Hollywood and Guns

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Outlaw75 said:
As far as Westerns goofs go; there's not much that beats Berry Pepper in the Coen Bros. True Grit remake holding his 1875 Remington right beside his ear and firing off a signal shot without flinching.
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As long as we're talking about Barry Pepper let's not forget the 450 yard shot with no bullet drop in Saving Private Ryan.

It's not gun related but I liked the scene in We Were Soldiers where he drops his camera on the ground then comes back later and it's hanging from a tree.

Just as a piece of trivia the scene where CSM Plumley hands him an M-16 and tells him "There's no non-combatants today sonny." Actually happened just not on that day. Joe Galloway was shadowing a Special Forces A-Team that was in danger of being overrun three weeks earlier. An SF Officer gave him the rifle and he showed up at Ia Drang already carrying it. This is according to the book he and LTG Hal Moreland wrote, We Were Soldiers Once....And Young.
 
It was just a little different take on the same tale IMO and not in a good way. If you liked it I'm happy that you did. You already know my opinion of it. While we are at it I will say the same about the remake of "The Magnificent Seven".
 
doubleh said:
My apologies to any that liked the thing but the True Grit remake stunk, period.
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Say whaaat? The re-make was actually quite worthy in its own right, and the gal was terrific, should've gotten an Oscar. Smarmy Matt Damon, evil Josh Brolin and fabulous Jeff Bridges.

They're two different movies. The original, IMO, is an awesome movie.

The re-make of The Magnificent Seven, however, should never have happened.

I'm with Spats on how in so many movies and TV shows, bad guy goes down, good guy walks right past bad guy's weapon and doesn't collect it ... (cringe-worthy moments, for sure).

I'm more mellow now though -- I don't judge movies based solely on their firearms inaccuracies. Although, to be sure, blatant gun goofs nag the heck out of me and do interrupt sometimes what is otherwise a good picture ...

For those of you who allow firearms inaccuracies to ruin your enjoyment of movies or television shows (or music -- we all know the Chicago PD didn't carry .44s, c'mon now Mick Jagger), though, rather makes me think that you look at everything in life so critically. It's just entertainment, guys ...
 
Old Dog said:
I'm with Spats on how in so many movies and TV shows, bad guy goes down, good guy walks right past bad guy's weapon and doesn't collect it ... (cringe-worthy moments, for sure)
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My Dad was critical of the dropped empty gun and even more so, the dropped empty canteen. "What is he going to do when he gets to the water hole?"
 
In the movie Pony Express-set in 1861-Charlton Heston as Buffalo Bill (he was 14 at the time)-carries Colt SAAs. In The Alamo Richard Widmark carries a Nock Volley Gun. I'd like to find one of the left handed Mauser M1893s the Spanish troops carry in Rough Riders.
 
Can't find the clip, but one of my all time favorite gun related scenes is from the 2005 movie "Sahara". When Steve Zahn's character is dropping his weapons and has about 10 handguns concealed. Gives me a warm feeling every time I see it.
 
Old Dog said:
Say whaaat? The re-make was actually quite worthy in its own right, and the gal was terrific, should've gotten an Oscar. Smarmy Matt Damon, evil Josh Brolin and fabulous Jeff Bridges ...
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This is why the saying about opinions originated. You got yours and I got mine. I'll agree Matt was smarmy and Josh was evil but that doesn't add up to a good movie IMO. Rest of the bunch was hard to take. In real life someone would have shot them just because of their general attitude. :D
 
jmr40 said:
It's not just guns. And when filming a movie it is pretty darn hard to get all of the props accurately in place. As gun guys we tend to notice the firearm errors, but you have movies set in 1968 and see 1970 model cars in scenes. Hairstyles, clothes, shoes, etc., are very often out of place. Even movies that are based on historical events are often very inaccurate. Certain scenes, and dialog may be pretty close, but rarely the whole movie. Remember, it is entertainment.
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Your post reminded me of a western movie I was watching when I spotted a jet streaking across the sky.
 
Cannibul, you haven't been watching Murdoch mysteries on ion plus over weekends. 1900, Toronto Canada, Chief detective Murdoch, when he carries has a .38. His boss takes along a side by side 12 gauge with exterior hammers and the local bobbies use a baton or a Winchester lever action. It's a take-off Sherlock Holmes tv series, with modern inventions such as finger marks, blood splatter morticians and forensic photography. Their firearm usage is good, but their photography is bad as in 1900 film was terribly slow and they take pics without flash in dark prison cells.
 
I like the new true grit. Its a good thing when a movie uses acting, cinematography, and storytelling rather than CGI, explosions and nudity and is successful. Gives me a little hope for decent cinema. Not that I'm opposed to those other things but they are used entirely to much.

More often than not the actual armorers on set do a decent job of the gun realism these days. Anachronism aside. Unfortunately in editing and sound rooms it often falls apart. The reload was cut from the final. Muzzle flash added. Etc. It's not as common to see a Glock turn into a Beretta between takes these days. Believe it or not it used to be worse. Less use of obvious "non-guns" too.
 
In Rough Riders John Parker's Gatling guns are depicted correctly but he is shown as a clean shaven young lieutenant, in reality he was 35 and known as "Blackie" for his luxuriant beard. The Spanish have Maxim machine guns-but are lousy shots-if they had actually used them that battle would have turned out a lot differently. Ned Buntkine had 5 Buntline Specials made up and presented to famous lawmen, one of them found the long barrel ineffective and had it shortened.
The Nock Volley Gun was a Great Idea That Didn't Work, firing one with full charges is like trying to fire seven Brown Besses at once.
 
Kevin Rohrer said:
Rough Riders was an underrated movie and Beranger should have won an Oscar for his acting. Everyone should see it.
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I certainly agree that it was a good flick, and Berenger has done great work over the years (some of his job choices have been a little questionable, but he's always credible).
Trunk Monkey said:
There's a truck driving down the road behind John Wayne in Big Jake
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All these years and I've missed that. It's in my DVD collection, now I've gotta watch it again ...
 
I bought a S&W 6906 because I thought it was a cool looking gun. The off-duty police officer in the robbery scene at the end of "Point Break" was where I first saw it. Tank of a weapon and surprisingly accurate.
 
I'll agree that tossing away an empty canteen never made sense to me. when I was hiking I never threw away a canteen just because it was empty.

I would like to see a gun fight scene where one participant shoots his gun empty, throws the empty gun at his opponent, who has spare ammo that would fit it.
 
I was watching a show a few weeks ago where the "good guy" has the "bad guy" at gunpoint, holding a Sig P229, cue commercial break...back from the break the "good guy" now has a Glock. This same show had a gunfight scene where it was obvious they were using non-firing prop guns with CGI muzzle flashes. The"bad guy" has a hostage and the "good guy" drops his ar-15 and pulls his pistol, as they were separated by about 15-20 feet. I told my wife that is a shot that even Ray Charles could make, and I would have kept the rifle up. And there was the never needing to reload" scene where there must have been 500 rounds fired and no one got hit.

I gave up on Hollywood getting it right, even with "expert advisors" on scene.
 
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