Greek Filmgoers Ignore Critics of `300'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) March 27, 2007 -- Greece's critics hated "300," but moviegoers here are lining up to watch the gory recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae in record numbers happy to lap up the Hollywood thrills and take an indulgent view of what detractors call a butchery of their ancient history.

Inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel, the movie directed by Zach Snyder is about 300 Spartans led by King Leonidas holding off hundreds of thousands of invading Persians and the odd imaginary monster at a mountain pass in Greece.

Critics dismissed the movie as gratuitously violent and historically inaccurate, one magazine describing it as a "bloodlust videogame."
They were soon drowned out by moviegoers.

"The film was incredible on all counts. It's the first time I've heard a cinema audience clap at the end of a movie" said Nikos Mastoris, who owns a comic bookstore in Athens. "The photography, the music, and all the scenes are really brilliant. The movie is very faithful to the comic book."

Haris Antonopoulos of distributors Village Roadshow said ticket sales of "300" in Greece have topped the 1 million mark out of a population of 11 million and is on course to beat the record-setting "Loufa kai parallagi: Sirines sto Egeo," a movie about life as a Greek army conscript which sold 1.4 million tickets in 2005.

The movie is showing at some 70 screens in the Athens area alone and double that nationwide. Cinemas in rural towns have added special midnight screenings to cope with demand.

The village of Thermopylae, population 250, lies about 125 miles north of Athens, and is marked by a modern monument near the country's main highway to the battle fought in 480 B.C.

Most villagers still haven't seen the movie because the nearest cinema is in the city of Lamia, an hour's drive to the north, but are still proud of its success. (The film has grossed more than $162 million in the United States alone so far, had a two-week run at No. 1 and after its third weekend still was No. 2, according to box office tracker Media by Numbers LLC.)

Source: http://movies.yahoo.com

athens     greek     hollywood     movie     music     Pirates of the Caribbean