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.
Greek new article about the movie: The first few paragraphs talk about how records are being broken at Greek cinemas over Leonidas 300 even though some mediocre reviews were given by said critics, but who listens to critics anyway. In its first showing it broke all Greek records bypassing the very popular Greek film Politiki Kouzina, by the way that is of the best Greek movies ever, and another domestic Greek hit Sirens in the Aegean. The 300 also bypassed Troy and Pirates of the Caribbean. The news article also comments towards the end about how the 300 premiere in North America was one of the few instances where movie theaters were sold out days in advance.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:_mT1Es2-1qYJ:www.in.gr/news/article.asp%3FlngEntityID%3D786347%26lngDtrID%3D253+%CE%9B%CE%B5%CF%89%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%B1+%CE%BA%CE%B1%CE%B9+%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD+300&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
300: A raving success in Greece
'However, this week's big surprise is 300, Zach Snyder's retelling of the battle of Thermopylae. Even though the movie was shown in just 337 cinemas around the world, it was a winner with audiences, raking in $6.2m (£3.2m). In Greece, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan, it accounted for over 50% of cinema tickets sold. In particular, 300 was a raving success in Greece, where the battle of Thermopylae took place. It raked in $2.9m (£1.5m) in a week, more than the hit Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest did there in the same period last year.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2032650,00.html
'Homecoming' for '300' on Wed. in Sparta
Leonidas and his heroic band of 300 Spartans will enjoy a "homecoming" of sorts Wednesday evening in the eponymous southern Greek town of Sparta, nearly 25 centuries after falling to a man at Thermopylae, as Zack Snyder's big-screen epic "300" will be shown in tandem with a weeklong exhibition devoted to Frank Miller's comics, whose graphic novel is the basis for "300". "The film '300' isn't a historical movie but an artistic one, the visualisation of a comics novel. If you distinguish this crucial point, then you'll be liberated; if you see it (the film) differently, then you'll have several objections," exhibition director Panos Papadolias, himself a native of modern-day Sparta, said. Anticipation for the Warner Bros. production has been brewing in the east Mediterranean country for months, with an "avant premiere" Tuesday evening of the film shown on all 15 screens of an upscale Athenian mall's cineplex. Press reports on Wednesday cited figures of up to 15,000 tickets sold for Thursday's nationwide debut of the unabashedly gory and at times surrealistic account of Leonidas' last stand before the immense army led by Persian emperor Xerxes at Thermopylae, central Greece, in 480 BC. Meanwhile in Sparta, the distinctly laidback seat of Laconia prefecture in the extreme southeast of the Peloponnese, local officials hope the film will spark increased interest and more tourist arrivals through their inland town. "It's an opportunity to promote Laconia and Sparta and to show that ancient Sparta was not just a war machine, as depicted in the film, but that it also had its own civilisation, poetry, music and culture," prefect Constantinos Fourlas told an Athens daily on Wednesday. In response to criticism over the movie's colossal doses of violence and certain historical inaccuracies, Sparta Mayor Sarantos Antonakos said the movie still qualifies as a distinct honor for the area, despite occasional divergences from the actual battle, "which is sacred for us and for all humanity." The exhibition on Frank Miller features large stills of his works displayed along a pedestrian way adjacent to Sparta's archeological museum. Caption: Film-goers at a northern Athens mall wait in line on Wednesday, March 7, 2007, for tickets to see Zack Snyder's "300", which debuts around the east Mediterranean country on Thursday. ANA-MPA / S. Pantzartzi.
http://www.ana.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=5131825&maindocimg=5130862&service=102