Good ancient war docomentaries recommendation?

[RobertoCarlos]

Anyone have any top shelf documentaries they can recommend that are maybe on youtube or popular enough they are easy to find?

Dont mind what topic really as long as its interesting/well told but I love anything Cesar and Rome related, Greek, Genghis Khan. Ivan the impaler. Basically bad ass war lords.

Discussing weapons/tactics would be ideal.

[mvaliz]

While it is not a Documentary in any way/shape/form - the Chinese War Movie "Red Cliff" is a fantastic watch, especially if you've ever read Tsun Tsu's The Art of War. It's basically a cinematic presentation of many of the poignant stratagems and tactics outlined there.

[hellhamster]

There are no proper historical documentaries if you want in-depth knowledge, you will only get the general and often inaccurate gist of the matter. Omission of key events and characters, favoritism and inaccurate overdramatization all run rampant to the point I wouldn't recommend any if you want a proper representation of what happened.

However, if you don't care, I could recommend this one for Athens and the golden age (after the settlement of Dorics and Ionians and before the Peloponnesian War), it concentrates on Pericles, Cleisthenes (dude who invented democracy) and Themistocles. I may remind you that it is grossly incompetent as far as covering the topics in a balanced manner goes, but it's decent enough if you want the general cliff notes. The production values are pretty good though and it is narrated by Liam Neeson.



I know it says Greeks, but it's basically just Athens.

I could also recommend reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, they are legitimately the greatest (war) epics ever told.