I once pointed out a major flaw in a TV character to my mother, assuming my clever insights would impress her.  Instead she’s just annoyed with me for ruining the show for her.  I mention this seemingly random tidbit from my life because PBS’ “The Real Olympics” is a fascinating and insightful special that will excite history buffs but threatens to ruin things for the more idealistic fans of the Olympic Games.

Written and directed by Antony Thomas, “The Real Olympics” explores the many differences and occasional similarities between the Olympics of Ancient Greece and the modern Olympic Games.  The program also traces how we got from there to here, including how we invented a number of the “traditional” symbols and ceremonies along the way.   Revelations about the torch run, the Olympic rings, and the reasoning behind the push for amateurism are in turn startling, disappointing and strangely entertaining.

There was obviously great effort put into staging recreations of the ancient competitions and it pays off in a big way.  Of course there are interviews with professors and specialists plus footage from the modern Olympics, but it’s the recreations that bring everything together.  If you’re wondering – no, the actors playing the ancient athletes aren’t completely nude.  Narrator Brian Greene even comments on that, pointing out that the filmmakers aren’t even allowed to fully show the form the people of Ancient Greece worshipped so openly. 

Like so many other documentaries, “The Real Olympics” does fall into the repetition trap.  At over 100 minutes, one had to expect they’d use some of the recreated scenes more than once.  What is a shame is that actual information is repeated since there were also topics brought up but not explored.  I would have been interested in a more detailed comparison of the spectators then and now, which is touched on but quickly dropped.  Also there’s an intriguing mention of the ancient Olympics being a release mechanism for a society that otherwise abhorred violence, but nothing further comes of it.

There are no features on the disc save the text menu of scene selections and a plug for the PBS website.  It’s presented in widescreen format, which adds a nice epic feel to the recreation footage (as if a chariot race could ever look cool in standard format).  Unrated in the US, “The Real Olympics” got a PG here in Canada.  It seems to be targeted at the adult history hobbyist more than for use as an educational tool for the younger set.