Movies are famous for showing all kinds of silly firearms errors. Pistols held sideways to ‘look gansta’ (assuring a miss). Weapons firing far more bullets than they could ever hold. Clips being removed without leaving a round in the chamber, etc., etc. Shotguns sounding like cannons and knocking people back in the air a couple dozen feet.
But are there movies, big or small, that consistantly show firearms being used and operated in a manner that is consistant to their characteristic? Just kinda wondering.
(What triggered this was remembering an old episode of WKRP where a guy holds Johnny hostage at a stereo store. Johnny gets the gun away from the guy and not only removes the clip but also carefully takes the bullet out of the chamber. No fanfare, Johnny is talking to the guy while he does it, but It was a suprise that they actually did it properly. Oddlly authentic for a show that wasn’t centered around gunplay).
This might not be quite what you’re looking for, but Pulp Fiction is the only movie I know where a carelessly and improperly handled firearm accidentaly fires, with fatal results
Best gunplay in a movie, I think, is Way of the Gun starring Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillipe. Its directed by Christopher McQuarrie who wrote The Usual Suspects, and his brother or cousin or someone handled all the gun training, as they were, to the best of my knowledge, an ex Navy SEAL. Hence Benicio and Ryan both move very realistically while holding weapons(most of the time), covering each other as they move and so on. You should check it out, its not a bad movie. According to reports, Steven Segal’s gun handling is realistic in all his movies, but ill take his word for it rather than actually watch one off his stinkbombs.
Unforgiven, with Clint Eastwood is an accurate representation of firearms use. The loading and shooting of the Spencer rifle is, I believe, accurate, and the reference to the Walker Colt as a weapon that had an alarming habit of blowing up in ones’ hand was also accurate. Handguns in this film were single-action, which is consistent with the predominance of the Colt Peacemaker of that time.
Particularly the SOUNDS of the firefight. Open Range also has great gun sounds.
As for accurate handling, 24 has shown some good gun handling. The final firefight in Proof of Life also shows very realistic gun handling and tactics.
Actually, no they don’t - at least not in Next Generation. The frequently show someone holding someone else at phaserpoint while standing right next to or behind them - you’re not supposed to do that. The novels (also known as “branded dreck”) mention that phasers tend to “splash” their Magical Phaser Energy a bit. Stand too close to someone you’re stunning, you’ll get stunned too. For that matter, in one of the episodes a character says something like, “Fire that thing this close and we’ll both die.”
God, I’m a nerd. Remember your phaser safety, kids.
Wow, I was going to post that but got beaten to it in the 4th post. Too quick for me.
I think the big gunfight scene at the end of the movie is one of the best ever, because of all the things asked about in the OP. The guns are handled correctly, sometimes they miss and sometimes they hit, they run out of ammo and have to be reloaded, gunshot injuries actually INJURE people, and the sound effects are damn near perfect. I put this and Heat in the #1 and #2 spots, order doesn’t seem to matter since they’re so far above and beyond almost everything else I’ve seen.
Thief, starring James Caan. The technical advisor for the movie was Jeff Cooper, and he taught Caan how to use the weapon properly, how to clear a building, etc. It looks very authentic, including changing clips exacftly when necessary, firing double-taps center of mass, holding the gun properly when moving through rooms, etc.
This level of accuracy extends to the rest of the movie. It’s about a high end thief, and they hired thieves as technical advisors. In a scene where Caan breaks into a safe, he’s actually breaking into a real safe, using the technical advisor’s own safe-cracking tools. There’s a scene where they are disabling the alarm system, and they show them cutting into a wiring bundle and testing the wires with voltmeters looking for alarm wiring. They even get the voltages of phone lines and such correct when you see the meters. Very impressive.
It’s also a hell of a movie, and one that a lot of people haven’t seen. Rent it.
John Woo films are also very accurate. Especially when the hero dives through the air, rotating around his axis 360 degrees while firing two handguns at the same time. I tried that at the range last week, and the looks of shock were what you’d expect when seeing someone execute such a precision move.
I missed this additional connection in all the rest of the Tarentino Sauce*, but Boondock Saints also has this.
*Lord I love that phrase, invented AFAIK by a co-worker of mine, to describe stylized ultraviolence. (Which I know Tarentino did not completely invent, but the name goes well with “sauce”.
I think I saw that movie. Didn’t one of the characters have a Galil that was semi-auto, but he pulled the trigger fast enough to make it seem otherwise?
Maybe someone could clear this up- cam a handgun be fired before its cocked? Its just that frequently in movies, say someone is pointing a gun to a persons head, trying to get information or whatever. When unsuccessful, they then cock the weapon, usually at this point the unarmed party will spill his guts and confess all. Was the weapon not a threat before it was cocked? If so, why not hit it out of the guys hand before he cocks it? Eh?
I’m not a firearms expert by any means, but the way I understand it is, an automatic firearm doesn’t need to be cocked before firing, but it does require substantially more trigger pressure. Cocking it first makes it so it will fire with very slight pressure, making it that much scarier to have the gun pressed up against your temple, because now it might go off if the guy holding it so much as flinches.
The frequently show someone holding someone else at phaserpoint while standing right next to or behind them - you’re not supposed to do that. The novels (also known as “branded dreck”) mention that phasers tend to “splash” their Magical Phaser Energy a bit. Stand too close to someone you’re stunning, you’ll get stunned too. For that matter, in one of the episodes a character says something like, “Fire that thing this close and we’ll both die.”
