Way to Ruffle My Feathers

So, you know something that's been bothering me lately? The portrayal of archery in movies. I am merely a hobbyist when it comes to archery, but as a nerd, it becomes my duty to whine about irrelevant crap. The first thing to kick this off my rampage was a meandering but generally enjoyable Jackie Chan movie called Little Big Soldier.



You'll notice, as an example, that those arrows are using artificial feathers. The movie took place roughly 2,500 years ago before China was unified by the first emperor, Shi Huang Di. Yes, I know I'm a nerd, and yes I know I'm making myself look even worse by throwing out ancient Chinese History, but whatever. In any event, artificial feathers. 2,500 years ago. I can only imagine that the Qin troops who fired those arrows plucked them from the bodies of artificial birds they shot out of the artificial sky. Next, look at the nocks. That is, those little slots on the end of the arrow. Those are used to attach themselves to the arrow string. Don't they look a little off to you? Maybe it's because they, along with everything else about those arrows seems oddly mass produced. To be fair to the movie, one of Shi Huang Di's big accomplishments was "the standardization of weights and measures." Maybe the historians just forgot about standardizatio of arrows. Even so, I'ma call bullshit on that presentation of them. Even more so when it took like 8 arrows at point blank range to take down one guy. I know they were going for effect and all, but really? At that range, a professional strength longbow would've buried itself to the feathers. Even through his armor. No way you could get four or five in the torso (not to mention a few in the extremities) and still be standing for a second round.

Next up, the Hunger Games. I'm sure you've all seen some of the promotional pictures or the trailer, be it at the theater or in a news post or as an advertisement on IMDB or whatever. Well, let's check it out, shall we?



The first thing I want to point out is- she's using gloves. Why would she do that? Archery is sort of like playing the guitar. Overdo it at first and you'll tear up your fingers, but do it regularly and you develop calluses. This is important because, as a general rule the less between you and the string the better. Take the guy who runs the store where I get my supplies. He doesn't use protection at all. I'm only a hobbyist and I alternate between no protection and the lightest gloves I could get- much lighter than the ones she's using. I have a hard time believing a master archer who gets a perfect score as a candidate in the games purely as a result of her skill with a bow, who hunts everyday, would need or want any finger protection that would only make it harder for her to feel the string.

That said, her stance etc. isn't bad compared to a lot of movies, but the bow itself bugs me. It's a straight short bow. On the one hand, this was probably an intentional choice of the movie makers. For those two or three people in the world who haven't read the book, the Hunger Games are a blood sport designed to be unpredictable and savage. It would make sense for them to deny her a *good* bow because it would give her too much of an advantage. If memory serves, however, she has experience making her own. I'm not saying every archer can or should be their own bowyer and fletcher, but let me spell this out- straight bows suck. They're weak and harder to handle and require more strength to pull for the same effort when compared, as an example, to a simple recurve bow.If I were Katniss and they said, "here's a stick with a string attached, go have fun" I might take my chances making my own bow. It's also the case that despite a decently realistic depiction in most of the pictures I've seen, you know she's going to make some totally insane shots that will one-hit-kill targets from fifty yards and I tell you here and now- no way. That is, at best, a forty pound lift. That'll get you *maybe* thirty yards as an effective range, and considering the character will be worn out by then, and considering a forty pound lift on a straight bow requires forty actual pouds of pressure on the string, I have a hard time seeing a worn out, injured, teenage girl pulling it to its full capacity. Don't believe me? Go find an archery place and (go ahead and lie if you must) tell them you might be interested in picking it up as a hobby and would they measure your draw length. When they offer to a 32 pound recurve or a 40 pound compound, pooh-pooh it. Go for the straight bow.

Not that any of that will stop me from seeing the movie. Just not until the crowds have had a chance to die down. Besides, much as I like bows, they didn't make that book. Bread made that book. You guys know what I'm talking about, right? If they took that airlifting the bread in bit out, it'll be the last straw. That was the best part of the best scene in the bloody book.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it all transfers to the big screen. In the meantime, I don't feel as bad about this post as I thought I might when I chose it as a topic. It's a lonely world sometimes, when you can think "there are six billion people out there and I must be the only one who cares about this stuff." So hooray for the internet for bringing people (read: nerds) together.