MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Over the past 35 years, Hollywood has taken full advantage of showcasing the trebuchet, a distinctly medieval machine, in its efforts to convey medievalism. These include the flimsy, toy-like contraptions in Excalibur (1981) to the more realistic hinged-counterweight trebuchets depicted with extreme accuracy in Ironclad (2011). In between, there have been a wide variety of implementations, including mechanically-hindering features such as wheels on a hinged-counterweight trebuchet in The Messenger (1999) and extreme rates of fire as depicted in Kingdom of Heaven (2005).

With no surviving medieval trebuchets, historians only had access to the depictions in medieval chronicles. However, numerous modern attempts to recreate trebuchets have revealed the plausibility of these medieval depictions. For example, a 2000 NOVA special demonstrated the extreme labor and craftsmanship necessary to construct both fixed- and hinged-counterweight trebuchets on the scale depicted in medieval chronicles. Events such as the soon-to-return World Championship Pumpkin Chunkin in Delaware have made more people aware of the basic mechanics and limitations of these machines.

Public awareness of the mechanics of trebuchets has increased the demand for realism. As a result, Hollywood has gravitated toward more accurate depictions of trebuchets in medievalism—historical and fantastical—employing historians and enthusiasts for consulting on production sets. Yet, even with such efforts, there are still issues today in productions such as Game of Thrones. In addition, there are no satisfactory depictions of transporting trebuchets or of building them.

This paper incorporates medieval studies and military history to trace the transitional depictions of trebuchets in Hollywood film and television, demonstrating the past 35 years have seen a boom in Hollywood’s efforts for realism in showcasing trebuchets.