ARCHERY IN ART AND FILM

I have developed a fear of becoming one of those archers who grumbles about how inaccurate and unrealistic archery is in films. I did not need to take up archery to know how stupid some fantasy archery is, and I do believe that even fantasy is not completely off the hook when it comes to captivating an audience by making the fantasy somehow believable. Yet there are inaccuracies I never even thought of until I took up archery myself and learned more about it. I must admit, I have been corrupted by knowledge. I am now slightly irritated by creaking noises when a bow is pulled, archers holding heavy war bows at full draw for ages without even getting the shakes, and hearing the term "fire!" as a command to archers to loose their arrows.

Notwithstanding my conversion to archery geekery, I do find some complaints about archery in film a little ridiculous. We do not watch film because we think it is just like real life, but because there is aesthetic beauty, drama and fantasy involved. That is the appeal. Similarly, I do not admire a painting or even a photograph because it exactly mirrors what I see in real life, but because it expresses something beautiful or meaningful by exaggerating what is there and bringing out something usually unseen in our mundane day-to-day existence. 

Likewise, I do not expect in a film that will be recorded for posterity and distributed throughout the world for all to see something that is not notable for anything more than its loyalty to banal reality. There must be exaggeration, a consideration for aesthetics, and for practicability when it comes to camera work and so forth. Complaining that the archery techniques in films are incorrect is taking things too far and out of context. 

Seeing physical actions which are physically impossible in film somehow makes fantasy fiction unbelievable even in a fantasy context. But expecting to see realism without beauty or elegance, however untrue to real life it may be, is just a little bit ridiculous.

By all means, take your archery seriously, and by all means take film, fantasy, art, history and literature seriously, but please consider that if you want grim, dull realism in everything you see, maybe visual arts are not for you.