Mysteries of the Terracotta Warriors

Alright, being the first commenter without any archeological knowledge besides the odd documentaries I watched through the years, my opinion is rooted in ignorance yet awe for the people who attempted and are still working on this gargantuan project to search for the facts behind this massive find. It started out with archeologists unearthing the first find which they show as a clay face poking through the soil. I was hooked. The commencing footage gave me goose bumps. I was in my 20s when this site was discovered and of course I was amazed to see those individual restored soldiers standing in rows. Totally forgot about it until this documentary with life action appeared here at Netflix. With all the low quality productions emerging lately on Netflix this is standing out. I'm thrilled to learn about a part of Chinese history from over 2000 years ago. The conspiracies and brutalities used in politics to annihilate your opponents used in other civilizations were also applied here therefore it's not an easy watch. The discovery of yet many other tombs and the methods to determine whose they were kept me glued to the screen. A must watch for anyone interested in history!

This one is better if only compared to the many poorly done Netflix 'documentaries'.

As usual, what mars all these so-called "documentaries" are the inclusions of totally unnecessary and distracting theatrics which add nothing except to eat up time so as to cover up for the lack of more interesting factual information.

The chunks of time taken up by cringy re-enactments (of which there are already plentiful Chinese movie saga that do much better) could have been much better spent to provide graphical clarity on the inter-relationships of the historical characters involved and their placement in China's history in that period, as well as provide better visual understanding of the layout of the sprawling burial complex.

This one does provide more focussed interviews on the subject at hand compared to the meandering pointless interviews of the Saqarra Tombs that doesn't relate directly with the content at hand.

Both could have done with more properly written and professionally narrated content that link up the things talked about in the various interviews - as it is, much of the content seem rather incidental hotch-potch rather than following a clear focussed narrative thread that a good documentary should have.

Still hoping Netflix will one day come up with actual real professional documentaries without the glob of cheap theatre plonked in.

I have been aware of and fascinated by the terracotta army before, but this beautiful documentary gave me so much more context as to why and how this mazing archeological site originally manifested.

There are written records of related events, that are compared to the physical findings of the site. These dramatic events are depicted with wonderful acted scenes throughout the documentary. This style rarely works, but here I think they succeeded. It's visually of great quality and brings the story to life. It showcases unique cultural customs of the time and of that social status.

I'm looking forward to seeing more findings as the work on this huge site continues on. Only a small portion has been excavated! Very exciting.

This documentary is also a tribute to archeologists and many other people working on these sites for decades and bringing their findings to the public knowledge for joint understanding of our human history.

50 years ago National Geographic did an article about the terracotta warriors. I was a teenager and swore some day I'd go there. I did, in 2015. This documentary brought back all the excitement and wonder of actually standing and looking down on those thousands of warriors. The place is truly magical and this documentary does an excellent job of illustrating that.

I cannot imagine the dedication it must take to spend most of your archeological career painstakingly reassembling these statues. The fact that they survived at all is astonishing, considering how delicate terracotta ultimately is.

Seeing pictures, and even this video, is just a tiny example of how incredible the place really is.

Giant infomercial for China, how great they are, how great the archiaological dig is, the big building, etc. Lots of hyperbole. It's a little insufferable.

The main narrator/ researcher resembles and speaks like an animatronic character at Chuck E. Cheese. He sounds like a voiceover, but it looks like he speaks English, so it wouldn't have been necessary to translate the speech. It's very disturbing. Several methods are used to translate Chinese into English but it's inconsistent doesn't make sense. Some Chinese doesn't get translated at all.

I'm sure that China is very proud of the terracotta warriors, and rightfully so, but this whole production should have been a documentary instead of this ham-handed drama.

The bottom line for me is that this site was discovered during the cultural revolution when people lost their heads for talking about or paying homage to old things or old people. Who know how many of artifacts just disappeared because they showed China in some unfavorable light?

Hard pass.