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EleanorLuke
EleanorLuke
Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 18 2011, 11:09 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 18 2011, 11:09 AM EDT
Why did he have to lay down and put his head on the block and the others like More and Cromwell only had to kneel?
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Keyword tags: execution block
MsSquirrly
MsSquirrly
1. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 18 2011, 1:51 PM EDT | Post edited: Jun 18 2011, 2:30 PM EDT
"Why did he have to lay down and put his head on the block and the others like More and Cromwell only had to kneel?
"
Having a look at the pictures and comparing, I think its just a case of the size of the block. Buckingham's block was lower and smaller so he couldn't just kneel. In reality, the block that they have at the tower is taller and more like the execution scenes in the series for More and Cromwell.

Check out this comparion of the blocks : http://tudorswiki.sho.com/photo/12357630/Execution+blocks Do you find this valuable?    
EleanorLuke
EleanorLuke
2. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 3:54 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 3:54 AM EDT
Yes,I see.
But why didn't he have a normal block?
I somehow think that it would be harder for the executioner to kill him with one stroke when he is so low on the ground.

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Elliemental
Elliemental
3. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 4:27 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 4:27 AM EDT
"Yes,I see.
But why didn't he have a normal block?
I somehow think that it would be harder for the executioner to kill him with one stroke when he is so low on the ground.

"
I'm sure it wasn't like that in reality. 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
EleanorLuke
EleanorLuke
4. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 5:31 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 5:31 AM EDT
Yes I am aware,but why show it like that in the show?
I don't have problems with historical inaccuracies but these little things bug me especially when I don't have an explanation for them.
Couldn't they just shoot it with a normal block? It's not like they didn't have one... 0  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
Elliemental
Elliemental
5. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 5:45 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 5:45 AM EDT
"Yes I am aware,but why show it like that in the show?
I don't have problems with historical inaccuracies but these little things bug me especially when I don't have an explanation for them.
Couldn't they just shoot it with a normal block? It's not like they didn't have one..."
Thomas Culpeper didn't!

Either way, it's hardly an inaccuracy (especially given the other glaring inaccuracies in the show). When William Hastings was summarily executed by Richard III, it is said that he was forced to lie at a bit old lumbar.
Sorry, but I just don't see why dodgy set props matter, when they're riding rough shod over major historical events/people. 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
Elliemental
Elliemental
6. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 5:51 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 5:51 AM EDT
Also, taller block was no guarantee of first stroke success. Edward Stafford himself suffered three strokes of the axe to sever his head, as did Mary Queen of Scots. Cromwell, Robert Devereaux, Walter Raliegh and countless others, quite frankly. 1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?    
EleanorLuke
EleanorLuke
7. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 7:20 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 7:20 AM EDT
Culpepper's execution also left me confused...why didn't he have a block???

It's not that these things matter,I'm just curious why they did it in that way.

And I know taller block doesn't mean that the execution will be successful,but somehow I have the feeling that the executioner would have to bend his knees and back while the victim is in the position as Buckingham was and it would be alot harder for him to do the job well. Do you find this valuable?    
freya9
freya9
8. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 7:43 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 7:43 AM EDT
I think as there so many scaffold scenes in the series they were trying to make them as different as possible. Do you find this valuable?    
Elliemental
Elliemental
9. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 10:13 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 10:13 AM EDT
"Culpepper's execution also left me confused...why didn't he have a block???

It's not that these things matter,I'm just curious why they did it in that way.

And I know taller block doesn't mean that the execution will be successful,but somehow I have the feeling that the executioner would have to bend his knees and back while the victim is in the position as Buckingham was and it would be alot harder for him to do the job well."
He might get repetitive strain injury! :O Medieval Health and Safety sucked!! Do you find this valuable?    
Elliemental
Elliemental
10. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 19 2011, 10:14 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 19 2011, 10:14 AM EDT
"I think as there so many scaffold scenes in the series they were trying to make them as different as possible. "
Exactly! Really, there is only so much that you can do. Do you find this valuable?    
MsSquirrly
MsSquirrly
11. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 20 2011, 8:09 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 20 2011, 8:09 AM EDT
"I think as there so many scaffold scenes in the series they were trying to make them as different as possible. "
Yes, I think Freya9 has hit the nail on the head (lol so to speak). If you read the production notes for Season 4 where the director talks about the execution scenes, they did try to give each of them a different feeling.

Here is a quote: "I’ve done quite a number of executions over the course of the past four seasons and each of them has its own individual visual style; otherwise the audience is simply going to think, ‘oh well here’s another execution’ without seeing the particular meaning of each one. So for instance the execution of Thomas More (Jeremy Northam) I was very much trying to get the terror and loneliness of what it might feel like to be up there on that platform before some man is about to cut your head off. At that time there was a lot of awful news coming out of Iraq about beheadings and I suppose that influenced the very in which I thought of the scene from the point of view of the person about to be executed. So in that scene we shot it from the platform looking down at the crowd. In this season we have the execution of Katherine Howard which I took from a very different point of view. My interpretation of the scene and the character is that she has been used and in fact lusted after by the men of Henry’s court. She’s a very young girl who has been offered to the King as a kind of plaything..... Do you find this valuable?    
MsSquirrly
MsSquirrly
12. RE: Question about Buckingham's execution
Jun 20 2011, 8:11 AM EDT | Post edited: Jun 20 2011, 8:11 AM EDT
Contd...

So I see her as a lost innocent in a very masculine and cruel world. Normally we stage our executions within the walls of the Tower of London but in her case we’ve moved it to a town square where there will be a much bigger and more varied crowd who kind of stand in for the audience. I want to show a sense of collective bewilderment and even horror that such a young girl should be executed by the King at his whim.

So, this execution has a very different feel: the shots are quite slow, the editing has its own pace, and the crowd is totally silent. Its also staged in such a way that she is executed after her lady in waiting which only serves to underline her own terror as she approaches the bloody block.

By way of contrast, the executions of her former lovers Dereham and Culpepper are rowdy, riotous affairs - like some kind of Saturday afternoon football match, reflecting the fact that no one felt any sympathy at all for them. The camerawork in those is all hand held and shot right down amongst the crowd so we feel what it might have been like to go out and ‘enjoy’ an execution - shouting, throwing vegetables and all the rest - in Tudor times. it’s a total circus."

http://tudorswiki.sho.com/page/CREATORS+of+The+Tudors Do you find this valuable?