300 Spartans: The Real Story

We decided to view it as "Jim Gaffigan's Australian Historical Reenactor's 300" and laughed like crazy. It's campily cheesy but does debunk a lot of the myths in favor of more considered and layered knowledge.

People have unrealistically high expectations these days-don't let the fake leopard, tiger, snake, zebra prints put you off. Listen to the information, consider it and have a little fun while doing it.

Finally a complete story on a single topic, so long since I saw a documentary that was not a collection of trivia and a covert invitation to visit somewhere and spend money.

Nearly 400 volunteer extras, that must have taken some organizing.

And something new on the last stand of the 300 (+1400 others). At long last, not the usual rehashed glorified stuff. Lots of details, maps, explanation and some discussion. Have to be careful not to give away any spoilers.

Pretty good action as well, worth a watch. The Greeks even hold their spears correctly and fight in a proper phalanx.

I tried and tried to ignore the heavy Australian accents, which made it hard to take this documentary hard to take seriously. The portrayal of the historical figures by the Australian actors was bad. And the dialogue by the historical experts seemed very clunky.

I appreciate that the budget for this documentary might have been on the lower end, but what has been produced here is an absolutely fascinating retelling of a moment in history that we all know and love.

This re telling really had me on the edge of my seat at times, and it felt like I was really there!!

I loved the attention to detail with the accuracy of the armour and weapons of the time, which you find Hollywood budgets sometimes get completely wrong, but this was so immersive.

The historians and professors bring so much knowledge and historical nuance, and open up avenues of thought on this battle that I had never even considered.

It's also great to see actors with real haircuts and beards, it's so immersion breaking in documentaries when obviously false beards and wigs are used.

Despite the "actors" best attempts to ruin this documentary, it is quite interesting and accurate. It could have done without the embarrassing reconstructions, the acting would have to improve 100% to even be described as wooden!