12-18-2012, 08:13 AM
Hi
There are two main types of leather movie armour.
Firstly the muscle cuirass , generally worn by officers in films, such as the example illustrated from 'The Fall of the Roman Empire'.
Secondly leather lorica segmentata worn by legionaries or ordinary soldiers.
I could go all Russell Robinson, or perhaps Heath Robinson might be more appropriate, and add a third category or a type 1B if you like. That is a simple leather jerkin, sometimes with an overlapping cape or sometimes a variant which could be termed Type 1C, with large medallions on the upper chest. This type of armour is usually but not always associated with what might be perceived as Auxiliary troops like the cavalry. The jerkin with the cape was possibly an imitation of some of the caped mail shirts.
Not all Hollywood movies have adopted this approach. In some movies attempts were made (pre publication of Robinson's 'The Armour of Imperial Rome') to show metal lorica segmentata and musculata. 'Quo Vadis', 'The Robe', 'Ben-Hur' and 'Cleopatra' 1963 are notable examples. The legionary armour in 'Cleopatra' is quite exceptional for its date. However 'Cleopatra' does have the leather armour, Type 1C, for the cavalry!
It seems it was the Italian "peplum" films of the late fifties and early sixties which introduced the leather loricas on a grander scale. Probably all soldiers of all ranks are equipped with leather armour in a film like 'Constantine the Great'.
Meanwhile by the eighties, film or more likely TV, armour was getting quite reasonable. If you look at 'AD Anno Domini' for example I think everyone would be quite impressed with the overall kit. It looked like things were starting to get better but then unfortunately came the nineties. In that Decade there was a dearth of any major Roman period epic on screen. The Dark Ages if you like!
And then came 'Gladiator' and there was much rejoicing. Unfortunately while It seems the film makers drew inspiration from previous epics like 'The Fall of the Roman Empire', it neglected most advances in research or even what had been done in earlier epics. They also drew heavily on nineteenth century images as shown above. Furthermore the Films armorer had evidently never read Russell Robinson and even ignored Bishop and Coulston and is quoted as saying that he found little evidence for armour of the period. Which presumably explains why he resorted to the Norman, Viking, Persian, and Ottoman type armour and helmets he had on display. Apparently mail looks poor on screen which also explains the large onion metal rings worn by the archers! The legionary armour in the film seems to be some sort of hybrid Cromwellian or WW1 trench armour!
Compare this with 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' which actually had soldiers wearing both Heddernheim helmet designs . Not only correct Roman helmets but correct for the period too. Presumably the 'Gladiator' costume department were not aware of this either. Equally the sharp eyed RATer will spot correctly made mail shirts worn under leather covers in both 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' and 'Spartacus'. Presumably forty odd years ago it was not a problem to film mail!
It appears that as a result of 'Gladiator', the leather musculata has also reappeared. It was frequent in the series 'Rome' and 'King Arthur', (which both incidentally involved re-enactors in the production) and was used alongside a metal muscle cuirass in 'The Eagle' where the leading character wears both types. Hedging his bets obviously for the nit pickers!
Leather lorica segmentata have also reappeared for instance in 'The Last Legion' (sadly I have watched that!) and 'The Passion'. The latter also has metal types too, so it would be interesting perhaps to find out which was easier and cheaper to make and to maintain by the film department.
Ironically as Dan has pointed out it is no longer a requirement to make movie armour in either leather or metal these days. The armour in 'Centurion' was made in modern light weight materials painted to look like metal and overall fairly decent looking lorica segmentata and helmets were produced. The film also cleverly played down the 'epic' scale too, so was fairly low budget. Indeed I did write on RAT many years ago that I wondered why no one had ever attempted a small scale Roman movie before, such as a small detachment trapped behind enemy lines trying to get back home! Maybe that means some film makers do pop onto RAT now and then! We can only hope that they do.
However you can imagine if a film maker did drop by onto RAT and then popped the question "now what colour tunic did they have" and after all the conflicting answers they received perhaps we can realise why film makers feel there is so much opportunity for creative licence!
Sadly 'Alexander' one epic film which had the most accurate armour of all was such a turkey in other aspects, it probably means that in these troubled financial times we are going to be very lucky to see any Roman epics in the immediate future at all.
Graham.
There are two main types of leather movie armour.
Firstly the muscle cuirass , generally worn by officers in films, such as the example illustrated from 'The Fall of the Roman Empire'.
Secondly leather lorica segmentata worn by legionaries or ordinary soldiers.
I could go all Russell Robinson, or perhaps Heath Robinson might be more appropriate, and add a third category or a type 1B if you like. That is a simple leather jerkin, sometimes with an overlapping cape or sometimes a variant which could be termed Type 1C, with large medallions on the upper chest. This type of armour is usually but not always associated with what might be perceived as Auxiliary troops like the cavalry. The jerkin with the cape was possibly an imitation of some of the caped mail shirts.
Not all Hollywood movies have adopted this approach. In some movies attempts were made (pre publication of Robinson's 'The Armour of Imperial Rome') to show metal lorica segmentata and musculata. 'Quo Vadis', 'The Robe', 'Ben-Hur' and 'Cleopatra' 1963 are notable examples. The legionary armour in 'Cleopatra' is quite exceptional for its date. However 'Cleopatra' does have the leather armour, Type 1C, for the cavalry!
It seems it was the Italian "peplum" films of the late fifties and early sixties which introduced the leather loricas on a grander scale. Probably all soldiers of all ranks are equipped with leather armour in a film like 'Constantine the Great'.
Meanwhile by the eighties, film or more likely TV, armour was getting quite reasonable. If you look at 'AD Anno Domini' for example I think everyone would be quite impressed with the overall kit. It looked like things were starting to get better but then unfortunately came the nineties. In that Decade there was a dearth of any major Roman period epic on screen. The Dark Ages if you like!
And then came 'Gladiator' and there was much rejoicing. Unfortunately while It seems the film makers drew inspiration from previous epics like 'The Fall of the Roman Empire', it neglected most advances in research or even what had been done in earlier epics. They also drew heavily on nineteenth century images as shown above. Furthermore the Films armorer had evidently never read Russell Robinson and even ignored Bishop and Coulston and is quoted as saying that he found little evidence for armour of the period. Which presumably explains why he resorted to the Norman, Viking, Persian, and Ottoman type armour and helmets he had on display. Apparently mail looks poor on screen which also explains the large onion metal rings worn by the archers! The legionary armour in the film seems to be some sort of hybrid Cromwellian or WW1 trench armour!
Compare this with 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' which actually had soldiers wearing both Heddernheim helmet designs . Not only correct Roman helmets but correct for the period too. Presumably the 'Gladiator' costume department were not aware of this either. Equally the sharp eyed RATer will spot correctly made mail shirts worn under leather covers in both 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' and 'Spartacus'. Presumably forty odd years ago it was not a problem to film mail!
It appears that as a result of 'Gladiator', the leather musculata has also reappeared. It was frequent in the series 'Rome' and 'King Arthur', (which both incidentally involved re-enactors in the production) and was used alongside a metal muscle cuirass in 'The Eagle' where the leading character wears both types. Hedging his bets obviously for the nit pickers!
Leather lorica segmentata have also reappeared for instance in 'The Last Legion' (sadly I have watched that!) and 'The Passion'. The latter also has metal types too, so it would be interesting perhaps to find out which was easier and cheaper to make and to maintain by the film department.
Ironically as Dan has pointed out it is no longer a requirement to make movie armour in either leather or metal these days. The armour in 'Centurion' was made in modern light weight materials painted to look like metal and overall fairly decent looking lorica segmentata and helmets were produced. The film also cleverly played down the 'epic' scale too, so was fairly low budget. Indeed I did write on RAT many years ago that I wondered why no one had ever attempted a small scale Roman movie before, such as a small detachment trapped behind enemy lines trying to get back home! Maybe that means some film makers do pop onto RAT now and then! We can only hope that they do.
However you can imagine if a film maker did drop by onto RAT and then popped the question "now what colour tunic did they have" and after all the conflicting answers they received perhaps we can realise why film makers feel there is so much opportunity for creative licence!
Sadly 'Alexander' one epic film which had the most accurate armour of all was such a turkey in other aspects, it probably means that in these troubled financial times we are going to be very lucky to see any Roman epics in the immediate future at all.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
