Question on Scene with Stocked Luger in "War Horse" (CAUTION: MINOR PLOT SPOILER)

[Connecticut Yankee]

In the movie "War Horse" there is a scene where several horses are pulling a large German field piece up a mountain. There is a German Sgt. (?officer) who decides to kill one of the exhausted horses. He is carrying a stocked Artillery Luger. It looks like it is clipped to his belt loosely and not in a holster.

When he has to shoot the horse he holds it barrel skyward. The odd part is that it looked like he took out the magazine before he fired. It all happened very quickly and I didn't think about it until it was over but it doesn't make sense. He didn't take out the magazine and put in a new one (although that might have been the way it was filmed and the reloading ended up on the cutting room floor). And in retrospect I don't think he worked the toggle to chamber a round, he just took out the magazine and then shot the horse.

Did anyone else notice this? Can you tell me what exactly happened? Did he in fact take out the magazine and then fire the round in the chamber or did I miss something? It is a small point but they basically 'got the guns right' other than this.

 

[scallop]

Firearm "mistakes" and inaccuracies such as shooting too many times without reloading, "magical" shots or bullet effects ect, ect. annoy the bejesus out of me and even more my wife gets annoyed at me when I point them out, but I just cannot help it. Hollywood will probably as a whole never get the gun thing right.

 

[rcmodel]

+1

I saw a cop show on TV the other night and the hero must have racked the slide on his SIG seven or eight times while sneaking around a warehouse looking for the BG.

Had it been real?
He would have dumped half his ammo on the ground before the BG showed himself and shot at him sixteen times with a five-shot revolver!

Then, CSI found a 9mm bullet that missed the victom with half the base sticking out of the sheet-rock paper & paint, and fished it out with a pair of little tweezers.

Then a BG got shot three times in the back seat of a car by a BG in the front seat.
The ME stuck orange sticks through the holes in the back seat to trace the paths of the bullets into the trunk.
Then he said, No problem ID'ing the gun & the killer.
The bullets are still in the body!

I don't even get upset about it anymore, much.

I do look for better programs though.

rc

 

[MuleRyder]

I saw War Horse yesterday. I paid specific attention to the scene the OP commented on. In the scene the OP is correct that the officer holds the Luger muzzle up and removes the mag, that's it. The next scene was of something else, you hear a bang and then the next scene is back to the officer holding the Luger barrel up again and it looks like he's fiddling with the mag again. I think something got lost in the editing. Also on another point, I saw lots of firing of Enfields, but I don't recall seeing a bolt worked on any of them. All in all, a good movie I thought.

 

[Connecticut Yankee]

Thank You MuleRyder

Thank you. It is a small point but I appreciate your confirmation. It made so little sense that it was difficult to comprehend, I mean, why would he remove the magazine before he shot? From your description it does sound like part of the scence never made it to the screen.