Product Details

• Writers: Gavin Hood, Jacob Aaron Estes, Robert Rodat
• Producers: Doug Belgrad, Lawrence Inglee, Mark Gordon, Matthew Tolmach
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• DVD Release Date: June 29, 2004
• Run Time: 137 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00022FW6S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,050 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The First Olympics - Blood, Honor, and Glory (History Channel)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

FIRST OLYMPICS:BLOOD HONOR AND GLORY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Run, repeat, run, repeat, March 3, 2009

By 

roika (Southern United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Olympics - Blood, Honor, and Glory (History Channel) (DVD)

This trio of films from the History Channel is impressive in scope, but disappointing in that much repetition of both narration and video footage can be found among the presentations. In fact, the second program completely repeats the first program in the last part, with the exact same visuals and narration, with the only difference being that the same narration was re-recorded by Leonard Nimoy.

I was impressed that the nudity of the Olympics was discussed, and that art depicting such nudity was not censored. However, in live footage depicting silhouetted actors, it's still evident that they are not nude, but still wearing some sort of clothing. Did I expect full frontal nudity? No. But I did expect a better depiction to suggest that the characters being portrayed were nude at least to the camera's eye, just as in regular movies an actor might wear a nylon body suit that makes him/her to at least appear nude. This would have added to the authenticity.

I appreciated it being discussed that homosexuality was no big deal in Ancient Greece. In fact (Pauline Christians take note), the Greeks didn't even have words for homosexuality or heterosexuality, as such polarized concepts of sexuality would not exist for several more hundred years -- folks in those days were just considered sexual, period.

The best installment of this trio is the final program concerning the gods and goddesses of Mt. Olympus. Here, the soap opera of the gods is revealed for what it was; such treatment is common to the myths of any religion, but it's also noted that ancient Greeks took their gods very seriously, as any religionist might today.

All in all, this is a good representation, but could have been improved by having unique content (instead of much repetition), and (when used) better live action sequences.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Olympiad, April 3, 2011

By 

James McDonald (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The First Olympics - Blood, Honor, and Glory (History Channel) (DVD)

The First Olympics were held in Greece, Athens in August 776 B.C. during a full moon. They were held in honor of Zeus. Very brutal and to the loser may have been death. Leather strips the men wore around their fists deeply cut them. Wrestling could mean broken fingers and, although against the rules, going for the genitals was sometimes done.
In 720 AD, Aosipus was a track runner who lost his loin-cloth in mid-race. So in honor of Aosipus, the other runners also took off their loin-cloths. From then on, in 776 AD, all runners competed in the nude.
Homosexuality and nudity were not shameful nor uncommon in greek society. It would guarantee female virgins. They only way to keep females a virgin was to have homosexuality. Only female virgins were allowed to watch the Olympics. Married women were "forbidden".
The word "gymnasium" meant "in the nude".
The main site of the original Olympics exists in ruins and was somewhat restored and used for an Olympic event in 2004 during the XXVIII Summer Olympiad in Athens, Greece.
At Olympia, where charoit races were held is completly under a river that changed course in 600 AD. It would be too expensive a project to recover.
The modern Summer Olympics, as we know them now, began again in Athens, Greece in 1896. The Summer Olympic Games have since been held every 4 years except during wartime. The Games of 1916, 1940 and 1944 were not held. In 2004, the Olympiad returned one more time to Athens, Greece.
The Winter Olympic Games began in Chamonix, France in 1924 and was held every 4 years thereafter, except in 1940 and 1944. In 1992, it was decided that having the Winter Olympics and the Summer Olympics on the same year was too much for the officials to deal with and for the athletes that completed in both Olympiads. So they decided the next Winter Olympic Games (XX) would be held in Turin, Italy in 2006. Now they are held once again every four years.

This DVD includes 3 documentaries: The First Olympics, narrated by David Aykroyd, Blood and Honor at The First Olympics, narrated by Leonard Nimoy, The Greek Gods, narrated by David Aykroyd.
Also includes a list of the medal count for the top 10 countries and leading medal winners as an extra for the 1896 Olympics.

I Winter Youth Olympics, Innbruck, Russia January 13-22, 2012
XXIX Summer Olympics, London, England July 27-August 12, 2012.
XXII Winter Olympics, Sochi, Russia February 7-23, 2014.
II Summer Youth Olympics, Nanjing, China August 16-28, 2014.
II Winter Youth Olympics, Lillehammer, Norway. 2016.
XXX Summer Olympics, Rio de Janiero, Brazil August 5-21, 2016.
XXIII Winter Olympics (to be announced July 6, 2011).

20 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Review from Oz, August 21, 2004

By 

M. Corbould (Ilford via Sofala, N.S.W Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The First Olympics - Blood, Honor, and Glory (History Channel) (DVD)

A compilation of three documentaries "The First Olympics", "Blood and Honour at The First Olympics" and "The Greek Gods". It consists mainly of the same archival film footage used over and over again in "The Real Olympics", "The Games for The Gods" and "The Ancient Greek Olympics" with different narration and contradictory "facts" gleaned from a few historical writings and some Greek Pottery and then integrated with an enormous amount of hypothetical supposition and personal opinions from so-called "experts".
I quote "expert" Ann Stewart (Professor College Year in Athens) "The important thing for a man to do was marry a virgin and produce children. The only way to keep virgins was the practise of homosexuality, and so it was encouraged." That's great. It leaves us with a mental picture of young Adonis screwing his friend so that he can keep little Aphrodite for a rainy day. And of course his friend obligingly "rolls over" and lets him because "Well that's what friends do for each other. Don't they?".
I thought I must have reached the bottom of the bucket with this little spark of absurdity, however from there on in it's downhill all the way with such little gems as " Women had to be "tamed" for marriage, and the best way women could be "tamed" was to show them naked athletes". And it just goes on and on.
The actual film footage is quite good but this is not a disk to buy.