latest features
The Bit In Between
Actor Ryan Johnson gives us the lowdown on his web series ‘One Step Closer To Home’ which hilariously follows two newlyweds wondering, ‘What comes next?’
Tim Burstall’s Bohemian Beginnings
The diaries of a key figure in Australia’s First Wave of filmmakers in the seventies have just been released.
Sex, Lies & Video Tape
Producer turned writer/director John Winter’s 'Black & White & Sex' is an edgy, confronting and captivating exploration of sex and seduction...
Man of Action
In his latest edge-of-the-seat thriller ‘Man on a Ledge’, Sam Worthington plays a man who goes for broke, a feeling that the actor is not completely unfamiliar with himself...
search the site
newsletter
Enter your email address below to receive the weekly Filmink newsletter
En Garde
New documentary Reclaiming the Blade explores the ancient art of sword play and its various incarnations on screen.
When we watch Aragorn fighting it out on screen against a battalion of orcs, the fact that the fight has been carefully choreographed and rehearsed is far from our minds as we get caught up in the blood thirsty voyeurism of watching the duel play out.
However the geniuses behind these amazing sword fights have been brought into the limelight with the new documentary Reclaiming The Blade. This 90 minute documentary explores the art of sword fighting, and how it has been given new life by cinema over the last hundred years.
Included in the documentary are interviews with Viggo Mortensen and Karl Urban - some of the stars of the biggest sword fighting epic of recent years, Lord of the Rings. The filmmakers also speak to Mortensen's sword master, the famous Bob Anderson who once donned a black cloak and fought against Mark Hamill as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars films.
Narrated by John Rhys Davies (Gimli in the LOTR Trilogy), the film also pays long overdue respect to sword master Bob Anderson who has worked with likes of Errol Flynn, Johnny Depp and Sean Connery over his many years in the business. Primarily, however, Reclaiming The Blade traces the history of sword fighting from the Renaissance through to its modern decline as a weapon of choice.
Rhys Davies commented that, "It's a wonderful movie, writer/director Daniel McNicoll has interwoven a profound story that really resonates." Sword fighting quite clearly resonates with cinematic audiences with the ongoing Narnia series as well as Pirates of the Caribbean and the upcoming Prince of Persia and Clash of the Titans proving to be continually popular.
For more information on the documentary, which has become the top downloaded documentary on the American iTunes store, visit http://www.reclaimingtheblade.com/main/.