Great Graphic Novel Adaptation, But the Director Did NOT Really Hang the Moon

Rating: 8/10 (3 November 2007)

I thoroughly enjoyed watching "300," acknowledging all the while that it is a graphic novel (a.k.a. Comic Book) by Frank Miller, brought to the silver screen, albeit, apparently, fairly faithfully.
Even though the film "300" contains little that is truly historical fact, and much that is completely outrageous fiction arising directly from insanely fevered "graphical imaginations," it is, nonetheless, quite inspiring. One fine example of a fevered vision in the film: The Uber-Immortal! Watch for him!
And yet, despite all that, this film made my heart fill with real admiration for those 300 Spartans who defied Xerxes at Thermopylae (480 BC), only to die in glory there. If your heart does not react in this way, then you are letting your preconceptions get in the way of enjoying life.
Did you know that, when the body of the Spartan King Leonidas was recovered by the Persians, their King Xerxes, in an uncontrollable rage, ordered the head cut off and the body crucified...? Xerxes the Great reigned for 15 years more. It was not until 40 years after the battle that Leonidas' bones were exhumed and returned to Sparta, where he was buried again with full honors. Afterward, funeral games were held every year in his memory. None of this appears in the film...
The acting is Over-The-Top Fine (because it deserves to be over the top). But this film is completely unlike, and so much better than, the laughably despicable 1962 flick "The 300 Spartans" (see my review, or rather total pan, elsewhere)...
Now let us discuss the sickening display of self-aggrandizing hubris (a good ancient Greek word, so useful here) brought forth by the Director. I am quite sorry I listened to that special audio track; it has caused me to seriously lower my rating of the film, and has reduced my enjoyment and admiration of it, even though the final result would have been close to tops without hearing it.
Yet there it is, a Director's track, like so many disgusting Director's tracks on DVD, arrogantly ignoring the real need of the audience to learn how such a film is made. He describes each scene in gratuitous, needless detail, using insider-terms and unfathomable acronyms which few outside Hollywood can understand. Nor need they understand them! He could have said one line: "Most of the stuff you see in this film, as is only to be expected for a film made from a comic book, was painted in using computer graphics." And then he could have given praise-worthy details about the actual actors and real people who helped him make the film we see. But, for the most part, he doesn't. One acceptable detail: the "Crazy-Horse" three-camera method of slow-and-fast-motion zooms; this was cool. But honor here should go to the Director of Photography, I'm sure. So, in my opinion (the only one that really matters in this case), this Director's track stinks to high heaven. He is definitely NOT the guiding genius he would have us believe... That title belongs only to the creator of the graphic novel, Frank Miller.
My heartfelt advice: See "300," you should enjoy it... And skip almost everything the Director has to say.