Yet another Movie gun flub!

[el44vaquero]

I like the scenes were a good guy is pinned down behind something and starts reloading while still being shot at. Also thought it was really something as Clint Eastwood would slowly walk up the middle of the street while he was slowly thumbing in bullet by bullet.

 

[Crom]

If you want to watch a movie with gun flubs, check out "Battle Of The Bulge".

Henry Fonda uses an M1 Garand to try a long range shot at the German Panzer Commander. Funny thing is if you look closely at his rifle it has no rear peep-sight (no wonder he missed). Chaffee Tanks are referred to as Shermans, M48 Patton Tanks are used as German Tigers, there is a Browning50 Cal. M-2 mounted on a German half-track, and it's a C-47 that drops the German paratroopers.

 

[Lupinus]

I love when they hide behind a wooden desk and the particle board crap stops everything short of an air strike.

 

[Razor]

Then he must have found one that held 18 rounds because he just kept on shooting in front the camera, then the old "M-1 ping" and he shoved another in but that was off camera.

He didn't actually fire all of his shots in front of the camera. The scene shifts to show the rest of his squad in the camp and their reactions to his shooting.

It's also something that was corrected in the "Reconstruction" Version of the movie. They redid the audio to have the "ping" and reloading sound during the scene. The folks that did the reconstruction said in the documentary that they did a lot of research on the internet, so our complaining actually amounted to something...

 

[rem870]

In Saving Private Ryan Barry Pepper fires his '03a4 7 or 8 times without reloading it in the final battle right before he gets killed. Another flop I found was in O Brother Where Art Thou. George Clooney and the other guy are in the theater and when the prisoners come in to watch the movie, the guard with the shotgun has a Remington 870. I believe that movie was set in the 1930's, right?

 

[MechAg94]

remind me didn't they actually Listen to YORK (yes Alvin york was a tech advisor for teh movie, in fact he demanded gary cooper play him or no dice on permission) and have cooper shooting a M1903, instead of going with what has become a gunny urban legend of York doing it all with a 1917??

for those who don't know Alvin York himself on repeated occasions stated that the guns he used in the capture of all those germans, were his issued 1903 springfield and a 1911 (can not recall where or how he came about having the pistol, it's been awhile).

I thought I had read that York was issued a 1917 rifle, but was able to trade/obtain a 1903 because he did not like the aperture sight. He used the 1903 in combat.

 

[entropy]

I noticed another one at work... on the display for Transporter 2, the goofy looking chick with the overdone black eye shadow has two of those $20 "replicas" you see in the ads in the backs of gun magazines....you know the ones; Commando Pistol, and the Mac 10, complete with 'silencer' and 'red dot' sight... At least his Beretta 92 Stainlesses look real.

 

[Justin]

If you want to watch a movie with gun flubs, check out "Battle Of The Bulge".

Henry Fonda uses an M1 Garand to try a long range shot at the German Panzer Commander. Funny thing is if you look closely at his rifle it has no rear peep-sight (no wonder he missed). Chaffee Tanks are referred to as Shermans, M48 Patton Tanks are used as German Tigers, there is a Browning50 Cal. M-2 mounted on a German half-track, and it's a C-47 that drops the German paratroopers.

Large peices of military equipment are, more often than not, incorrect. For a perfect example, see the large tank battle scene in Patton.

This is because oftentimes production companies will secure the help of actual military forces in filming, and the director is pretty much stuck with running what they brung.

Especially in the days before the ability to hire Digital Domain or Industrial Light and Magic to recreate an entire rolling army of obsolete and (now rare) vehicles.

Oftentimes in these threads people nitpick the innaccuracies in movies with no thought given to what it actually takes to produce a movie in the first place.

Even assuming the director and producer(s) are attempting to be authentic, it's still possible for things to get flubbed in any one of the three major parts of film making- improper research done in Pre-Production can result in anachronisms and incorrect information fed up the line. Screw-ups on set, equipment failure, bad weather, budgetary constraints, or any number of nearly an infinite number of factors can cause flubs during the Production phase, and even more flubs can be introduced during the Post-Production phase as a result of sloppy editing, a lack of footage to work with, an ignorant foley artist, or incorrect texture maps used by the 3d animation firm.

Film is a highly collaborative effort undertaken by literally thousands of people on any given production, and if even one or two of those people aren't in the loop, it can result in visual and audio goofs.

Realize that I didn't even touch on the design firms hired to create the posters, flyers, DVD covers and inserts, publicity stills, television trailers, and websites used to promote a film.

"A movie is never finished, only abandoned."
~ Variously attributed to George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[Thain]

I'm going to commit heresy, and point out some goops in what most folk consider to be one of the most accurate war flicks (Blackhawk Down) and one of the most chest-thumping All-American war films (Patton)

Blackhawk Down Goofs:

Flying into Mogadishu in Blackhawk Down one soldier holds a paperback edition of Grisham's "The Client." In 1993, this book was only available in hardcover; the paperback was not published until `94

The call to prayer in the beginning was called after the sun had risen. There are no calls to prayer after sunrise until after noon, qhich coming from a highschool with a large Muslim minority (~20%) I found really odd.

When Durant's crash site is overrun, Randy Shugart is shot 11 times with a Tokarev pistol which, IIRC, only holds eight rounds.

Patton Goofs:

The tanks used in the major battle scene in North Africa are all post-War tanks. The Germans use M48 tanks (`53) and the Americans drive the M47 (`52). Ironically, the M47 is popularly called the 'Patton 1'!

Germany is already divided to East and West Germany in the map of Europe seen in the headquarters, and all other national borders are post WWII. It's clear as day, too!

Patton is shown having read a book, "The Tank in Battle", by his arch nemesis, Rommel. Rommel never wrote any book dealing with tanks or armored warfare! (Although, he wrote several books on infantry tactics before the Second World War.)

Lastly, during the first battle scene Patton oversees in the film, he uses a pair of binoculars clearly marked "Japan"!

Lastly, in Glory, as they hand out the Enfield rifles, he calls out each one's serial number. Authentic Enfield rifles don't have serial numbers... (But the reproductions do!)

 

[thorazine]

I remember a really bad James Bond clone movie that did impress us kids because the secret agent did reload in gun fight. We
talked about that in lunch line the next day at school.

Not sure if this is the same one you're thinking of,

Pierce Brosnam as 007 (forget the movie title) - The sceene: during a virtual training simulation he performed a tactical reload after firing perhaps four to six rounds.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Not Brosnam, Pierce Brosnam

No, I was a kid in lunch line over 40 years ago.
The movie was a British spy flick that tried to
cash in on the success of Dr. No and From Russia
with Love.

 

[jtward01]

John Wayne liked carrying 1892 Winchesters in many of his movies, especially ones set around Civil War.

Many of the old Bonanza episodes were set just before and just after the Civil War, yet Ben and the boys always carried Colt SAAs, even though they weren't invented for another nine years or so.

 

[armoredman]

Movie makers wanting real German WWII tanks have always been stymied - ONE running Tiger in the world, in England, and ONE running Tiger II, in fr*nce. Computer work is the only way. There are maybe 40 running Panzer IVs left all over the world - hence the T-34s in Kelly's Heros being called Tigers!
BTW, with the fall of the Soviet Union, and the outpouring of C&R stuff, like WWII Mosins and captured Mausers, I would love to see the armor they have stashed....They refurbished EVERYTHING they captured, and stashed it...

 

[HEAVY METAL 1]

movie flubs

I always find these threads entertaining. When my wife & I saw Titanic and the rich man's valet was shooting with his 1911 I mentioned to my wife about the chrome plating possibly not being avialable to consumers yet at that time and if the guy gets more than 8 shots out of it it's bogus (score one for me ), but I did not catch the mainspring housing detail. You guys are just amazing on your attention to detail about guns in movies. I have spotted a few things over the years, but you guys are WAY outta my league. I have actually went back and rerented some movies just to see the mistakes I have read about in such threads.

 

[KriegHund]

I love when they hide behind a wooden desk and the particle board crap stops everything short of an air strike.

Lol, so true...

 

[CrazyIrishman]

It's HOLLYWOOD! They try to "disguise" Sherman tanks to look like "Panzer" tanks, due to the lack of having actual German-made tanks. In numerous war movies, the "Nazi" planes are actually P-51 Mustangs with Swastika emblems on the wings.

Back when "Sergeant York" was filmed, the 1911 pistol wasn't easily converted to shoot blanks, so they "fibbed" by having York (Cooper) disarming a German officer and using his Luger. By the way, York was ISSUED a 1911, since he was an NCO, but he also carried an issued '03 rifle.

I don't recall the name of the WW-II movie that I recently saw, but it had an American soldier aiming a 1911 at an enemy soldier. The sights on that 1911 had the "three-dot" configuration, which was NOT on any issued WW-II pistols!

Hey Oldtimer,

I do recall seeing a WWII movie with the Luftwaffe using P-51's in place of ME-109's. I don't recall the title but the P-51's were painted olive drab and the US Army Air Corp was using P-47 Thunderbolts to escort B-17 bombers.

 

[Razor]

I don't recall the name of the WW-II movie that I recently saw, but it had an American soldier aiming a 1911 at an enemy soldier. The sights on that 1911 had the "three-dot" configuration, which was NOT on any issued WW-II pistols!

It might of been a Band of Brothers episode.

Private Webster had one when he confronted the German baker in "Why We Fight".

 

[jtward01]

Hey Oldtimer,

I do recall seeing a WWII movie with the Luftwaffe using P-51's in place of ME-109's. I don't recall the title but the P-51's were painted olive drab and the US Army Air Corp was using P-47 Thunderbolts to escort B-17 bombers.

The movie is Fighter Squadron with Robert Stack and Edmund O'Brien. The Germans were portrayed by a US Air National Guard squadron, I think from Oregon (they're credited at the end of the film). They're flying P-51 Mustangs painted gray with black iron crosses and swastikas on them. The movie uses a lot of real WWII combat and gun camera film, so it's pretty cool.

 

[McCall911]

Ah, some of those silly old Westerns from the 30s to as late as the 50s!

I still get the giggles watching those gun-clueless actors trying to sling those bullets out of those SAA Colts!

So I guess gun flubs will continue to amuse us for many years to come!

 

[Husker1911]

Where can I get one of those nifty 55 gallon oil drums that, even when empty, cause bullets to richochet off and protect the actor?

 

[Checkman]

I saw a Gary Cooper "Southern" set in Florida during the Seminole Indian war(s). Now I'm hazy on that time period but I know that it took place many years before the Civil War.

Everyone is running around with Colt SAA and 1863 Springfield muskets. My understanding is that Cooper was quite a shooter and owned many guns. Guess he didn't worry about Hollywierd getting the details so screwed up. As long as his check cleared guess he wasn't worried about it.

 

[Jguy101]

The left-handed guns on posters may be from the cameras making everything look backwards. Apple's iSight webcam does that.

 

[gopguy]

Carl mentioned James Bond movies.....I think back to the first one. Dr. No when Dent comes to kill Bond in the bungalo of the Chinese secretary and Bond has rolled the mattress to make it look like someone is lying in the bed. Dent opens the door and clearly aims a 1911 at the bed firing it six times. Bond then gets the drop on him. Dent drops the gun but then grabs it while Bond is looking away.He aims and pulls the trigger dropping the hammer on a empty chamber and then Sean Connery says "Thats a Smith and Wesson and you have had your six" then he shoots Dent.....not with a PPK but a supressed FN 1922....I saw a lot of interesting rubbish about guns in Bond flicks as a kid.

 

[Deanimator]

Just look at the cover of any paperback novel that has firearms on it more exotic than a Colt Detective Special. Sights on M16s will be backward. There will be no, wrong or extra controls. Entire cartridges will exit barrels.

 

[Deanimator]

Everyone is running around with Colt SAA and 1863 Springfield muskets.

This sort of thing was extremely common back in the '30s and '40s.

Francis Bannerman & Co. in NY had a huge supply of .50-70 and .45-70 Trapdoor Springfields that the studios took advantage of. Movies like "Northwest Passage" (about Rogers' Rangers) routinely substituted Trapdoors for flintlocks, on rare occasions adding dummy frizzens. Black powder wasn't anything like as popular as it is today, so unlike "The Patriot" and other period pieces, there were few authentic flintlocks to be issued to the "cast of thousands".

For a very interesting substitution, watch "Objective Burma" with Errol Flynn. There were apparently no M1919A4 Brownings available, so aircooled Maxims of some sort were substituted. You can see the "fusee spring covers" on the left side. In addition, a number of poorly made dummy Thompsons were also used. The Japanese are armed with long Mauser rifles, probably GEW98s.