Posted on 03/11/2007 1:53:24 PM PDT by freedom44
ATHENS – Greek critics have blasted "300," a Hollywood recreation of the 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae, where King Leonidas of Sparta held back a massive Persian military invasion, leading to its eventual defeat.
The movie – an adaptation of artist Frank Miller's graphic novel – opens in Greece on Friday and will show at 70 screens in greater Athens.
The popular Athinorama magazine described the film as a ``bloodlust videogame."
Daily Ta Nea newspaper gave Zack Snyder's "300" zero out of 10, with critic Dimitris Danikas claiming the film even carried a message about the U.S. war on terror.
"By ancient Persia, they refer to modern Iran – whose soldiers are portrayed as bloodthirsty, underdeveloped zombies," he wrote. ``They are stroking racist instincts in Europe and America."
Robby Eksiel at the daily Ethnos said moviegoers would be dazzled by the "digital action" but irritated by the "pompous interpretations and one-dimensional characters."
Greece's critics were similarly scathing about other recent movies depicting ancient battles, including Wolfgang Petersen's ``Troy" and Oliver Stone's "Alexander" in 2004.
It's a pattern that disappointed Panayiotis Timoyiannakis, the lone voice of support among Greek critics for "300"
"This is not a university lecture, it's a movie," he wrote in the daily Eleftheros Typos. "It's an adaptation of a comic to the big screen, and that's only how it should be judged . . . When seen this way, it gets high marks."
Persians werent Muslims genius they were Zoroastrian.
HELLO PEOPLE MOST OF THOSE COMPLAINING ARE ELITIST SNOBS.
These are the same people with the ivory tower mentality that demand everything be taught with the dry excitement of sand.
They are irrelevant.
This is just a PR stunt.
The same ring leaders of this "outrage" are the same ones who were complaining about the closing ceremony at the 2004 olympics being not intelectual enough. (too much fun not enough culture)
I have been to Thermopole, I have seen the Leonidas memorial at the famous battle scene.
If anyone wants a comparison, these type of people were complaining about the Patriot.
Purists with no life.
I haven't seen it yet. Seems to me from what I've seen of the story that it is servicably accurate. The basic details of the situation, that a small force of Spartans on what was assumed to be a suicide mission effectively held the pass at Thermopylae for some few days, giving time for defenders of Athens to prepare to face the invading Persians.
Isn't that basically it? If that's the case, what's the criticism for historocity?
The batlle of the 300 Spartans was NOT fiction. This movie and the comic book both rewrite history and fictionalize it. How would you feel if the D-day landing, for instance, was fictionalized with orges or what ever thrown into the mix? This movie is BS and belittles the actual battle. There is a monument at the site of the battle which honors the Spartans. It was placed there shortly after the battle and still remains there. Fiction my a**.
FOR PETE'S SAKE, IT'S A COMIC BOOK!
Gosh, we better stand aside, and let these experts write a scripts, contribute the funding, recruit the actors, do the direction.
But if we had waited for that, we would be waiting even longer than the Athenians waited at Marathon for the Spartans, that is, we would have waited until the war was over, and then when the next war started, the Spartans still could only contribute only 300, while the rest were delayed for ANOTHER religious festival.
When the Spartans finally contributed 45,000 men to the battle of Platea, only 10,000 were fully qualified soldiers. Most were slaves, who had to be brought along to prevent them from leading a slave revolt at home, in the absence of Sparta's soldiers.
Sparta doesn't even have good ruins now. Just a memory, so the rest of Greece resents them.
"Spartans (western warriors) defend themselves
against the hordes of ISLAM (Persia). It's no
wonder elitists condemn it."
That has to be the 'genius' quote of the year.
We seriously need an IQ test to join this freakin place.
lol -- well said.
I know that the Iranians are Persians, I was refering to the dumb ass lefties who are trying to say this is a reference to the Iraqi war and the muslims, whether they be Persians or Arabs. Try reading some one's comments before you make idiotic assumptions.
Maybe, maybe not. People are touchy about their own history. Mel Gibson's "Apocolypto" was shown to a group of Mayans... who are also a touchy people. They panned it, too. Of course, it was the scholars and elitists among them who are the most articulate... and who are going to the ones quoted.
Apocolypto at least used a Mayan dialect, but still didn't do very well at the box office in Mayan country (south Mexico, Guatamala, Belize). Let's see how "300" does in Athens.
I saw the film and a disagree somewhat. The graphic novel called 300 was based upon a film called The 300 Spartans which was based upon the events of surrounding Leonidas and his 300 Spartan warriors defending Sparta from the Persian armies. After seeing the film, I checked out a few sites on the Internet that relate the story in more accurate detail and I found that while the film offered a highly stylized, dramatic version of the story, it was not far off from any other depiction.
The film was never intended to be historically accurate. It was entertainment. In fact, surprisingly, from what I read - even though it was based upon the graphic novel of the same name - it was more historically accurate than Braveheart was in telling the story of William Wallace.
Not quite "were and are". Iranians are more hairy.
Greek list ping!
Ogres? A more accurate comparison might be the allied troops landing on D-Day accompanied by "Captain America" or "Wonder Woman". Most people understand the comic book characters are often written into historical or historical like events. It is a form of fantasy and other than the critics, no one is going to assume that a comic book depiction impunes the legitimacy of the actual heroes of history.
Greeks and the Persians were and are the same.
Thermopylae? fictional? You can't be really serious posting this garbage...can you?
Greeks are Persians in drag....
The Greeks were also upset about "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". They said that the characters weren't at all like real Greeks.
Of course not! The characters were American!
Dumba**es!
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