Take another look at the Howard Hill Archery thing I posted.
There are a few more of them on youtube.
He had an entire series of ‘movietone’ type newsreels that they showed before movies…and he did the shooting in the classic “Robin Hood”.
Because they edited raw footage into a film to be shown before the Saturday Matinee; does that make them “fake”? No, He did the shots…especially the ones with live actors involved; because it’s hard to edit out a arrow through the head.
They can be both. He was a truly remarkable archer, but his hunting shorts were often heavily staged.
I always enjoy a solid debunking, but the irony in your article is that you are assuming the internet will believe what you are are saying about this video. You don’t offer evidence or specific analysis to support your criticism. He is the one with video to support his claims, and you just expect us to take you at your word. I work in the world of video production and I didn’t see any blatant trickery. He used a crappy camera, but hey, what are you going to do.
The problem I have with his claims is not that they are misleading but that they’re useless in a modern setting. His style of archery may very well be better in battle, particularly at close quarters, but he will have to wait until the fall of modern civilization and some ensuing battle between tribes for it to be a benefit. For bow hunting it’s useless, he’s not going to get close enough to a deer using noisy parkour moves, and though he could use that technique for squirrels, he could also stand still and shoot squirrels just as effectively.
So yes, it’s an entertaining video, but about as useful as arguing broadswords are better than cavalry sabres.
I think ‘William’ was brought in because that hair conceals a helmet.
Ah, but his knees… He had the knees of a champion!
i’m thinking we must have watched different videos.
I like the way geekdad uses the Cartoon “Brave” to back up his assertions.
So just so we are all clear here: the actual shots included are not faked, right?
This guy is no Howard Hill.
Neither is top US Olympic Archer Brady Ellison. It was painful watching him on Mythbusters when they used him as an exemplar for how fast a historical archer could accurately shoot long distance - his shot cycle is carefully developed for the 4 minutes he gets to shoot his advanced sight and draw check equipped bow per 6 arrow end, not for military archery.
Archery really does have very specific specialties. Which is why Lars Anderson’s video is still cool even if he isn’t some other person and doesn’t shoot all styles of archery.
(Also, I’ve never seen confirmation of the supposed 196 consecutive field archery tournament victories - it’s plausible given Hill’s skill, but the claim always dead ends at the Howard Hill Archery website.)
Zing! Imma give up critiquing Hollywood films until I make one, as well.
If you were to declare how easy it would be to make one, then yes.
You’ve declared Lars Anderson to be unimpressive and unathletic, in which case it should be easy for you to duplicate his feats, especially since it seems like you feel you are athletic.
Wow you just reply to everything don’t you.
Clearly not. I can wait for you while you count… 
It’s hard for me to take Jim MacQuarrie’s criticism seriously with such a shouty, immature polemic. He comes across as the archetypical Comic Book Nerd raging against whatever he perceives as wrong on the internet.
With very little evidence or citations to back up his claims, the best I can assume is that he’s just mumbling “sour grapes” instead of critically analyzing the video.
Since he didn’t even bother to contact the archer in the video, or do anything remotely resembling reporting, his bitter grumbling is not very convincing.
Look at the video again. He only does the really fast stuff at very close targets (often a body’s length) and the flight paths are obviously very random, at moderate distances with multiple targets he isn’t shooting particularly quickly, and the real impressive trick shots are either done with cutaways so we don’t know if he actually made them or single shots so they could be random flukes.
The other part which bothered me during the initial video is that he doesn’t really look that competent. It’s fairly subjective but people who are extremely competent look the part. Their movements aren’t just fast, they also look very smooth and practised even at high speed. There will be some compromise as the speed increases but not to the level he seems to exhibit. I could be mistaken as his style is intentionally more relaxed, but he just doesn’t look fluid enough, not enough to convince me that he’s discovered some revolutionary lost art.
At these speeds there is trade off in accuracy. So what? The video shows that he can do exactly what he’s doing at the distances and number of targets and speed he demonstrates in the video. Nothing more, nothing less. And his shooting is good enough to hit multiple human sized targets under plausible distances, perhaps better for an action movie than against massed infanyry, but he shows that a bow can be plausibly and effectively used against multiple targets perhaps more effectively than with a spear, lance or sword.
I’m not convinced of that either, but I am convinced he’s faster than any archer I’ve seen and could plausibly hit multiple short range targets.
And, frankly, his nerdy awkwardness combined with his impressive speed and trick shooting is probably a large part of the appeal of the video. It’s a study in contrasts, like hearing that not conventionally attractive Scottish woman sing well on a talent contest.
That’s my point. They where ‘staged’ but not fake. He shot the arrows…and shot the target. In the Howard Hill stuff…yeah…all those archery babes just showed up with a film crew and dude with robin hood hair. Of course they were staged, I don’t see why being staged is a problem.
You just lost the game Zen! 
And I’m with Skeptic & TwlightZone on this - your job as an archer was to put your arrow in the general vicinity of your neighbour, not aiming at a specific dude. Andersen could most definitely slot into a line of massed archers. But the action movie style he’s showing is so much sexier and he is preternaturally good at it!
MacQuarrie can eat a quiver of arrrows. >.<
