A movie that almost got it gun perfect

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tark

tark

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The movie is "Shout at the Devil" and it is a 1976 release. Set in east Africa in 1913, it is an adventure/ comedy, with lots of gunplay and action. It is a bit slow at times and probably thirty minutes could have been edited out, but it is the action and gunplay that will interest us. Long story short, all of the guns are period correct and used properly. The English carry Mk 1 Lee-metfords and early Lee enfield's. Webley's that only fire six times. The Germans carry 1898 Mausers. The Askari's carry a hodgepodge of of old Martinis and even a few muzzle loaders. Just like they did in real life. The villain is packing a C-96

Lee Marvin was excellent as a drunken ivory hunter. There are some excellent hunting scenes, and Lee Marvin stimulated the recoil of his double barreled elephant gun so realistically I had to wonder if they were filming him shooting live ammo away from the set.. Roger Moore gives a fine performance. The radiant Barbara Parkins is also quite good.

I found it on You Tube for free. There is one irritation, free YT movies have commercials. This one has a lot of them, but they are easily skipped.

Almost perfect...there is one scene that for a brief second, shows a German sailor holding a Martini-Henry carbine.
 
Cool.... I always try to verify TV & movies gun usage in the time frame being depicted but I'm no expert. Although sometimes the mistakes are quite obvious even to an amateur like me. Never saw that particular movie but 1913 was during an interesting era in firearm history. I'd give it a viewing just to see some of the guns mentioned. Especially in a period correct setting.
 
Pretty sure the author of the book that film was made from.. was Wilbur Smith. For anyone into historic action stuff he's hard to beat. Haven't seen anything new from him but I keep looking (I'm a used book junky). His early settler hunting and fighting set in Africa are particularly interesting - pretty well researched from what little I know...
 
Thanks for the reco. Don't think I've see it before. Will definitely add it to my "save for later" list.
 
The movie sounds familiar. Also, like a good time even if I have seen it already. It might convince me to get the No. 1 Mk. III pictured in my avatar out and shoot it.

Thanks!
 
The Askaris would have been carrying M1871 Mausers. It's sort of based on the saga of the German cruiser SMS Koenigsberg.
 
BLACKHAWKNJ said:
The Askaris would have been carrying M1871 Mausers. It's sort of based on the saga of the German cruiser SMS Koenigsberg.
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The Askari's I referred to were with the Brits. But you make a good point. Oh,. well. I did say "almost perfect."
 
bannockburn said:
tark

One of the most "gun perfect" movies I can think of is "The Wind and the Lion"

Check it sometime; I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
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I have seen it and you are right. It is excellent. John Milius directed it and he is a total gun person. "The Sand Pebbles", with Steve McQueen is another one of my favorites. A nineteen year old Candy Bergen starred in her very first movie. She is in both of these movies.
 
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Believe it or not, one of the very, very few John Wayne movies that got almost everything correct was Rio Grande. From the 1873 Springfield trapdoor carbines to the proper clothing/boots and the McClellan saddles though Ford had the suspenders done in yellow. This was done because yellow showed up better in black and white against the dark blue uniforms. Even the fort was set up correctly.
 
Lee Marvin is a real hoot in this film. A departure from his usual type-cast role as a steely-eyed wild west gunslinger.
 
kje54 said:
Believe it or not, one of the very, very few John Wayne movies that got almost everything correct was Rio Grande. From the 1873 Springfield trapdoor carbines to the proper clothing/boots and the McClellan saddles though Ford had the suspenders done in yellow. This was done because yellow showed up better in black and white against the dark blue uniforms. Even the fort was set up correctly.
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John Ford knew how to make a movie! And thanks for the tip. I'll watch it soon.
bannockburn said:
tark

Yeah you really had to love "The Sand Pebbles" with the '03 Springfields, the BAR, and especially the Lewis guns!
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What really impressed me is the scene where McQueen has to shoot poor Po-han. He grabs the 03 from another sailor, estimates the range, adjusts the rear sight and flips off the safety before firing.
 
tark said:
John Ford knew how to make a movie! And thanks for the tip. I'll watch it soon.

What really impressed me is the scene where McQueen has to shoot poor Po-han. He grabs the 03 from another sailor, estimates the range, adjusts the rear sight and flips off the safety before firing.
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And Ford didn't even want Wayne in the movie.
 
LIke Moore in the movie way better than his Bond... Tark's right, got the gun stuff almost perfect, for sure. Just a fun movie with some good action sequences.

Watching some old Westerns, even some considered "classics" where the period gun stuff is flawed (Winchester 73s, 86s, 92 or even 94s used in flicks set ten, fifteen or twenty years before those rifles were introduced drove me nuts) doesn't automatically ruin a movie for me, but when the gun stuff is spot-on (Ford, Milius, Michael Mann, only a few others), it can deepen my appreciation for the movie and its directors/producers.

tark said:
"The Sand Pebbles", with Steve McQueen is another one of my favorites.
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McQueen could run a gun. Besides this scene,
tark said:
He grabs the 03 from another sailor, estimates the range, adjusts the rear sight and flips off the safety before firing.
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the movie got a lot of the Navy stuff correct as well (being an old Sailor, I appreciate that). Lots of attention to detail in The Sand Pebbles.
 
tark

What really impressed me so much with "The Sand Pebbles", besides the weaponry and the actors knowing what they were doing with it, was just the simple fact that the whole gunboat attack on the boom was all live action; no CGI, no animation. no miniatures. Just actors, and lots of stuntmen, on a real gunboat doing what they do best; making the whole scene look so very real and so very intense!

Old Dog

And if you want to see more of Steve McQueen in action with guns, watch "The Magnificent Seven" sometime. The opening sequence were he borrows a shotgun from the stagecoach guard so he can ride shotgun with Yul Brynner driving the hearse up to Boot Hill, is priceless. I love the way McQueen steals the scene from Brynner by opening the shotgun up and then shaking the shot shells. As you know back then cardboard was used to make the shells and when they would get wet they might swell up, and not work properly. McQueen knew this and used it to his advantage to one up Brynner!
 
There is a 4 part series along the lines of BoB and The Pacific and made in Germany titled 'Generation War'. As a military history buff I must say that the weapons' accuracy depicted is about as spot on as any I've ever seen.
 
bannockburn said:
tark

What really impressed me so much with "The Sand Pebbles", besides the weaponry and the actors knowing what they were doing with it, was just the simple fact that the whole gunboat attack on the boom was all live action; no CGI, no animation. no miniatures. Just actors, and lots of stuntmen, on a real gunboat doing what they do best; making the whole scene look so very real and so very intense!

Old Dog

And if you want to see more of Steve McQueen in action with guns, watch "The Magnificent Seven" sometime. The opening sequence were he borrows a shotgun from the stagecoach guard so he can ride shotgun with Yul Brynner driving the hearse up to Boot Hill, is priceless. I love the way McQueen steals the scene from Brynner by opening the shotgun up and then shaking the shot shells. As you know back then cardboard was used to make the shells and when they would get wet they might swell up, and not work properly. McQueen knew this and used it to his advantage to one up Brynner!
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Seen that one as well. McQueen was a Marine from 1947-50 and he knew how to handle a gun. The B.A.R. he handled in the Sand Pebbles was a period correct 1918 model, with a semi / full auto mode and no bipod. Those had one rate of automatic fire.
 
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