Posted on 04/28/2009 10:14:27 PM PDT by Ramius
The Medieval and Renaissance blade, a profound and beautiful object handcrafted by master artisans of old. An object of great complexity, yet one with a singular use in mind- it is designed to kill. The truth of the sword has been shrouded in antiquity, and the Renaissance martial arts that brought it to being are long forgotten. The ancient practitioners lent us all they knew through their manuscripts. As gunslingers of the Renaissance they were western heroes with swords, and they lived and died by them. Yet today their history remains cloaked under a shadow of legend.
My basic observation is: Splendid. Absolutely splendid.
But I would temper that with the additional observation that this video meant for a non-swordsman audience. It is intended that this video would merely disabuse the casual viewer of some common misperceptions regarding swords and swordsmanship, whether they be from popular culture, re-enactment, asian similarities, or whatever sources. It all finally results in some very serious scholars that have proper respect of the source material from Renniassance Masters. All in all, it's a very respectful and true documentary of the infancy of a new renaissance of medieval martial arts. FWIW.
Sword ping. :-)
The way of the Samuri is found in death.
Bump.
I’ll give it a try. It can’t be worse than “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”. Yuck.
I would add that it is with most respectful service that I would add that a couple major contributors to this DVD have passed away since it began production.
Hank Reinhardt 1934-2007: http://www.hankreinhardt.com/
and
Paul Champagne 1963-2009: http://www.thearma.org/Paul_Champagne.htm
The loss of Paul Champagne cannot be underestimated. He had re-created a whole lot of swordsmithery *from scratch* and had precious little time as it turned out to pass on any of his learning to his heirs or progenitors. I’m sure he thought he would have plenty of time to deal with all of that.
But it was not to be. He died without a chance to pass on what he knew... without the time to assemble his vast knowledge of metals and chemistry. The information that died with him will take decades, at least, to re-create. It was a horrible loss.
Well this is a documentary... not a “movie” per se.
:-)
No. I'm a member of ARMA and I have known some of the players in the movie, to the extent that I've exchanged e-mails with them at times. Beyond that I'm a total Noob. :-)
bump
Some stuff that I’m interested in....
Just saved it to my Netflix queue. I see Karl Urban is in this. He is becoming one of my favorite actors.
Gratuitous self-ping. :-)
How does one order this? I saw nothing on the link??
Go to amazon.com and search for “Reclaiming the Blade” on Movies. DVD comes out on May 5.
The odd thing is that Amazon has two listings for this DVD, one for $17.99 and the other for $24.49, with no info as to what’s different between them.
Cool :~) You can bring it down next time you come visit. :~)
That would be the single-DVD and 2-disc editions, the second DVD being loaded with extras, additional footage and other sorts of special features.
Apple’s Quicktime movie trailer page showcased this awhile back.
Here’s the link to Reclaiming The Blade home page:
http://www.reclaimingtheblade.com/main/?p=124
And a direct link to the Quicktime trailer:http://www.reclaimingtheblade.com/RTBtrailer.html
Thanks for the reminder so that I can order it.
ping
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