Discussion: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Bullwhip

[Mulceber]

I got it from you:

In Addition to the whips supplied to the film By David Morgan and Terry Jacka, Whip maker Joe Strain also supplied 7 of his Indiana Jones Style bullwhips to the production of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

That's from the announcement about the KotCS bullwhips. :junior: -M

[BullWhipBorton]

I guess you did. I don’t know if Joes whips will be used on screen yet or not though. Hopefully they will show up at some point.

Kyle, I agree and as much as i like Davids heavy bullwhips, I also like the more ridged transition in Terrys whips.

Dan

[JMObi]

Does Mr Jacka have his own website?

[BullWhipBorton]

Not yet JMObi, It's something he is considering though.

Dan

[JMObi]

Not to take anything away from David Morgan's immense achievement, which is famous and never to be outdone, but one good thing about Delongis' encouraging the use of a Jacka whip for the new movie is that it maybe opens up recognition to other great whipmakers, in an Indy sort of context.

[McFly]

For what it's worth, you guys were talking about Anthony's training HF with certain whips on the previous page, and I happen to have photos of the whip he trained HF with. Here's the actual whip that HF used, according to Anthony *in person.* I believe this whip is 8' long.

Take it for what it's worth!





I didn't actually get to crack it - I stuck with my Stenhouse - but Floatin Joe used it. Joe's personal whip is a 10' Morgan, so he could probably tell us how stiff or loose the whip was, if that's of any interest.

This whip is not the long handled kind that Terry makes (the "DeLongis handle" whips, if you will).

Shane

[BullWhipBorton]

Hey Shane, Thanks so much for posting those great pictures here. If I am not mistaken that’s his black David Morgan Zorro bullwhip. He cut the wrist loop off it though. Nice whip, very differnt from the long handled jacka's he's know for using.

Dan

[thefish]

I thought that looked like a Morgan as well. The strands look too thick and wide for Jacka, and the knots are SIGNATURE Morgan, which supports everything that we've heard that said that Anthony trained Ford with what he logically assumed that the production would be using.

So, QUIT BLAMING TONY D. FOR THE WHIP YOU GUYS DON'T LIKE! ;-)

I'd blame Speilberg and Lucas, if I didn't like the whip. Good thing I do because I've already used all my "blame vouchers" for each of them. Spielbergs were used on AI and the miraculous "Guns To Walkie Talkies" bit in E.T. Georges were used on Star Wars: Ep's 1-3, (oh, and Howard the Duck! Oh, and Greedo Shooting First. OH! And the Star Wars Christmas Special from 77, which I thought had been a bad dream of my childhood until recently. Darn you Internet! Darn you to heck!)

And the rest of this is a little off-topic, but relates to what's been posted. If you don't care, quit reading ;-)

The Zorro whips with the silver ring were made by Joe Strain. Terry supplied no whips for Zorro. From what I've pieced together from Alex's stories, interviews with Anthony Hopkins, and talking to Joe, he hadn't exactly planned to make them either.

Joe had made a "Signature Bullwhip" for Alex Green, who was doubling for Anthony Hopkins in the action scenes. Anthony and Alex had worked together before, (same relationship. Their build is very similar, and Alex had doubled for him on a film years before where they'd become friends.)

Alex was messing around with a bullwhip one day during some downtime on the set, and Hopkins just thought it looked amazing, and asked to give it a shot. He took to it like a fish to water, and he and director Martin Campbell decided to work it into the training scenes with Banderas. They used the whip that Joe had made Alex, rather than the long Black Indy-Style bullwhips supplied by David Morgan for the opening action scene, (Chances are, the Morgan whips, which were production company assets, weren't anywhere NEAR the soundstage where they shot the "Lair of the Fox" scenes. That wasn't written into the production assets for those scenes, so the property master wouldn't have ordered them to be delivered there. Alex though, would have had his personal whips with him, and so they used them instead, and who can blame them? The sleek design, multiple decorative Spanish knots, and silver ferrule just SCREAMS Zorro.)

Alex contacted Joe to make another, and gifted it to Anthony Hopkins at the end of production. Mark Allen pursued official license from the Zorro holding company, and the rest is history.

I am kind of curious now though, as Strain is no longer a wholesale supplier to Mark Allen's Western Stage Props, what will happen with that? They've always advertised the Zorro whip as the officially licensed whip "made by the craftsman who supplied them for the movie," and Mark's notorious for never updating the copy or images on the WSP website or in the catalog, (except for the prices, that is. Those ALWAYS seem to be updated, as long as they're going up.)

Not that there is a difference in quality. Mark has some of the best whipmakers in the world still supplying him, (Four of which I can think of off the top of my head are on this forum,) and I know that one or two of them would have no trouble tackling the Zorro whip, (especially as one of them has the screen used whip for reference, and if another wants to give it a shot, she can just go downstairs to the workshop, pull it off the wall, and examine it.)

Joe isn't making the Zorro whips the same way he made the original about 10 years ago anyway, (Joe was pretty young back then, and hadn't been making whips long. He's improved on the design and in his skills greatly since then.) But still...Truth in advertising? Hmmm...

-The Other Dan

[JStrain]

I still make the Zorro and Alex Green whips for Western Stage Props.
--Joe

[JMObi]

Ahhh, that takes me back....the Star Wars Christmas special from '77! I had almost recovered from that. Chewbacca and his mad treehouse family whining the whole time.

[thefish]

I still make the Zorro and Alex Green whips for Western Stage Props.
--Joe

Thanks for the info, Joe. That's good to know. I wondered how that would go down now.

-D

[McFly]

Oh! I apologize to Joe et. al. for mis-speaking. I've edited my above post. I had thought it was a Zorro whip I used at Anthony's ranch, but actually, IIRC, it was more like this Jacka Whip below (with the "DeLongis Handle"), with a bit of silver tape or something just below the ring knot.


http://www.aussiesaddle.com/shootist/Sh ... 0Whips.htm

Also, I do recall Anthony saying that the black whip on his chest is a Morgan. Good eye, guys!

EDIT: I found some pictures from the whip training session, with the whips that Anthony was letting us mess around with. I think you can see why I got it confused with the Zorro whips. Apologies again to Mr. Strain!





(One more: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/ ... gis036.jpg )

Shane

[BullWhipBorton]

Mark's notorious for never updating the copy or images on the WSP website or in the catalog, (except for the prices, that is. Those ALWAYS seem to be updated, as long as they're going up.)

Man isnt that the truth!

Again, great photos Shane. Those are whips that Terry makes with the “Delongis” style target handle. Anthony told me he likes to use those because, with the longer handle they act like a bullwhip stock whip hybrid and that the added length gives him more distance between him and the whip when working on horseback. Also notice how he ties up those wrist loops, like on the Indy 4 whips. I want to get one of those long handled whips before too long.

Joe, thanks for adding in. I seem to recall being told that Terry made a few of the Alex Green/Zorro type whips at one time too. They where similar but still quite different looking.
Dan

[hollywood1340]

I asked Mary about the tape, it's Mylar tape that denotes the length. 2 stripes is 7 feet, 8 feet is three stripes.