The more strongly the desire is felt, the more certain and unassailable the right! Sound familiar? One has to wonder if the self-esteem crowd got to Humpy's parents. Oops, another strike against the movie for the P&Ps.

As the story was told, King Leonidas considered Humpy's offer, noting his strong thrust with a spear. I'll pause for those who see phallic imagery everywhere, so they can recover from their faint... Unfortunately, Humpy clearly could not fight in a cohesive military unit because of his limitations. This most certainly would have been disastrous for the survival of the Spartans. They didn't even allow the Arcadians to fight within their ranks in the movie either, despite their white guy, humpless physiques. Yet Leonidas would have accepted his service in ways that Humpy was capable of.

But for some, mere desire outweighs any consideration of others. So long as they get what they want and everything they want, is all that matters. Kind of like the Demoncrap infection in the Democrat party and the MSM defining bipartisan as always agreeing with the liberal view, but I digress.

If I say my desire is to serve, then it is, though I place condition upon condition as chains about any service you may ask of me, and woe be to those who would deny any of my conditions, even if it is to save civilization. I say it is still service to whatever you may ask, as long as you don't ask for this or that.

This elevation of the individual above all others, this service to only the self and nothing above, even say freedom for a society, or protecting a civilization facing a threat etc., is a problem when carried to extremes even in our culture. Certainly, the individual is important. Yet, to raise this to an absolute, so that nothing can ever override the individual, leaves us in a free fall of whims and emotional whipsawing of this or that loud mouth or agitated collection of loud mouths.

While the extreme opposite end of the spectrum has its own faults, as in the society always over the individual; it doesn't mean we should trade those problems for a set of others, just because we screw ourselves over in a different way. Not having a parachute when jumping off a tall building ends in the same manner as jumping, sans said parachute, off a cliff with a view of nature untrammeled by the horrors of civilized man obliterating the landscape with steel and concrete. The kersplattt! is still a kersplattt!, though the view on the way down may be more appealing to some.

So, to those tempted to elevate their own desires to rights, as if nothing can transcend their emotions or desires, remember Humpy and the fate Leonidas wished upon him, "I hope you live forever" and Humpy's realization of his shame and what he had done. Truly, at times there are things more important than the self and our personal desires. It would be tragic if some only realized this at the very end, after they've helped lead society, or even just their own social groups or families down the abyss.

Come to think of it, since he didn't get the death penalty, or even a wish for it from Leonidas, for betraying his king or Sparta, one would think, the P&Ps might find the movie redeemable at the end. Certainly that has to count right? Oh well, I guess when the possibility of climactic enjoyment was by then, too far destroyed by Western white guys pummeling the crap out of non-western and, oh goodness, bad guys, and "boy lovers" was used in a negative fashion very early in the movie, and in the end, more white guys were rallied to the cause of actually fighting for freedom by the noble sacrifice of the previous white guys, there is no redemption. Interesting calculation that.

I would say to those who already have written their little reviews with other outlandish P&P complaints, grow up. It isn't all about you, and it wasn't or shouldn't have been, when you were in high school either. There's a real world out there, errors tend to come into this world in pairs, at opposite extremes. Use your brains and consider there are some things greater than our individual selves and very much worth putting aside our personal desires for and in some cases worth giving our lives to.

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*P&P - pussy and politically correct

Filed under: Movies -- Culture

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