Lord of the Rings, rated PGP

[Neurion]

Back to physics, the Gondorian armor in the films functions like it's made of plastic. In the attack on Osgilliath, the sentry (the film's stunt coordinator in costume, BTW) is shot by an orc short recurve bow at a distance I guess to be around a 150 yards or greater. The arrow goes straight through the most heavily sloped part of his breastplate and knocks him off his feet.
This is patently ludicrous.

In tests made on a reproduction of a medieval plate steel breastplate in the Tower of London, carefully reconstructed with the aid of ultra-sound scanning to ensure as close as possible an aproximation, a reproduction medieval longbow was employed against it, with both broadhead and bodkin arrowheads shot from various ranges.

The broadheads put small notches in the plate, and the bodkins put shallow holes in it, but none of them really penetrated. A few of the bodkins went in far enough to maybe cause a flesh wound, but that's it.
Now here's the thing: they were shooting at a flat plate at 90 degrees. They then turned the plating to 45 degrees or so, a more realistic impact angle. Not a single arrow bit. They all deflected.

[Nukapei]

Originally Posted by Neurion

Back to physics, the Gondorian armor in the films functions like it's made of plastic. In the attack on Osgilliath, the sentry (the film's stunt coordinator in costume, BTW) is shot by an orc short recurve bow at a distance I guess to be around a 150 yards or greater. The arrow goes straight through the most heavily sloped part of his breastplate and knocks him off his feet.
This is patently ludicrous.

Well, the props have to be made of something, and real metal is unrealistic. As for that shot . . . maybe they're special arrows? Or, more likely, maybe it's more PJ-brand physics!

[Neurion]

Originally Posted by Nukapei

Well, the props have to be made of something, and real metal is unrealistic. As for that shot . . . maybe they're special arrows? Or, more likely, maybe it's more PJ-brand physics!

Well first of all, though the armor for the background extras was plastic, the "Hero" armor and weapons were made the traditional way, in metal, but I digress.

Special arrows? I don't think so.

Considering that a longbow generates a lot more kinetic energy than a shorter one, and that orc bows and the diminuitive arrows they shoot are, according to the film makers, crap compared to Rohirrim, Gondorian or Elven ones, and the fact that the longer the bow is, the longer the arrow can be, and the longer and heavier the projectile is, the more damage it will do, and the fact that even longbow arrows couldn't penetrate plate steel on a good day, and the fact that that Jackson and co. were quite set on bringing as much realism as possible to the films, you start to think that some scenes might have been handled a little better (don't think I'm mad at you, I'm just frustrated about the Gondorians getting downplayed at all possible opportunities).

What really confuses me is that they could have just as easily had a ranger for the sentry instead of an armored soldier, thereby avoiding this mess. For some inexplicable reason, they seem to have just let control slip on RotK.

Finally, just to sum up, I know that "suspension of disbelief" is required, but that only goes so far. I can believe Legolas sliding down a staircase on shield (much as it irks me), or Aragorn surviving that fall off the cliff. I can even accept Sauron sending dozens flying with his sorcery-bound mace. What I cannot accept is a situation that all previous examples and research tell me is impossible as it is presented.