Weaponry

[Estelyn Telcontar]

There were various versions of weapons - painted rubber (not the wobbly kind, obviously) for the background fighters, so that they wouldn't be in danger of getting hurt; however, those weapons wouldn't have looked right close up. For that reason there were versions of "hero weapons" that were made exactly like their historical counterparts, and fighting scenes with main characters had to be well-coordinated and choreographed. Even of those there were two versions, if I remember the movie commentaries, depending on how (and how close) they were filmed.

That refers more to swords than to bows - I'm not sure I remember whether there were various versions of bows, aside from the fact that the main characters who were filmed close-up had more elaborately made weapons, of course. I do remember hearing that the arrows were inserted by CGI - real arrows would have been dangerous even if blunt.