300 Spartans: The Real Story

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.

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.

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!

Though the content is extremely interesting and seems detailed and accurate, there is no professional editing or story telling. There are repeated repeated statements and facts, the various "experts" repeat information that they've each said independently, and the backdrops behind these story tellers are annoying and distracting. One can almost forgive the horrible acting and the re-enactments can't have been directed by even stuntmen, however what's most distracting is the cutaways and editing flourishes that are so random and varied that it reminds one of a first timers attempt at Power Point. I learned a lot of information from this but I wouldn't use it in a middle school class.

The history in this documentary is sound but the way they tell the story makes it nearly impossible to follow. I generally like the documentary/reenactment method of historical storytelling but have never seen it pulled off in such a bad way.

Michael Scott is a very good history presenter, which makes it all the more strange that the makers of this film used him so sparingly.

The less said about the green screens the better.