The Spartans (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)The ancient Spartans were perhaps the most intense people to ever walk the face of the earth! I thought I knew all about them - I was wrong. I barely knew half the story.
This is a lengthy documentary: running over three hours. It's also surprisingly formatted in 16x9 widescreen, which was a joy. The picture is clean, bright, and mastered well. There's some re-enactments herein, a nice use of re-created "Spartan" music for the background score, and plenty and plenty of info, facts, trivia, ancient and modern quotations, and tidbits.
You'll get the whole story here: they leave little out - from Sparta's early beginnings, to it's strict social code, to it's intense training, it's subjectism of the neighboring Messenians, and the city-state's eventual decline. The only thing the documentary failed to capitalize on is the rise of the Macedonian powers and the fall of the various Greek city-leagues to Phillip II and his son Alexander the Great.
This documentary is excellent! It certainly helps that your host throughout the tour is a gorgeous British brunette with a sexy voice who walks around the various parts of Greece in tight bluejeans and sexy red tank tops. Aristophenes would have agreed no doubt. It's certainly a whole lot more interesting watching this intellectual beauty story-tell her way around the Greek islands than it would be to have a dull, monotone, male narrator VOG. She's alot easier on the eyes and her voice would launch a thousand ships to make Hellen of Troy seem pitiful. (I think I'm in love).
I've since watched this DVD from beginning to end several times now and it does not get redundant in the least! Indeed, I would recommend several viewings to absorb all the details it's so rich in research and information about ancient Sparta. Both the novice and casual observer will be highly entertained by this DVD, but hardcore scholars and history students will find a well-researched documentary that will add to their expertise as well.
Well worth every penny. I am proud to have it as part of my DVD collection for years to come.

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Last Stand of the 300: The Legendary Battle at Thermopylae (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)They showed this documentary on the History channel to accompany the release of the movie 300.
In contrast to the movie 300 (which was ok -see my review) this documentary is excellent. It is really a movie-like documentary with a lot of action.
Graphically it resembles a little the movie 300 since it uses a lot of computer graphics and non-realistic red looking skies. However, here Persians really look like Persians.
The content is excellent. Although I have read about the battle of Thermopylae from many different sources, I learned about things I did not know before and gained a more detail knowledge. However, like in the movie 300 here again Leonidas seems to be much younger than he really was by 480BC.
What I particularly liked was that the documentary focused both on the land battle of the Spartans and sea battle of the Athenian fleet. This really showed how brilliant and well coordinated the Allied Greek strategy was. Most other sources just focus on the land battle and pay minor attention to what happened in the flanking sea. The mastermind Themistocles is well represented and a decent length of the documentary is dedicated to him.
The Spartans and their society are accurately represented. They were not fighting for a new era of freedom which was at the time being brought forward by Athenian democracy. They were fighting to preserve their own, non-free un-democratic system and were hostile to the spread of democracy to other Greek city states. However, their last stand was not solely to seek "a beautiful death" but instead to cover the retreat of their fellow allied soldiers. Maybe, also to give an example from which the allied Greeks would stay united against the Persians for the sake of their sacrifice.
The sound tracks that accompany the scenes are excellent. However, they could have used them more often and they could have raised the volume a little too.
I enjoyed watching this documentary even more than the other two excellent documentaries on the Spartans (one from the History channel and the other by PBS).
Highly - I repeat highly recommended - to people interested in ancient history and battle strategies and warfare.


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The legendary battle of Thermopylae is still acknowledged today for its brilliant military maneuvers and the well-trained and fearless soldiers who fought to the death. The History Channel® presents a detailed account of this legendary battle, examining the events leading up to the conflict, the tactical expertise that allowed the outnumbered Greeks to stall their mighty foes, and the bloody encounter itself. Find out how an army of a few hundred men overcame impossible odds and witness the conflict that altered the course of Western civilization.

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