mangonel

In contrast to the book, in which bloodletting plays a diminished role and the Telmarines are routed fairly quickly, the latter third of the film is little more than nonstop swordplay, clanking mangonels, and clashing battle lines--in a word, the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in Tolkien's masterpiece, but without the ringwraiths or the gravitas.

Making an untrained man a knight made no more sense in the Middle Ages than making an untrained volunteer a jet-fighter pilot does today The film also exaggerates military technology, showing the armies' siege machines (called mangonels) hurling enormous fiery projectiles that explode like bombs.

Legislative attempts to curb bloodfeuds occurred as early as 1100 when Pisa limited the height of towers and forbade private possession of catapults, mangonels, crossbows and ammunition.