War of the Arrows (2011)

An absolute joy to find a film of such quality that lives up to its own title.The story? One tribe/clan attacks another, takes prisoners back to their kingdom/empire. It is iconic and for good reason. It is the story of all of us. Everyone one of us, if you go back far enough in time and history, has an ancestor who experienced it.But one lone man escapes the capture and seeks to rescue his people. This too is a common story. Most recently it formed the basis for Gibson's astonishing Apocalypto 2006.War of the Arrows takes the tale one step further, doing more for the myth of archery than, frankly, any film I have ever seen, including all the versions of Robin Hood in the west and all the superhero films that use arrows (which oddly is quite a few.) Exhilarating, brilliant, pulse-pounding and with an ending that even Sergio Leone would approve of.Highly recommended.

After watching an earlier disappointing film, and contemplating bed on a Christmas Eve, I took a chance on this film.It was 1.30am when I started and I figured that if I got bored I would simply turn in for the night.I'm writing this right after the film at 3.52am which hopefully indicates that it did far more than send me to sleep.A cracking film with a simple story, likable characters and top draw action scenes. The choreography and accompanying music in the chase scenes were electric and really ramped up the tension and excitement.What a wonderful Christmas surprise this turned out to be. See it if you can.

Back before the Big Bang that changed warfare (i.e.; the invention of the firearm- also know as "the coward's weapon of choice"), the bow and arrow were the weapons of choice- and one of the deadliest bows ever devised was the type of bow used by the Mongolians (which is bent ONE way, then bent BACK, doubling its power). In WAR OF THE ARROWS, we get a sense of what it might've been like to have used (or been shot by) just such a weapon. This is one of the best examples of how slow motion cgi can actually ENHANCE something as INTIMATE as killing with a bow and arrow- and the fx are utilized to their finest, here. The performances are all solid, and the storyline serves its purpose admirably. All around, a bullseye.

I loved this film from start to finish. The story line was plausible, the plot was well developed and the characters were believable. The biggest bonus for me in this film is that the combat scenes/martial arts sequences were believable and realistic. So many of the recent films of this genre have had fight scenes which basically bordered on the ridiculous. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon for example was basically a choreographed high wire act for much of the movie and in honest, just a tad silly! Hopefully we will see more of this type of film from this part of the world. The only thing which was a bit weak was the tiger scenes. Possibly a little more resource could have been thrown at this? The soundtrack was also interesting. It did occasionally drift into very familiar Territory, i.e. you felt you'd heard that music in a similar type of movie?