This is an excellent documentry - escpecially for £4! You need to watch the movie but you need to watch this to know the back round as there is a lot more detail and more stories that aren't in the movie. Defintalely recommend it.

I watched this on tv before the film "300" and was amazed at what the spartan warriors had to go through to become the elite they were of their time. The documentary also explains about the battle in more detail making it easier to appreciate the film. I really enjoyed learning about the weapons, etc that they used at the time too.

What a frustrating watch! Typical History Channel, good graphics and reasonable potted info. But... about 30 to 40 minutes of material stretched to 1.5 hours by constant repitition. Why do they pad out like this ? It makes it virtually unwatchable.

I have seen 3 documentarys on this particular part of history. i wouldnt class the best narrated or viewer friendly. but if you want to know what really happened i would advise you consider this very factual and easy to understand. if you want to or you have seen the film 300 i would suggest you watch this.

in a hole i enjoyed it but the people i watched it with wasn't to keen but i am a massive fan of 300 and the hole spartan thing i learned more things about the battle of Thermopally than i would in a history there is one glitch on the packaging it says its 2 hours but it is only 1 hour and a half. the numbers may not be perfect but no one really knows it had good detail on the weapons and Armour but it could tell u more about how they used them and the tactics at see because that is incredible important
but over all
BRILLIANT AND WELL DETAILED BUY IT! =)

well...well...well if you have saw 300 and you wanna inside scoop this dvd is exactly what you need, I went to see 300 (great movie) i thought it was great apart from the persian leader he is to cocky but it didnt spoil it anway. the last stand looks like theres more than 300 and less the one million and flim shots are rubish but I still reccomend seeing it if you like history and 300.

unforunately ..neither the film nor the documentary have much of historical value to them ..although at least you might hope to get some thrills from the film. It was certainly not seven days that the persians were held. It was certainly not 1 million...perhaps nearer 80,000 to 200,000 and it was more than 300 saprtans ..the documentary is well filmed but really of little truth

If you've seen 300 and what to know what really happened this will tell you all you need to know and a whole load more. The only problem i had with it when I watched it on the history channel was that it seemed to go over the same stuff again and again and again, could have almost fitted the whole thing into 1 hour not 2. But then if you get the dvd you could always fast forward those bits. =)

Firstly, this is not the 300 movie, it is a documentry about what really happened all those years ago in Thermopalye. I haven't seen 300 the movie yet. However, this good documentry was on this History channel HD last night.

As with all recent Documentries, they use actors to play the likes of Leonidis and the persisans, use CGI to re-create the battle scene and go deep into the Sparta Military Training, it follows how life would of been for the young Leonidis growing up.

It shows why the persian's wanted to and how they succesfully sacked Athens (Burnt it to the ground) and that the stand to save Athen's was made at Thermopalye.

Thermopalye was chosen for the defense of Greece as it is so narrow. that an army of a few Thousand could hold up the army of the documentries estimates of 300,000 Persians, although they did say it could of been as many as 2 million.

It reveals that not only the 300 Spartans held the line, but also 7000 or so Greek Warriors. Although the Spartan's were the front line. After the Spartan's knew they had been flanked after the 2000 Greeks holding the other side of the pass left. They sent all the other soilders away, and the remaining 300 Spartans and Greek warriors who wouldn't leave made there last stand.

The documentry reveals how the Spartan's were trained from 7 years old to fight and kill, and that they were real the Delta force of there day, the first proffesional killers.

That they real did kill 10's of thousands of persian's in there 3 day defense of the pass, and sunk thousands of persian war ships.

It reveals there weapons and tactics and has expert opinion on how, if it wasn't for the 300 Spartan's last stand. That nation hood and democracy may never of risen.

Overall, if your intrested in History then this is for you. I've heard the 300 movie is great, and I suppose if you like it then this is worth a look, but I can guarentee the recreation of the fight scenes will not be as glorious or well shot as the movie.

A very good documentry about the truth of what happened at the battle of thompylae, not a hollywood hype even tho that is excellent as well!