IRONCLAD: Part One - Buildings

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here we go then the film iron Crowley now it was actually seriously mooted that I be the historical advisor for this film I think the first one had resigned but I think it's a good idea that I didn't get the job because well you'll see why soon enough there's another post of fridge blood and gore cells presumably now this is not a fantasy film it is vetted very clearly states right at the start that it's set in a real place England at a real time 1215 yes the year of the Magna Carta with real characters like King John there is a very unpopular king no British King has been called John since him anyway it's about a real event the siege of the castle of Rochester so ah for history and none of those islands jester fantasy excuses please now let me start with the typo now as anyone with an interest in military matters quite a high proportion of the viewers I'd have thought is likely to know the word ironclad refers to a 19th century steam-powered warship not a good start part one buildings now in Britain not far from London was the city of Rochester defended by a mighty norman castle his picture of the castle from the air and you see that right next to it is a massive Cathedral now in reality this building played a large and fascinating part in the story of the siege so it's a bit odd that the film never depicted or mentions it the screenwriters instead preferring something bit more bland and predictable here's the castle again shown from higher up and you'll notice the Broad River Medway running around two sides of the castle which in the film is just a small lake and something else which the filmmakers leave out Rochester in the film that castle is quite isolated and and whereas one would expect to see the rich fertile arable down lands which surrounded the castle the film stead shows me wild rugged uplands complete with very obvious ruts made by modern tractors let's look at the castle itself what they built I have to say a pretty big impressive outdoor set but Oh what are these things meant to be I know let's have iron bowls of some mysterious burning stuff above head height burning in the middle of the day because it's medieval anyway the point of this shot is to illustrate the tremendous danger that anyone using these battlements for any purpose is in why don't they have a balustrade something like this because if for any of a hundred mundane reasons someone might stumble and oh yep there he goes and and what on earth is that thing meant to be anyway you should be careful on the stairs too and grief there's another one so there see that's better that should keep the number of entirely preventable deaths down now though the architects have given apparently little thought for the safety of the men defending the battlements I have to say that it's remarkably considerate of them to include this substantial ledge on the outside of the walls which you can see in the film makes it far easier and safer for the extras playing the attackers to climb off their ladders and over the walls another thing this picture illustrates is that there is no moat or even ditch around this castle you'd think wouldn't you the castle right next to a major river would have a moat wouldn't you at least something to make it difficult to rush the walls with ladders or even reel up a great big siege tower like Oh oh dear hmm some people having a fight on the Battlement with no balustrade immediately above some thin breakable roofs I wonder what happens next let me say something about these roofs now fetch is not waterproof like a sheet of plastic is waterproof it works by getting the water to run down the straws of fetch at an angle and to work it has to be at least say a foot thick and sloped at a steep angle far steeper than shown here 60 degrees is as good angle and this this thatch is far too thin a look at yes he fell through here we see the angle is now actually horizontal and the thatch is just a few straws thick British rain would go straight through that cut to the interior now and we see the post-reformation style church despite this films being set long before the Reformation yes there is this popular image of the stark plain austere medieval church but I'm sorry these people were Catholics and in those days the Church of a rich place like Rochester Castle would have been oh riot of colour and patterns and depictions of saints and Dragons and all sorts like these Orthodox churches I photographed in ljubljana and petersburg this shot showed the stonework of Battlement quite clearly now obviously this isn't real stone I don't know what it is in reality perhaps it's vacuum-formed plastic or a fiberglass molding something like that anyway it's been painted skillfully to look like stone and the set decorators have done a good job in making it look stony but I think they've used as their model modern castles that have been consolidated using modern concrete and cement this doesn't look like medieval stonework much of which would have been worked as a squared off stone laid in courses and you can see the thick smooth lines of modern cement in between the stones whereas medieval builders wouldn't have had that material to work with they'd have used thin layers of rough mortar later on in the film one corner of the keep collapses revealing its interior granted these pictures don't make it brilliantly clear but we see that inside there are no curtains tapestries no plaster or murals not a stick of furniture just nothing in any of the rooms of the keep it seems that everyone just huddled together in there in in bare stone cells who must have been miserable being medieval it was no one was great all right apart from the black death

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Channel: Lindybeige

Views: 595,219

Rating: 4.960762 out of 5

Keywords: ironclad, film, movie, criticism, flubs, goofs, historical, inaccuracies, buildings, medieval, England, 1215, king john, advisor, castle, rochester, history, siege, thatch

Id: m0zYZhJXELQ

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 5min 40sec (340 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 25 2013

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