Historic Replicas

Marinara sauce, meet Tex-Mex. The rise of the “Spaghetti Western” genre in the 1960s was unlikely as it was immediately successful. Led by influential film director Sergio Leone and embodied by American movie star Clint Eastwood, the genre married Western tropes with an Italian visual sensibility. It just so happened that the Andalusia region of Spain bore a striking resemblance to parts of the American Southwest, so the director took advantage and saved big on production costs.

Spaghetti Westerns subverted a few of the conventions of traditional Westerns as created in Hollywood films of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. For example, rather than casting the hero in a pure light and the villain in an evil one, all characters dealt with moral struggles and were painted with shades of gray. Some of the authentic western guns the actors used have been emulated in the form of historic replicas.

In a very real sense, Vikings were a precursor to our modern-day version of terrorists. The Vikings rose to power shortly after a major plague outbreak decimated much of Europe’s population. The kingdoms that remained in England, France and much of the rest of Western Europe were small and comparatively weak. They didn’t yet have the major fortifications and embattlements that would protect against an onslaught.

The Viking swords were sharp and formidable, but their real secret to success involved water travel. Their boats featured shallow hulls, allowing them to pass quickly through rivers and far into the interior of England. There they would collect plunder and perform serious acts of violence on peasants and royals alike. In the end, European kingdoms were forced to band together and build better castles for defense.

This is a continuation for our last blog entitled Ancient Japan…

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, Japan was engulfed in an ongoing war for land between the three ruling families:  the Minamoto, Fujiwara, and the Taira clans.  This epic struggle for control of the Japanese islands produced the samurai; astonishingly, they resembled the European knights in practically every way.  Both rode horses, wore elaborate japanese armor, and used exquisite, ceremonial historical weapons - samuari swords.  Both swore allegiance to a landowner (in Japan, they were known as Daimyo), and were eventually given land of their own.  The most remarkable similarity, though, was in the behavior; the knights had their code of chivalry, the samurai, their Bushido, or “Way of the Warrior”.  Bushido will be the topic of our next blog.