Besides, if you start at low poundage, which they would have, your muscles would be much more than strong enough to keep your back straight. The only thing I liked about the Rodin Hood movie of a few years ago was how massive Russel Crow's character's back was.

I'm pretty sure that Boromir had chainmail on his whole upper body.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Now, chainmail on the whole of the upper body would make sense- but, if I recall correctly, and I might not, the costume only covered the whole arm (now that I look at a picture). But that was from a book that I saw a while ago that showed his costume as only having chainmail sleeves, and I may remember wrong.

And yes, that Robin Hood was absolutely awful.

_________________
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

I think that was to save time. Since they didn't show the whole thing, why would they bother making a full suit?

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

They did make him a full suit of armour for the extended edition of The Two Towers.

Making chain mail takes a very long time (speaking out of experience), but the chain mail used in the films are made of a lighter material.
Probably machine made and re-used by other actors.

Denethor for example had a really big chain mail shirt.

The mail in the films was not machine made. It was all done by hand, maybe you should watch 'the making of'' more often.

_________________
"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

Interesting. As for why wouldn't they make him a full suit, I don't know. But I do know that Gimli had a 200lbs suit of armor that had to be taken off and put back on for shots at the bottom and tops of hills.

If you can do that, then why not extend a bit more mail for Boromir? And yes, they did make a full suit for the Two Towers, but he didn't take that to Rivendell.

_________________
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Indeed he didn't take his full body armour to Rivendell, but my point is, that why not make a full chain mail hauberk if they can make a full body armour for a deleted scene?

I still think it was over his upper body, we only saw it on his arms because that's where it showed beneath the cloth.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

I'll call it suspension of disbelief. Anyhow, the point is that chainmail, unless extremely well made, will not stop an arrow from a 100+ lbs bow if it is a direct hit. Slow it down, yes. Enough to get it to stick into... probably not.

For instance, one can, at a distance of 20 yards, put an arrow from a 45lbs bow into a bull elk. This arrow will blow through both sides of the elk, including breaking ribs if it has to (and if it's engineered properly- meaning if the fletching is properly aligned with the type of bow, being right or left hand draw, the alignment of the blades on the head, etc).

Now, I think we could all agree that a bull elk is tougher than a human, yes? And I think that, while it doesn't wear chainmail, the difference of +55lbs, at minimum, would make up for the difference, yes? So, I think that one can safely say that Lurtz could put an arrow through Boromir, unless it was a horribly engineered arrow, or his bow was weaker than it seemed.

_________________
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

@ Valamir: A valid point indeed, but the point that his bow might be weaker and his arrows because it are orc made weapons should be noted.
The audience had to see that he was getting shot at with arrows, and it would be weird that he somehow has a gaping hole where.

Lurtz was a big uruk, huge muscles and I think that he was a skilled (skilled enough) archer and he would have a bow around the 75+lbs. (not based on anything)

Personally I don't think that orcs should have bad equipement and are bad archers.
They are a race bred only for war and destruction, so that means that their smiths, fletchers etc. should have some experience in making their materials.
We don't know clearly how old orcs are when they are send to war, how much training they had, what sort of training, how they are organized.

If orcs have the same life span of humans, and age the same they should be as strong as humans, and as skilled as humans.

The books make it pretty clear that Orcs, being "mockeries" are not as powerful, skilled and intelligent as Men, Elves and Dwarves by simple virtue of their nature. Uruk-hai, which were bred specially (I suppose in the way modern farmers breed cows and soforth for size, etc) were supposed to be Man-high and as fast as Men, with better organization and skill.

Sauron thought of "normal" Orcs as fodder troops and didn't care how many lived or (more likely) died. He didn't put great resources into their equipment.

Either Shagrat or Gorbag mentions "the siege" in the books, and it's been heavily implied that they were talking about the Battle of Dagorlad and siege of Barad-dur during the Last Alliance. It makes it seem as though they were there, which would give Orcs a lifespan more in line with Elves. Of course, it's all fan speculation.

_________________
Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

I would not be surprised if orcs did have that type of longevity, but the point regarding orcish equipment is a valid one. However, I do believe that Saruman would have spent more time on his, seeing as he had limited resources and needed his troops to have a certain degree of survivability because one can only breed uruks so fast.

_________________
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

They made underclothes for Gandalf even though they knew it wouldn't ever appear on screen, so I think they would

_________________
"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

Ha! One would think so, indeed.

_________________
"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

That was to give the look that he was actually wearing undergarments.

_________________
"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.