Movies and Edged Weapons Pt. 2

[Rick]

Looks like a great sword and shield movie; I saw the poster when I went to see 300.
Throw accuracy out the window and just enjoy the action.

The Wampanoag were just recently recognised by the US gov't; they are our local tribe here on Cabo Bacalau .

[micas]

Pathfinder looks like the Norte Americano version of Tarzan. And the Vikings are straight out of Frank Frazetta.

Check out Alatriste with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from LOTR). Spanish sword and dagger stuff in there. Interesting pike fighting at the end. "Looks" realistic.

[Emanuel]

Originally Posted by micas

Check out Alatriste with Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn from LOTR). Spanish sword and dagger stuff in there. Interesting pike fighting at the end. "Looks" realistic.

The book by Arturo Perez Reverte was good, and I heard the movie was all right.

[ariel]

I have only one word for you:
"300"

[David]

Originally Posted by ariel

I have only one word for you:
"300"

When i think of 300 i can only remember corny, wooden dialog, tedious narration, obnoxious characters that are more stupid than heroric, bad CGI effects that looked just plain "fake" instead of the graphic novel "stylization" they were hoping for, extremely bad history that maligns an entire culture of people and portrays them as monsters and enslavers, really bad pacing that breaks the action up with long boring segments that make a pretense at trying to be an actual story and lots of dumb talk about the glory of dying a "good" death in the heat of sensless battle. The fight sequences (the only real reason to watch this flick) became kinda tedious after the first couple with it's repetetive start/stop/start action. I couldn't find a single character in the entire movie that i could care enough for to worry about their impending death (in fact i couldn't wait until they were all dead). I could go on and delve into the not so subliminal political propaganda and comparisions to our (the west) battle with the "Persian" empire today, but i will leave it at that.
My only hope, since i have no real knowledge of the weapons of the time, would be that they might have got the arms and armor right, but somehow i have my doubts.

[Emanuel]

Originally Posted by David

My only hope, since i have no real knowledge of the weapons of the time, would be that they might have got the arms and armor right, but somehow i have my doubts.

Your doubts are well founded, David. The scimitars they used were nonsense, and I somehow doubts that Spartans ever fought naked (with loincloth and mantle).

[David]

Originally Posted by Manolo

Your doubts are well founded, David. The scimitars they used were nonsense, and I somehow doubts that Spartans ever fought naked (with loincloth and mantle).

But how else would we get to see their fabulous (and CGI identical) six-pack abs?

[FenrisWolf]

Originally Posted by Manolo

Your doubts are well founded, David. The scimitars they used were nonsense, and I somehow doubts that Spartans ever fought naked (with loincloth and mantle).

Oddly enough, given all its numerous other flaws, in this area it's relatively accurate, although a loincloth and mantle counts as overdressed. Friezes, mosaics and pottery from the time depict Greek warriors going into battle with helmet, shield and spear, sometimes with a sword -- and not a stitch of clothing, let alone armor. Oh, I suppose the generals and nobles might've had a bit more, but the average warrior? Not a bit.

The classical Olympic games were held as a celebration of the art of war, and the athletes competed in the games as they would on the battle field -- in the nude. That's one of the reasons why women were banned from attending.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Manolo

The book by Arturo Perez Reverte was good, and I heard the movie was all right.

It kind of depends on who you ask...

The sword and dagger duels were fairly OK, though, given the circumstances.
The final battle... well, let's not go into that.

[ariel]

The only superb Perez Reverte's book was " The Club Dumas" and it was mangled cinematographically into something beyond awful.
"Flanders Panel" was good. " The Fencing Master" was very good.
But the Alatriste series.... very disappointing. Did not see the movies; are they "straight on DVD" releases?

[Emanuel]

Just saw a trailer for this Hindi epic http://www.jodhaaakbar.com/ a big period production about Akbar. Seems to have loads of tulwar action, fights between Rajputs and Mughals, along with the ubiquitous love story.
I'm looking forward to it.

[ariel]

I guess this is the first movie of the "marital bliss" for the leading couple.
Must be visually impressive; I just hope neither of them starts belting a song and a dance in the middle of a fighting sequence.
I guess that is what Indian audience demands, but if Bollywood wants to go international, they will have to get rid of this annoyance. Can you imagine Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton taking a break from slaughtering the Nazis in the middle of "Where Eagles Landed" and doing a love duet?

[Emanuel]

Check out the trailer on the website. I heard choruses in the background but those were probably just the trailer's score. I got the impression that the movie was pretty serious.

[Jeff D]

Originally Posted by ariel

Can you imagine Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton taking a break from slaughtering the Nazis in the middle of "Where Eagles Landed" and doing a love duet?

I thought they were just good friends!!!

Jeff

[Emanuel]

Originally Posted by ariel

I guess this is the first movie of the "marital bliss" for the leading couple. Must be visually impressive; I just hope neither of them starts belting a song and a dance in the middle of a fighting sequence.

I...er...saw the movie....yup they do the love duet. At least it's not in the fight sequences, which are quite weak. The fighting is poorly choreographed, lots of edge on edge sparing and western fencing, nothing remotely similar to gatka. The tulwars SUCK, they've got huge handles fit for the Governator, no other kinds of weapons - with the exception of one very quick shot of a jamadhar.
Basically it's one big love story, with lots of time spent in character development. Big dance and song sequences, although to be fair they're integrated in court festivities, not just popping out of the blue, and the tunes are energetic and catchy.
Pretty movie with a nice picture of Mughal and Rajput culture and art, and yes, a very beautiful Rai. Bad movie for weapons and battles.

[migueldiaz]

has braveheart been mentioned already?

earlier, bill posted an article on wallace's 6-pound and 5-foot sword leaving scotland for the first time.

[kronckew]

having been reading the kampilan thread ala bill marsh with interest, i happened to see Hollywood's 'thief of Baghdad' with Sabu, over the weekend.

there is a point where he opens a bottle, gets the traditional genie & three wishes, he then gets flown to the top of the tallest peak in the top of the world to steal the 'all-seeing eye' from a temple idol.

after arrival, he liberates a sword from a long dead skeleton, all covered in cob-webs ('conan' plagiarism?) as he cleaned off the web, it becomes obvious it's a kampilan, complete with traditional hilt wound in rattan, sinuous metal staple on one side, crocodile beak blade, etc. he then climbs the idol, and a giant spiders web with the kampilan between his teeth, kills the giant spider & unfortunately drops the sword never to be seen again....

there of course were the more common shamshir and daggers throughout.

not bad for a sixty-odd year old movie.

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by kronckew

... having been reading the kampilan thread ala bill marsh with interest, i happened to see Hollywood's 'thief of Baghdad' with Sabu, over the weekend ... after arrival, he liberates a sword from a long dead skeleton, all covered in cob-webs ('conan' plagiarism?) as he cleaned off the web, it becomes obvious it's a kampilan, complete with traditional hilt wound in rattan, sinuous metal staple on one side, crocodile beak blade, etc.

Thanks Kronckew.

Being a Filipino that is struck with kampilan-philia, I need to see that movie!

Also, the kampilan's appearance in that movie was mentioned earlier --

ruel
Senior Member posted 06-25-2004 04:48

Thief of Bagdad (1949): Kampilan, tachi, firangi, yataghan. Don't believe me? Go ahead, watch it...

---

tom hyle
Senior Member posted 06-25-2004 09:10

... Theif of Baghdad seems to feature some "real" weapons ... "Theif" contains one of the instances of holding a kampilan backward, which seems like it'd be obvious with a real sword ...

Thanks again Kronckew

[kronckew]

i shall assume they got the date wrong then and they referred to the sabu version, as the sabu version was apparently 1940. , ruel's 1949 date of their post (and tom's spelling of thief) threw me off - there have been a number of versions

while sabu carried the kampilan upside down for a while (edge up), when he was actually using it, cutting at the spider, and later when he cut it's suspension thread, he held it correctly, striking with the edge, not the back of the blade, i looked carefully he also carried it in his mouth edge out as he apparently didn't want to cut himself



the kampilan in the movie was similar to the above, which is edge down, and the angled fork of the grip up when held, tho some kampilans in modern repos have the angled fork also down, as below.



(images from google image search)