The Last Stand Of The 300 - The Real Story (DVD)

Disappointed The synopsis for this DVD is very misleading. I found it far from "spectacular" and the narration was, in my opinion, absolutely appalling with that terrible, film trailer voice and accent. Where did they drag up those "experts" from who couldn't even pronounce the place names and characters properly. Sorry this should have stayed on US television! Very informative though which is about it's only saving grace.

A documentary that lets itself down An ultra-low budget production that gives (as far as I can tell) a reasonably comprehensive picture of the battle of Thermopylae including a historical context, a brief but painfully clear picture of the upbringing of Spartan children and a little of adult life, the geography and technology of the battle including the marine aspect, the politics that shaped it on the day, and arguably its effect on the modern world's culture (based on the rather dubious claim that democracy could not have arisen elsewhere had Greece fallen). The almost completely pointless scenery of soldiers standing around and gashing each other is intercut with head shots of academics giving their considered and fascinating point of view on what and how and why. It's not actually too bad but the main narrator's running commentary was unnecessary repetitious and often simplified, doing a disservice to the professional historians employed (and was delivered in that deep, gravelly, oh-so-sincere accent loved by American documentary makers -- do they genetically engineer these people to sound this way or what?).

Don't confuse this for the film Sat down thinking I was going to enjoy the film but mistakenly got the documentary instead

Very informative. An interesting DVD from the History Channel with a very comprehensive account of the famous battle, with reasonable background info regarding the history leading up to the Persian invasion. Production values are as expected from a television show, with none of the high budget CGI seen in films. It is all passable though and depicts the chain of events well, especially the all important marine offensive in the straits to ward off the Persian pincer movement against the army led by the Spartans. The explanations of the battles by the various academics and authors (including Steven Pressfield of 'Gates of Fire' fame) are absorbing and one is left in no doubt about the amazing sacrifice made by so few... but not as few as one is led to believe by certain Hollywood films. One small niggle with the DVD is that there are obvious pauses and fades to black, which are annoyingly dead give-aways for TV commercials when the programme was aired. All in all an excellent addition to the truly stunning 300 Hollywood movie.