Nocked Up

“Bury me where my arrow falls.”  Traditionally the last words of Robin Hood as he shoots his final arrow through a window into the forest, from his deathbed.

Arrows are flying everywhere.  The heroine of Pixar’s Brave is a Scottish girl who is an expert archer.  She displays prowess with the bow from a running horseback and during a tournament where she provides the movie-required split arrow that would make Mr. Hood proud.  (By the way, why is it that the guy, or girl in this case, who splits the other contestant’s arrow is the winner?  Wouldn’t that just be a tie?)  In The Hunger Games, Katniss is an equally crack shot, downing a bird on the fly early in the film, although I would have like more arrow work during the rest of the movie.  Even the massive summer movie steamroller The Avengers has one hero (Hawkeye) who is as manly as a man can be while carrying something called a quiver.  Although after his arrows are spent, he doesn’t provide much of a “Superhero” skill set.

Right now bows and arrows in movies are where vampires were when the first Twilight movie came out; the books have been read and the films are queued for critique.  While that movie/book series has reduced what was formally a terrifying monster capable of seducing and murdering his way through Eastern European hamlets and castles to a whinny teenager who sparkles in the sunlight, it at least brought readers to the books and moved crowds of people through the snack bars to movie theaters.  I read once that Titanic was such a huge success because it attracted young girls to the theater.  They brought young boys and went to repeat viewings.  I suppose, with two female archers in two hit movies, it is hoped that that same demographic can be captured.  I think it may be working.

For his twelfth birthday we took my youngest to an archery range to shoot for an hour or so.  We brought along his older brother and a friend who happens to be a 12-year-old girl.  While we were shooting, the range manager, after watching the girl shoot, said something like, “You’re a regular Katniss.”  Which I’m sure is something he mentions to every girl who draws a bow at his business.  Will archery ranges see an explosion of business in the coming years?  Would this be a good time to open a business like that?

While watching my older boy shoot, I noticed how strong and rigid his arms and upper back looked when he held the nock of the arrow against his cheek.  His shoulders looked broad and his arrows, when released, thudded into the target with a very satisfying twack, often in tight groups near the center of the target.  He looked strong and with the bow bent and the arrow as still as a crouched panther, somehow noble and heroic.  Maybe I’m beginning to understand the appeal of this Hawkeye character a little bit.

Back when I was in the Boy Scouts, my troop went through a period when we did archery at most meetings.  We even went to an archery camp up in the foothills for a weekend.  For awhile I had a bow and some arrows at home and I would go to a friend’s house and practice shooting into bales of hay in his backyard.  I figured if I practiced enough, my archery aptitude might even become impressive to girls; anecdotal evidence suggests it wasn’t.

They say that the great English archers of medieval times started their training at 7 or 8 years old.  I read that by the time they were grown they could pull a bow of 80 pounds, and “deliver an arrow through the armor” worn by the knights of the time. You gotta like that word “deliver,” as if UPS where simply placing those arrows inside armor like a tip slipped into the pocket of a maitre D’.  Skeletons of longbow archers that have been dug up are recognizably deformed, with enlarged left arms and often bone spurs on left wrists, left shoulders and right fingers.  During the birthday shoot I picked up a bow and shot a handful of arrows.  But my arthritic shoulders and wrists wouldn’t let me hold the arrow still enough to aim properly.  My arrows thumped into the target on one side and the other, and in their flight, pitched and yawed like a skinny ship heading into fat swells.

Maybe this archery craze is a good thing.  Kids pulling bows are strengthening their bodies, and improving their hand-to-eye coordination.  Plus every minute not playing video games and being outside is a better minute the other way around.  Let’s hope archery takes the place of angst-ish vampire worship and new shops start popping up like tattoo parlors and hookah lounges have been over the last few years.  Besides, after the zombie apocalypse, we’ll need someone who can hunt for food.

Quote I couldn't figure out how to get in the blog:

"I shoot an arrow into the air, where it lands I do not care: I get my arrows wholesale!"

-Curly Howard