STACK #250 August 2025

MOVIE FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

Claes Bang with Nick Hamm

sometimes we filmed at 3000 metres. The air is thin and you’re exhausted so much faster than you are at sea level, even if you start to get used to it. It was a whole lot of running up and down mountains and being really knackered when you got home,” he laughs. Directed by Nick Hamm ( Godsend, Killing Bono ) and starring an ensemble cast including Jonathan Pryce, Ben Kingsley, Rafe Spall, and Connor Swindells, the film pays great attention to detail, depicting life in the 14th century as earnestly as possible. William Tell, for example, is a master archer, holstering and dispensing arrows like a skilled assassin. It’s his trade, after all, and getting those details right was fundamental to the film’s authenticity. “I did a lot of rehearsing to familiarise myself with that weapon, because it did need to look as though I'd been with it for 40 years. And the rehearsing was all about the palpable tactile

Even those unfamiliar with the story of William Tell will recognise the iconic image of the folk hero shooting an apple off his son’s head with an arrow. Words Glenn Cochrane I t’s an image etched in lore BANG ON TARGET GENRE: Action War RUN TIME: 2h 13m

stuff, like how goes he go about it, and it had to become an extension of him.” Having an entire production of people on set handling crossbows also proved to be tricky in terms of maintaining a safe working environment while also striving for authenticity. “We had so many people on set with crossbows that we had five armourers on set, I think. And it wasn’t long before this film that another movie had a fatal accident,” he explains, referring to the Rust tragedy. “The thing is, if you have a gun you can put a blank in it and you can fire it, and we totally believe that it’s real. But if you take a crossbow and you span it and you put a bolt on it, the actual bolt is visible. So you now have a live weapon

from a story handed down throughout the generations. Incredibly, it’s been 65 years since the last film adaptation of the classic story, a fact that actor Clae Bangs relished. For Bangs, the Danish actor who headlined Netflix’s critically acclaimed Dracula series, the opportunity to explore this iconic folklore and get to its historical roots was important. “That is the odd thing about it. That it’s such a massive story and such a massive legend, but it’s never been committed to film before [contemporarily speaking]. “Being European, I thought I knew the story about this guy who, for some reason, was shooting an apple off his son’s head. And this is embarrassing, but I thought that he probably did it as part of a travelling circus or something, travelling the countryside. “But, of course, I found out there was so much more to it. It’s a freedom story, It’s about liberation and freedom. It’s a story about people kicking out an aggressor that is trying to take over their land. And that

FUN FACT

particular scene is that whole dilemma put onto one character who is forced to take a stand.” Thematically akin to Braveheart and aesthetically similar to Robin Hood, William Tell is an epic, sweeping saga, which was shot on location in the Swiss Alps, which proved to be a difficult time for the production. “It was quite full-on working there. Because I think where we stayed was at 1200 metres and

Claes Bang is a singer/ songwriter in a band called This Is Not America, which he describes as a cross between Gangway, Depeche Mode, and Pet Shop Boys.

in your hands, and that is very dangerous and we could not have that. “So, we had all kinds of bows. Pre-spanned ones. Pre-bolted, where everything was fixated but you couldn’t release it, but it looks like you had a loaded bow in

• William Tell is out Aug 13

your hands. I mean the security measurements were immense.”

IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU’LL LOVE THESE: YOU’LL THESE :

Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Black Death, The Northman

32 AUGUST 2025

jbhifi.com.au