Ancient Olympics: Let the Games Begin (2004)
• January 1st, 2004 • 0h 52min
Documentary, History
Overview
Come back with us to Ancient Greece, 2,500 Years ago to the original Olympic Games. The ancient Games, like our modern Olympics, included champions and cheaters, glory and scandals, bitter rivalries and contests of strength, speed and savage combat. Set in 448 BC when the pounding of horse's hooves and the brutal hand-to-hand combat could be heard and seen by the crowds that filled the Olympic stadium. This one-hour special event follows the glory and corruption of the arc of a single, five-day Olympiad. The competitions include chariot racing, running, jumping, discus, javelin and two man-to-man combat finals-boxing and pankration, a form of extreme fighting in which death was not uncommon. With the help of sports historians and great athletes such as George Chuvalo and Olympic medallists Donovan Bailey and Angela Schneider, viewers travel back to a very different life-in a very different world.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
Master and Man
Released on:
Drama, History
In the 1920s, two names dominated the world's long-distance running rankings. Paavo Nurmi was a lege...
REBIRTH
Released on: 2024-08-01
Action, War, Fantasy, History, Music
After tragedy strikes a bustling London neighbourhood, disarray ensues, and our hero becomes lost to...
Ben-Hur
Released on: 1959-11-18
History, Drama, Adventure, Action
In 25 AD, Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accuse...
Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations
Released on: 1938-04-21
Documentary
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefen...
Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty
Released on: 1938-06-02
Documentary
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefen...
Icarus
Released on: 2017-06-03
Documentary
While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects wit...
Miracle
Released on: 2004-02-06
Drama, History
When college coach Herb Brooks is hired to helm the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, he brings a...
Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics
Released on: 2024-06-19
Documentary, History
Follows the 1936 Berlin Olympics when Black athlete Jesse Owens won 4 golds against the backdrop of ...
Munich
Released on: 2005-12-23
Drama, Action, History, Thriller
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a...
Spartacus
Released on: 1960-10-13
History, War, Drama, Adventure
The rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus. A...
Chariots of Fire
Released on: 1981-05-15
Drama, History
In the class-obsessed and religiously divided UK of the early 1920s, two determined young runners tr...
Caligula
Released on: 1979-08-14
Drama, History
After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the e...
The Man vs. The Machine
Released on: 2014-10-22
Documentary
On May 2,1997, Garry Kasparov, arguably the greatest human chess player ever, sat down in New York C...
Oski
Released on: 2022-04-19
Documentary
'Oski' is an intimate portrait of a young prodigy and the culture that surrounds him. A film docum...
Julio César
Released on: 1965-11-24
Drama, History, TV Movie
After Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Farsalia, Julius Caesar becomes the beacon of the Roman Repub...
Tilt: The Battle to Save Pinball
Released on: 2006-05-14
Documentary
THE SITUATION facing the pinball designers at Williams Electronic Games in 1998: come up with someth...
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Released on: 1964-03-24
Drama, History, War
In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. In the mid...
Tom Daley: The Diver and His Dad
Released on: 2010-10-12
Documentary
Tom Daley came to national and international prominence when he won the Men's 10 metre platform divi...
Julius Caesar
Released on: 1953-06-04
Drama, History
The assassination of the would-be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic conseq...