DA Wheelguns in Movies

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Dain Bramage

Dain Bramage

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In that short era between Westerns and Wondernines, the DA revolver reigned supreme on TV and the big screen. The Dirty Harry flicks rule the genre, but does anybody have any other recommendations or favorites to add?

I can recommend SHARKEY'S MACHINE, an underated and little-known 80's cop flick, starring Burt Reynolds. The classic opening scene sets the tone. The Junkman berates the size of Sharkey's (Burt Reynolds as an undercover cop) snubbie revolver, and tells him to get a real gun.

When a dirty cop blows Sharkey's cover, the Junkman bucks pimp/junkie convention by not having a Jennings or a Bryco. Instead, he pulls out a long-barrelled, stainless steel magnum from under his overcoat and shoots at the cops at point blank range. I don't remember the model, it's been too long. He suffers a rare revolver misfire shooting at Sharkey, thus saving the rest of the movie.

Sharkey dives for cover as the Junkman does a New York reload and pulls out another (!) similar magnum, and proceeds to spread mayhem. He blows the hood off a cop car by shooting the engine compartment. Sure, he could have hit the carburetor, but I prefer to think the Junkman was issued standard Hollywood exploding-tracer rounds.

The Junkman boards a bus and shoots it out with Sharkey, hitting the driver and various passengers instead. Sharkey prevails with his snubbie, proving something like it's not the length of the gun that matters, but the amount of lead in the Junkman.

The rest of the movie goes on happily with kung-fu, double-barrelled face-fu, finger-chopping torture, and more gunplay. Considered violent at the time, it's not half as gratuitous or stupid as current standard action-fair.
 
Short era????
Sorry (...). The revolvers ruled thru all the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, and early 70's movies. Many were made long before there was a .44mag. The various .32's and 38's ruled the cinemas. Check out some of the classic black and white flicks.
 
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I always liked Indiana Jones' four-inch Colt New Service 1917. I think it was supposed to be in .45 ACP but they also had a dfiferent one that was supposed to be the same one in .455 for shooting some scenes. Raiders was the only one with any decent shooting (the part where he just sighs and shoots the guy with the big sword is one of the classic scenes in movie history). The other two are pretty crappy. He drops his gun out the window of a car by accident in Temple and carries a Webley that he forgets to load in Crusade.

The French Connection is another good one for a snubbie. Particularly the last scene of the sequel. As the creepy french guy is going to escape again like he did in the first, Hackman chases him for twenty minutes, loses him, sees him one a boat leaving the harbor, runs for five minutes along the docks, runs to the end just as the ship is sailing past, sees the old man standing on the back all happy and free, draws his snubbie from its ankle hoslter, and shoots him three times. The moment he hits the ground, the movie ends. Classic.
 
Another vote for LA Confidential. All kinds of Colts and S&W's around.

"Treasure of the Sierra Madre" also has some great double action.

You can see DA handguns in all sorts of films from the '30's to the '70's. After that more and more Sillywood directors wanted extra firepower and more brass.
 
Clint Eastwood used an 8-shot .357 Magnum S&W in the recent "Bloodwork." BTW, I am a BIG fan of "Sharky's Machine" where Burt put period to the main BG with a Colt Government Model .45. :D
 
Yeah BigG, "Sharky's Machine". I should have checked the spelling, but IMDB requires a registration now.

And Majic, I KNOW that earlier movies used DA revolvers. "Top o'the world, Ma! (KaBoom!)"

And later ones too. They used a DA as a geezer gun for Danny Glover in the LETHAL WEAPON series. He even runs out of ammo in the last one, and they have to take on Jet Li in hand-to-hand combat. It never would have happened with a wondernine, or if the guy ever heard of a frickin' SPEEDLOADER!

My point was that the 70's and 80's were kind of a heyday for the revolver. Every cop, badass, and badass cop carried one.

And speaking of which, what model did Hawk carry in SPENCER FOR HIRE? Can you imagine him with a Glock? Plastic just doesn't work for the discriminating brother.

And, count me as another fan of LA CONFIDENTIAL for the best recent revolver flick.
 
Dirty Harry. The big cross where Harry stabs the "subject" (can't call him suspect as its prejudicial) is now owned by the Armenian Church. It was a subject of a lawsuit by the atheists and since there's no concrete reindeer, Santa Claus, candy-cane, snow-mail, menorah and other trappings to make it a "seasonal" decoration, it appeared that the cross would have to be torn down. In lieu of it though, the City sold the land to a church that offered to keep it open to the public and to maintain it. This incensed the atheist who went back to court claiming SF was trying to circumvent the suit. Court said buh-bye. :)
 
I dunno, Mike. I haven't used it for a while. It's not letting me search, and it has all the free "trial-period" registration icons, so I'm assuming.

I'll try again at home. Sometimes my work computer has conflicts with certain websites.
 
Looooong time since I saw Sharky's Machine, but the scene where Reynold pins a guy against the wall the then screws (what I recall) a M28-looking piece into his breadbasket and hauls back on the lanyard..... ooooohh I'm shuddering again.
 
How about Jack Cate's (Nick Nolte) .44 mag in the 48 Hours movies? One of the BG's even used a SA revolver
 
Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is a good wheel gun movie. Robert De Niro has .44 mag recommended to him by some crazy then goes and buys an arsenal with a .44 and a snubbie among other things. The ending has one of the most brutal and bluddy gunfights I've ever seen.
 
I think there was an SA in both 48 Hours movies. Billy Bear had a long barreled Colt Single Action in the first one, and the blow dried biker had something fancy in the second. Maybe a Casull? Eddie also had a 2.5 inch Model 19 in the first one.
 
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