The Last Stand of the 300 Spartans
It is almost impossible to understand how 300 Spartans managed to hold off the million-man Persian army for even a moment, much less seven days. To a man they paid with their lives but their stunning Last Stand assured that their sacrifice would resonate throughout history. Relying on brilliant tactics, lifelong training, and unshakable allegiance, the doomed Spartans achieved the impossible.
The Battle of Thermopylae is literally a textbook case, required reading even to this day at military colleges and officer training around the world. Now, The History Channel offers a definitive perspective on the epic conflict with this instructive and thrilling feature-length presentation.
Transporting dramatizations and incisive graphics put you in the heat of the battle and show the lay of the land. The complications and strategies of the conflict are revealed through careful analysis, and critical moments are reconstructed to show exactly what happened. Discover what the Spartans were fighting for, what made them capable of such heroics acts. (Barnes & Noble)
Watch the full documentary now (playlist)
American talking heads comparing the stature of the Spartans to chuck norris’s delta force..give us a break!! Intro ruined it for me.
agree
haha.!
its funny how with the actors they recreate the effects of years of the most intense physical training ever known in the history of the man by getting the guys to grow a bit of stubble. could’ve got bodybuilder-type guys or something but no, just a light beard will do
prety interesting though, much better than that ****** movie
Untrustworthy documentary.. The quote “we will fight in the shade” is incorrect at the specific time-line. Xerxes wanted the Spartans to hand over their weapons, and they answered “Molon Lave” which means come and get em, not we will fight in the shade ! Anyway many things are lost in translation, so who am I to judge..
hmmm…As this is a History Channel documentary I would not place to much trust in the historical accuracy of this film. It is entertaining although a huge rip off from the movie.
Interesting but probably inaccurate. This and the APPALLING ’300′ film are both wasted opportunities to tell the story properly. For some reason everyone forgets the role of the other Greek armies in taking their turn – and dying – on the front line. Nice to hear comments including Thesbians in the last stand, though. Killing the wounded off would be a tactical error – better to leave the wounded to be fed and treated, thereby tying up the enemy resources.
The ‘we will fight in the shade’ refers to the number of arrows being used against them, as in…’their numbers will blot out the sun’.
I’d like to see a really good film about Thermopylae, Salamis and Platea, but don’t suppose I ever will. Hollywood’s version of historical facts will rule it out, as with every other US film based on history.
Is this accurate?
Most serious historians estimate that the 300 Spartans plus their allies held off an army of no more than 200 000 Persians, which is still an amazing feat. The film and the graphic novel it was based on are full of cr^p.
to which book are you referring? I loved ‘Tell them in Sparta’
300 men against MILLION??? REALLY? 300 well armed man cannot survive a herd of million sheep charging at them, let alone an army. No matter what tactics.
The people who believe these crab are the same ones who profess that “Delta force” movies by Chuck Norris were based on true encounters.
At a time of great friction between Iran and the West, some hollywood hot head digs up history and by extension of the words “HELD UP”…decides to paint a Jessica Lynch style of BS.
America is doing one thing successfully; each generation more and more of the world population is starting to see for what it is…..MORALLY FRAUD!
The movie and this documentary did a good job of making many question content of official history books, and show how it can be a victim of human bias and pride. Some historian probably stretched the words “Hold off” to give a parting historical tribute to these “White warriors”.
How long does it take for a million army to settle down for a battle? What records exist as to the actualy happened day to day at the battle?
Which one is plausible? 1) That the Spartans were just fighting a small contingent of the million men army then as they become a nuisance, the Persian king sent a good force to crash them, just look at the timeline of the Iraq war, where armies are moving much faster than in the past with mechanized equipment, and see how many days it takes for U.S troops just to take out Fellujah? ooooh, I see a future Iraqi movie, “200″ or “2000″ The story of tough Iraqi insurgents who hold of U.S army for months!!!!” Starring Juba, the legendary sniper.
or 2) Or they directly engaged a million men, and fought them 7 days!!! Until they lost. This documentary, the spiced version of western history books as to what happened and the movie 300 are all full of ****!
Funny that hollywood glorifies Spartans, they were a society that kept White slaves, and you are as much a descendant of those slaves than of Spartans.
Congrats to the Hollywood director who digged up this non-sense at a time of great tension between modern Persia (Iran) and those who claim racial lineage to Spartans (the West). Great job, we need cowards like you to beat the drums of negative sentiments, but will piss at their pant at the first sound of bullets.
umm watched this one when it came out on history channel, should have been called 5000 greeks with 300 of them being spartans… doesn’t sound as tough though does it?
I too would like to know about the authencity of this film, I see and hear people talking that would seem to give much credence to the events. However, the costumes and gear also caught my interest, for example the “helments” what or who decided to adopt that d— helment, just look at one, it is a phallic symbol, more importantly the helment is a “circumsized phallic symbol????? A Hebrew symbol????
Somebody explain, please explain this if you can.
what i dont really understand is that the two front lines took on many many persians, when they were outflanked surely they should have just turned half of the 300 around, then 150(roughly) would be defending from the front, and the 150 defending the back, and thats not including the rest of the troops who chose to stay. obviously it would have been extremely hard for like 1300 troops to defeat 300,000-2,000,000 persians, but just because some not so well trained troops left, it surely shouldnt have effected the spartan position? Another point that really frustrates me is the whole layout, if the spartans sent all the force out and the troops that fled to save their home didnt, i reckon greeks may have won. think, in a phew days 7000 troops took on over 20,000 then surely more would have won.
The single front line ,was not “out flanked” there was no field area. It should be noted that the Spartans were Hebrew (Dan) as was the vizier(Levite) to Xerxes, this was a plan to the profit from war. The Greeks won at Salamis and Xerxes went home never to attack the Greeks again. Alexander (not his real name) would attack 330bce and capture Persia.
The single front line ,was not “out flanked” there was no field area, a few hundred feet. It should be noted that the Spartans were Hebrew (Dan) as was the vizier(Levite) to Xerxes, this was a plan to the profit from war. The Greeks won at Salamis and Xerxes went home never to attack the Greeks again. Alexander (not his real name) would attack and capture Persia in 330 bce.
Who writes history again???
siso – sadly it’s usually American screen writers who re-write history. All we have to do is watch any film about the trecherous American colonists and their working with their old enemies (the French) to gain indpendance from their Mother Country. Without French, Dutch and Spanish involvement the Rebellion would have been very different
@Milton Babb
You talk absolute, unsubstanciated, speculative, by me a dream where the world according to David Icke is real, rubbish. Alexander wasn’t his real name? dont tell me it was Morris and he was a good family man, loved his mother, brother and sisters. It’s just that he liked to masquerade as a Greek in his spare time.
In short. The garbage the spews out of your mouth is without limit and boundaries. Read a book, get a life and stop talking **** about the Jews, or the Greeks for that matter.
@Milton Babb
Epicurean_Logic pretty much said it all, you’re ideas aren’t even speculative, they are just garbage! The Spartans were Hebrews? Your evidence for this is that in this film the symbols seemed like a circumcised *****? Many cultures have phallic imagery, being that (just about) all men have penises, it’s a fairly common symbol. Please provide some evidence that shows the Spartans descended from the tribe of Dan, while you’re at it provide evidence that Xerxes vizier was Hebrew and descended from the Levites, to wrap it all up please enlighten me on how they conspired to profit from the war? I hope you didn’t elude to your answer by talking about Alexander the Great, was he Hebrew also? Whack job’s like yourself only hinder progress, racism is a tool of the *****!
As soon as that twat said delta force I turned it off. It would have been better if he had said ‘POWER RANGERS’.
TROLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
hahaahahaa… GOOOD!
A load of b@##$%&* but what’s was the agenda ?
Unfortunately, it was a JUST HUGE MYTH but aren’t we all gullible. Alice in wonderland also met a rabbit.
In reality, those 300 would be drown in spits.
But one law governs the Chosen people and why are we mere mortals arguing about.
By the same comparison, just a few thousand Spartans could annilihated the world/s armies…
What a Boll_ocks