Weaponry

[Araréiel]

Originally Posted by zxcvbn

You mean the props used in the movie scenes? They were real. I once saw the website of a professional fletcher who was amazed to see that the bows and arrows of the LOTR films were hand-made using old-fashined techniques.

This is what I thought. Too bad a lot of the websites that used to be around aren't anymore. Would you happen to recall the URL of the site? I'd love to see it.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

There were various versions of weapons - painted rubber (not the wobbly kind, obviously) for the background fighters, so that they wouldn't be in danger of getting hurt; however, those weapons wouldn't have looked right close up. For that reason there were versions of "hero weapons" that were made exactly like their historical counterparts, and fighting scenes with main characters had to be well-coordinated and choreographed. Even of those there were two versions, if I remember the movie commentaries, depending on how (and how close) they were filmed.

That refers more to swords than to bows - I'm not sure I remember whether there were various versions of bows, aside from the fact that the main characters who were filmed close-up had more elaborately made weapons, of course. I do remember hearing that the arrows were inserted by CGI - real arrows would have been dangerous even if blunt.

[radagastly]

Originally posted by Estelyn Telcontar:

Even of those there were two versions, if I remember the movie commentaries, depending on how (and how close) they were filmed.

I seem to recall Bernard Hill complaining about the weight of his sword in Return of the King. As the Rohirrim were preparing to charge down onto the Pelennor and Theoden gallops along the front line, ringing his drawn sword on the spears of the Riders. He is left-handed, but had to hold his sword in his right hand, and because it was hitting all the spears, he had to use the heavy (real) sword. Apparently, the light-weight version crumpled with all those spear-hits on the first take. I can't quote him exactly, as my DVDs are tucked away at the moment.