The Spartans (PBS)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B
In part due to the release of the film Troy, PBS
Home Video and Paramount have issued a fine three-part documentary look at The
Spartans (2003), hosted by the very well spoken historian Bettany
Hughes. On location, riding all over
Greece, miss Hughes tells us the story in chronological order with little
overlap between the three shows.
We learn of how Sparta created innovations in Western
Civilization that were remarkable and too often deadly. Their infanticide inspired Adolf Hitler,
Totalitarianism and introduced a nightmarish militaristic homosexual society
where 14-year-old boys (if they made it though insane military training from
birth; the weakest babies were tossed to their death at birth), took male
lovers. They would keep them until they
were weaned off of them, if and when they got married to women. For a long time, they did create some of the
deadliest fighters the world ever knew, but the series is smart enough to point
out that these boys were on the level of animals far before their pairing with
older male lovers. Everyone else was
relegated to being “put in their place” as it were, though some of the women
were in oddly liberated positions.
This series shows the decades of war with Athens, then the
onslaught of Persian forces. There are
other oddities, art (which inspired later Fascist art) and the remnants of
these ancient civilizations and we are told (to the best of anyone’s knowledge
so far) what happened. Many questions
remain seriously unanswered, but many are and this is the kind of quality TV
that more than keeps PBS’ reputation of quality TV in tact. Good show.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is good, but
seems to lack detail despite being a recent production. If this was shot in a digital High
Definition format, something is not right about the transfer, in lacking some
fine detail. Otherwise, this is a
well-edited piece. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo is supposed to have Pro Logic type surrounds, but they are too rare
and limited to qualify as surrounds.
There are no extras, but the three shows have filled out this single DVD
nicely and The Spartans is recommended.
- Nicholas Sheffo
