5 Big Archery Mistakes in Film and Television

Television and movies are a main staple of our entertainment now-a-days. In our pursuit of a diversion from everyday life, we look forward to consuming things that take away our cares of the real world. In this search, as archers, we like to watch films and shows that involve archery every so often. We also tend to get a little attached to how we want archery to be portrayed. This entry isn’t as much about bad form as it is filmmakers or directors not being correct with proper archery aspects. Here are five mistakes that were made during film, TV shows and appearances.

1. Pixar’s Brave - Red Carpet Premiere:

Now this one wasn’t in the movie, per say. This appearance though raised a few voices within the archery community. The photo was taken at Scotland’s Red Carpet premiere of the motion picture. As you can clearly see, the bow in the picture is not quite how it should be strung. Backwards. Sadly this would not fend off any bears for our young heroine.

2. Hawkeye in Thor:

There are numerous photos of Hawkeye making the most awkward shots in the Avengers films. This one however was before his debut in the main franchise. As a side character in the first Thor movie, Hawkeye takes aim at Thor as he is trying to retrieve his hammer from within the encampment of S.H.I.E.L.D. For a split second, we see that as Hawkeye is taking aim with his compound bow… the arrow is not even sitting on the rest. This was a BIG disappointment to archers everywhere. Knowing that the Marvel sharpshooter wasn’t even aware of his own arrow placement was just a little upsetting.

3. Charlie’s Angels with Lucy Liu:

This one can easily be overseen in the 2000 reboot of Charlie’s Angels. Lucy Liu’s character, Alex Munday, needs to make a shot to hit the bad guys. This one is very easily missed by most. As she takes aim at the Helicopter, she doesn’t even pull the bow back all the way. Now since this is a compound, it won’t have the strength to even launch that arrow as far as it needs to go. Surprisingly enough, it hits the mark. Hurray for movie magic!  In the bloopers for this movie, they show that same scene and what the arrow actually does…and it doesn’t even make it out of the bow. As Lucy laughs at how silly her shot is.

4. Katniss Everdeen – Hunger Games trilogy:

To start this one off, we are not critiquing her draw hand placement. Unlike a lot of the angst when most archers see this actress on screen. We understand that she was taught by an Olympic archer so of course she is going to have a different draw style than what is used in most instinctive shooting. The aspect of the photo we are looking at is where the arrow is resting. Can you see it?  That’s right, it isn’t even on top of her hand, or near the bow, at all. It seems to be floating on the side of her hand. I wouldn’t really consider that very consistent or helpful when trying to hit game for the dinner table, let alone trying to defend myself in an arena to the death.

5. Oliver Queen – Arrow TV series:

Finishing up our list, Oliver has been seen in this recent television series as the highly accurate businessman sharpshooter from the DC universe. However, coming across this shot in one of the episodes in the beginning season we tend to think otherwise of the hero archer. We were first given this idea from the Robin Hood: Men in Tights film. Hilariously watching as Robin Hood shot multiple arrows off of the bow at the same time and being able to hit multiple targets; shooting around corners, hitting multiple spots on a person, etc. Well, taking this into a serious context within the TV show makes this archer a little less believable. As shown from this photo, sadly all three of those arrows would never hit an intended target. Each arrow would need to be kept separate from each other. The way it is set up now, as he released, the arrows would collide with each other. Not even coming close to hitting anyone accurately.

Which TV spots or films are in your top 5 for incorrect use of archery protocol? Even though they may not get it right all the time, at least archery is being noticed by Hollywood.