A diversion: the Longbow in film, television, and fiction

This page called out to be included, and who am I to deny it?

The longbow has had a mixed history of abuse and recognition in the cinema and by television: this short piece aims to hand out plaudits and brickbats, and possibly offer a few nominations to the categories 'Most historically accurate representation', 'Most crowd-pleasing offering' and 'Worst ever and least convincing longbow'.

I am grateful to Rex Smith (no link, no site - there's a challenge to you Rex) for researching many of the links on this page, and for being a sounding board for some of my views.

Probably the most obvious introduction to the bow is through Robin Hood, and the legend has been well served in film and television. The most famous TV Robin has to be Richard Greene, and certainly whenever you tell someone you are an archer it is with that refrain that they inevitably respond. [fans of 50s TV should visit http://www.fiftiesweb.com/tvdrama.htm , and for a full cast listing look at http://www.skypoint.com/members/joycek19/robinhd.htm ] More recently we had Robin of Sherwood, played by two actors, one of whom I remember to have been Jason Connery, son of Sean, the other Michael Praed, again with a more memorable soundtrack provided by the band Clannad. [try the enthusiastichttp://www.benturner.com/robinhood/rh_media.shtml ] The most famous silver screen Robin has to be Errol Flynn in the Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938, then there seems to be a big gap (unless you count Disney - I won't) until the Kevin Costner and Patrick Bergin inadvisedly both released versions of the story in the same year. The former again had a tremendously successful title song, although the latter seemed truer to an idea of thirteenth century England.

As far as our subject is concerned though this genre has little to offer. Without exception the only bows you see are American flat bows. Archery provides a plot mechanism and the opportunity for flamboyant shows of skill, and the bows serve as a supposedly appropriate accoutrement to the hero, and as a badge to identify the good guys. Unfortunately none of the actors appear to have the faintest idea of even the rudiments of archery, so that in Costner's Prince of Thieves we are treated to the spectacle of Jack Wilde (who we all know is really the Artful Dodger) clumsily trying to load his bow, and our hero flinging his aside as though it were a gun run out of bullets! Curiously though this same film does contain an excellent scene when the wonderful Alan Rickman connives to ambush the merry men in their forest hideaway. For a matter of only moments we see a long line of longbowmen (and probably a good few women too) draw and loose a salvo of flaming arrows. I was told that these archers were specifically recruited for the scene, and they do look the part, except that they are very obviously standing in a field, whilst the rest of the scene purports to be the depths of Sherwood forest. As an aside, the friend who tipped me the nod to this scene explained that the secret of shooting fiery arrows is not to draw all the way to your nocking point. I don't suppose you would do that twice. [For a fairly comprehensive treatment of the Robin Hood myth I would refer you to http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4198/rh/robpics.html ]

Other great swashbucklers have borrowed the bow as a prop for the same ends, a good example being Burt Lancaster in the Flame and the Arrow, 1950, but the sword is king, and when daring do has to be done, nothing but fencing will suffice. Just as in the Western a man can only depend on his gun and his horse, in merrie England (or Italy) he depends on sword and retainer/brother in arms - it would appear that the attitude of the flower of chivalry was still prevalent in contemporary Hollywood.

A much more promising candidate comes in the form of the two adaptions of Henry the Fifth, by Olivier and Brannagh. Considering the Olivier film was made in the middle of the war, the paucity of the French nobility is understandable, and more than compensated by the standard of acting. For my money though the arrow storm at Agincourt still has a considerable emotive impact. Brannagh's version is more realistic and the battle scenes more bloody and better staged, but I don't think Olivier is necessarily bettered, despite the obviously higher production values.

Television documentaries touching on the bow are rare, and thus valued beyond their intrinsic value. The BBC series Chronicle included a programme called The Longbow, which contained some excellent stuff on making a bow, as well as footage of Robert Hardy and John Waller shooting. Some of this footage appears in the 1996 BBC series Decisive Weapons, which focuses on Agincourt, which is welcome as I have only once seen the programme shown since it first went out twenty odd years ago.

Mediaeval enthusiasts are presumably equally keen to see episodes of Caedfael, set during the wars between Stephen and Matilda, where the local soldiery seem quite comfortable with bows, and the depiction of life in the twelfth century has at least the benefit of some research. The locations are Eastern Europe rather than Welsh Marches, but do look the part. I seem to recall that Braveheart also used a number of longbows, but my memory fails me, and I think I'd have to look at the video again.

I did spot a recent cameo appearance of longbows in an episode of the Midsomer Murders, where visitors to the village fete were offered the chance to shoot the village enthusiasts bows (would you be so trusting?) only for Richard Briers, as the vicar, to murder someone with one, although perversely with an obviously aluminium arrow! Tom Good a murderer, the fabric of Surbiton is truly unraveling?

So much therefore for the longbow. Two other great movie genres also have potential for the archer enthusiast, although obviously not the longbowman or woman.

The Western occasionally features native horse-archers, but I am at a loss to recall any worthy examples. I do recall one rather bizarre scene when the US cavalry were pinned down in a shallow ravine, and the Apache rushed forward, planted lances in the ground, then used them as range finders for their archery barrage. Apart from that though, substitute bow for rifle, and you don't have a great deal to offer.

The samurai film, in particular as rendered by Kurosawa, has some of the best archery scenes ever filmed, both in terms of individual duals, and set piece battles. A straw poll of friends found no clear winner for best film, I would recommend his oeuvre probably in its entirety. One of the better sites for Kurosawa that I have seen is to be found at http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~adk/kurosawa/AKpage.html

Finally, the longbow in works of fiction. Only one nomination here I'm afraid: Conan Doyle's The White Company.

UPDATE

BBCTV's Ray Mears World of Survival: Tanzania - Heart of the Rift. The Hadza are apparently one of the world's few remaining tribes of true hunter-gatherers, and live near Lake Eyasi in Tanzania. One of the hunters fashions Mears a fine looking self bow, and there are scenes of the men of the tribe hunting, which seem quite reminiscent of those medieval marginal illustrations in respect of poses.

Again from the BBC, the series on the Mongol Empire, Storm from the East, showed a modern oriental bowyer making a composite bow from bamboo and yak horn.

I'm told by a reliable source that the Discovery Channel has made a series of programmes called Arms in Action, which Channel 4 will screen. I'm informed that the second programme in the series of 8 (?) deals with bows and arrows, and updates the old armour penetrating experiment which I remember from the first Hardy programme. Then the armour piercing qualities of bodkins was shown against mail and plate on a fixed dummy. This newer footage uses a suspended sandbag and illustrates that movement of the struck target absorbs sufficient of the kinetic energy of the arrow to make plate effective against bodkins. Mail remains vulnerable. This raises the question in my mind of just how much of a bruising would a man at arms in full harness receive from a volley? [nb. At present, 6th June, no sign of this series. So much for reliable sources eh?]

I will add to this section as I come across anything else of relevance.

I'd be interested to hear other views on this most important of subjects. When my coding skills are sufficient I will include a guestbook of some sort, but for the while please feel free to e-mail me at nigelrcook????@clara.co.uk . As an antispam device delete the ???? from my address - sorry for the inconvenience!

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