the 10 best movie gunfights of all time

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In no particular order

True Grit final shoot out. Either movie. I like the Duke, but Jeff Bridges version was closer to the book.
Gus, from Lonesome Dove, 2 different scenes while going after Lori.
Open Range final shootout.
Saving Private Ryan, 2-3 good scenes in that movie.
Fury, tank shootout.
Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven bar scene. "You killed an unarmed man. Well, he should have armed himself."
Clint Eastwood, Josie Wales. Several.
 
Collateral has some really great, simple gunfights with very good nonverbal acting by Tom Cruise. I could really believe that he's a highly competent contract killer just by how smoothly he handles a pistol.


My favorite movie of all time - L.A. Confidential - also has a great down-and-dirty gunfight at the end. Very gritty action, no over-the-top gunplay. Just a couple of desperate guys using every dirty trick to keep a whole squad of attackers from breaking into their position. Vintage shotguns and revolvers get a lot of play here:
 
Not exactly a "gunfight" -- more like urban warfare, but this scene from Children of Men always gives me chills:



If you haven't seen the movie, it's set in an imagined future when mankind has stopped reproducing for some unknown reason. The baby is the first child that has been born in the world in 18 years, and everybody wants to get a hold of her, for various reasons. Meanwhile, there's an uprising in England against the government as the world goes into panic mode about the end of the human race.
 
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toivo said:
Not exactly a "gunfight" -- more like urban warfare, but this scene from Children of Men always gives me chills:
Click to expand...

I love that film, it's in my top 5 for sure. That scene just seems to capture the random terror and chaos of urban warfare so well. Hostiles all around, bullets and shrapnel flying everywhere, and you just think oh no, any second now the main characters are going to get hit.
 
I enjoy it when these "Best movie shootout.." threads come up.
If for no other reason than bringing up the older classics and then also reminding me about how out of touch with current movies I really am... o_O
 
jmorris said:
The 12+ shot "six shooter" in the open range clip around 25 seconds in was pretty funny.

They don't even make those mistakes is dumb movies.

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The 12 shot pistol in Open Range was actually two six shot pistols. Costner switches guns during the fight. If you look closely you can see him with a 7 1/2 and then a 5 1/2. He started the fight with both. One holstered and one in his belt.. In an interview he was asked about this faux pas and he explained saying the editors had cut the part of the scene where he changes guns. He said he was livid when he found out but it was too late. This was not a dumb movie mistake except on the part of the editors. Don't get me wrong I'm not really a Costner fan but this one scene has caught way too much flack.
 
J-Bar pointed that out in #41, I just watched the clip not the DVD commentary.
 
My vote is for "The Unforgiven" as I expect it is closest to reality.

I have to tell one story though - my Mom told us when she was still a kid (1930s) in south Texas,she went to the Saturday movie. She said an old man came into the theater sort of walking around in awe and said he said he had never been to a picture show before. My Mom and her friends sort of giggled and went to their seats. When they were showing the Roy Rogers serial, there was a scene where Black Bart (or whoever the bad guy was) was up on a rock above Roy and was going to bushwhack him, My Mom said the guy popped up and loudly yelled out "Look out, Roy...the son-of-a-bitch is gonna jump ya!"
 
Once Upon a Time in the West (Someone Get This Man a Harmonica!)
Lawrence of Arabia (What Can I Say?)
John Wick (Great Movie, Great Action, Great Guns)
Reservoir Dogs (Lousy Movie, Great Guns)
Jeepers Creepers 2 (Great Movie, Great "Post Puncher" Gun)

Viggo Tarasov: It's not what you did, son, that angers me so. It's who you did it to.
Iosef Tarasov: Who? That f---ing nobody?
Viggo Tarasov: That "f---in' nobody"... is John Wick. He once was an associate of ours. They call him Baba Yaga.
Iosef Tarasov: "The Boogeyman"?
Viggo Tarasov: Well John wasn't exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the f---in' Boogeyman.
Iosef Tarasov: [stunned] Oh.
Viggo Tarasov: John is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will... something you know very little about. I once saw him kill three men in a bar... with a pencil. With a f---in'... pencil. Then suddenly one day he asked to leave. It's over a woman, of course. So I made a deal with him. I gave him an impossible task. A job no one could have pulled off. The bodies he buried that day laid a foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after his wife died, you steal his car and kill his f---in' dog.
Iosef Tarasov: Father, I can make this right.
Viggo Tarasov: Oh? How do you plan that?
Iosef Tarasov: By finishing what I started.
Viggo Tarasov: [irritated, turning to Avi] What the... did he hear a f---in' word I said?
Iosef Tarasov: [in Russian] Dad, I can do this! Please!
Viggo Tarasov: [pulls Iosef close, talks into his ear] Iosef, Iosef! Listen! Huh? John will come for you. And you will do nothing because you can do nothing. So get the f--- out of my sight!


.
 
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First thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread opener was "Open Range." But I looked through the thread first, and was impressed with how many votes that final showdown between the "freegrazers" and Baxter and his men already got. Yes, it's too bad the scene in which Charlie (Kostner) switches from an empty revolver to another one (previously taken from one of Baxter's men) he had tucked in his pants was edited out; that made the scene appear to include him firing well over six rounds from one gun.

Overall, part of the scene's appeal to me was the fact that the players were constantly on the move, taking cover or concealment, as they shot, evaded, and reloaded, and that no one was a "miracle shooter", hitting everyone he aimed at.
 
Really good battle scene is in the TV miniseries Band of Brothers episode 2. "Day of Days" depicts the Brecourt Manor Assault where a small US unit used good tactics to outflank a superior German force and take out four artillery emplacements.
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185906/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brécourt_Manor_Assault )


My choices personally would include the gunfight in Matewan which recreates the 19 May 1920 Battle of Matewan.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan_
The movie was about the resistence led by City Police Chief Sid Hatfield and Mayor Cabell Testerman against Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency gun thugs hired by the mine owners. Ended with Mayor Testermen and two miners dead, and Albert and Lee Felts and five other detectives dead.
Internet Movie Firearms Database has pages on the guns used in the movies. (http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Matewan)
As usual, the guns used in the movie are the closest stand-ins to the guns actually used: eg, Mauser 98k and Spanish M1916 rifles for the war trophy and military surplus Mausers used by the miners.
 
Sunray said:
"...on a 50" flatscreen, with an 800 Watt Sony surround sound with 6 surround sound speakers & two 12" subs..." There can be only one. The finale charge in 'Zulu'.
"...NEVER occurred anywhere in the Old West..." That'd be any TV/movie gunfight.
Click to expand...


This is probably the best gunfight ever. FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! My spine tingles as I write this.

I was going to say the best gunfight ever didn't even involve very many guns at all...the scene in the rain in Seven Samurai!!!
 
HoosierQ said:
This is probably the best gunfight ever. FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! My spine tingles as I write this.

I was going to say the best gunfight ever didn't even involve very many guns at all...the scene in the rain in Seven Samurai!!!
Click to expand...

Colour Sergeant Bourne: It's a miracle.

Lieutenant John Chard: If it's a miracle, Colour Sergeant, it's a short chamber Boxer Henry point 45 caliber miracle.

Colour Sergeant Bourne: And a bayonet, sir, with some guts behind.
 
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