Leather Armor and Movies?

[MarcusNorwood]

It goes without saying that moviemakers rarely have any regard for historical accuracy, but due to the lack of evidence that leather armor was widely used by any era of the Roman army an interesting question is raised. Why do movie makers use leather armor so much? Is it cheaper and easier to make? Do they think it looks better? Are they getting bad advice from consultants? What say you RAT member?

[M. Val. Naso]

It is not cheaper, not easier to work with (leather is the nastiest thing I have ever worked with). I have a hunch that leather does not need caretaking after a two day shooting of a battle scene in rain.

[Nathan Ross]

This reminds me of the discussion about Bracers last year!

I think movie-makers are often more influenced by previous screen depictions of Romans than they are by actual history. The earliest films about Romans, back in the silent era, drew on popular 19th-century history painting for a lot of their style tips. Many of these Victorian artists were very scrupulous about the details in their paintings - but they lacked archaeological evidence, and when they looked at original Roman art, they tended to interpret metal armour as leather. The segmentata on Trajan's column looked to them like an assemblage of buckled leather belts. A mail hamata, with the paint and/or detail worn off, looked like a leather tunic. Musculata with pterugues resembled the boiled leather cuirass worn in the middle ages.

So they produced paintings like this one, by Alma Tadema (1889):



Filmmakers in turn adopted the look, and soon brown leather became synonymous with 'ancient Rome'...

Things are slowly changing nowadays, but the leather look dies hard (see Passion of the Christ, etc). Interestingly, while modern filmmakers seem more willing to suggest that their legionaries are wearing metal armour, they still maintain that armour was brown or dirty black! Clothes too, in recent Roman dramas, always appear in muddy tones and ragged-looking fabrics. An attempt to be 'gritty' and 'realistic' I suppose. Ironically, Victorian painters like Tadema probably produced a far more realistic impression of the ancient world in all its colourful glory!

[Renatus]

Talking of Alma Tadema, is this the sexiest painting ever?
http://sharon-ascher.com/wp-content/uplo...darium.jpg

[Nathan Ross]

is this the sexiest painting ever?

The Victorian reputation for prudery is ill-deserved! ;-)

[Statius]

is this the sexiest painting ever?

The Victorian reputation for prudery is ill-deserved! ;-)

In this particular instance yes ;-)

[Nathan Ross]

Meanwhile, as we continue to ponder on the correct uses of a strigil...

here's the decline and fall of Imperial Leather -

From 1964:



To 2004:



It's interesting that in both cases the costume designers have obviously looked at some real Roman artefacts (the detail of the helmets in particular). To my mind, the 1964 version is far preferable!

[LVCIVS SERGIVS ANTONINVS]

If you think that painting sexy, what then about this?

[Renatus]

From 1964:

For some reason, the 1964 picture is barred.

[Robert Vermaat]

From 1964:

For some reason, the 1964 picture is barred.

Then upload it from your own pc?

[attachment=6098]fall20of20the20roman20empire20PDVD_017.jpg[/attachment]

[Crispianus]

Leather can be worked by the costume department easily, its not messy requires no fire and no metalwoking skill, doesnt rust and from a distance it can look like metal or be made too...
Good enough for most film props.
Over a long film project the props need to look much the same, otherwise continuity could be a problem.
Imagine all those legionaires in sunny scotland filming "Centurion" wearing steel instead of fibreglass next morning all the metal would be rusty requiring cleaning by the costume department before you could do any more filming, time is money as they say...

[Dan Howard]

There is nothing wrong with using fibreglass and latex in costumes so long as they are finished to look like metal, not leather. A lot of the mail armour in Lord of the Rings was made from PVC plastic and looked wonderful on screen.

[Renatus]

Then upload it from your own pc?

Reasonable advice, if less than instructive. Please tell me how you identified the image and I will see if it conforms with the method that I adopted.

[Nathan Ross]

For some reason, the 1964 picture is barred.

Hard to imagine why, unless it's the word 'beaver' in the address... :whistle:

Here's the image as a link anyway, if you're still interested.

The equipment's clearly based on the famous 'Praetorians' relief. Interesting to contrast it with a more recent version from the TV Rome:



An attic helmet entirely made of brown leather! :dizzy:

[Renatus]

Hard to imagine why, unless it's the word 'beaver' in the address... :whistle:

You won't believe this but the image is now miraculously unbarred and visible. I shall never understand these things!