Stonehenge: Decoded (2008)

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Personally, I think that it's really quite unbelievable that 3000+ years after Stonehenge was erected its purpose and its means of construction still remains something of a mystery.To be sure - Stonehenge is an ancient monument that stands tall as one of the world's most awesome and curious treasures.Built using precision measuring techniques, this structure continues to baffle modern-day archaeologists and historians, alike.With some of the massive stones used to construct Stonehenge weighing up to 26 tons (and standing 18 feet tall and 7 feet wide), this huge megalithic structure will probably remain the mystery that it is now, and for time-eternal.

Well-done documentary that introduces some new facts about the archeology of Stonehenge, or at least ones I was not familiar with. Be cautioned that this program does play like an educational documentary, and it may be hard to get children and some adults to sit still for it. The featured archaeologist weaves an interesting story about what he believes Stonehenge represented to the people who built it, and he does muster new evidence to support his suppositions, but his story is still far from completely convincing. In no way at all do I feel that Stonehenge has been conclusively "decoded," and the frequent comments about how this or that is now proved were annoying. Still, it was an interesting show with some valuable insights into one of the world's most famous mysterious monuments.

There's little that can be said that won't contain Spoilers, since so much misinformation has preceded this now incredibly researched and authenticated documentary. While it's true that little more can be absolutely certified, other than the gross time frame during which this intriguing artistic and religious-based creation was completed (c.2500 BC), the facts are still coming in relative to the design and purpose for the many structures now having been unearthed. One grouping of those investigated most is a near-twin of the original circular workings, only these being made of wood timbers in a similar design, yet having a different reason for celebration within the same year, but at a very different time, even a different solstice. Professor (of Anthropology) Mike Parker Pearson has done a masterful, if time-consuming task of demonstrating various pathways and points of gathering, for very different purposes, including the huge city within which the great number of laborers and artisans lived while creating this most investigated grouping of stonework -- made with Saracen (sp?) stones, thought to be the hardest granite-like rocks.This 92-minute documentary is time well spent by those who can become invested in and with these marvelously hard-working, deeply religious folk, through their joyful suffering to complete something not only significantly meaningful to them, but intriguing, if mesmerizing, to us, who so often have been seen to shy away from our own form of worship, simply because of inclement weather. Please take the time here, your rewards will be meaningful.