Hooray for Hollywood; FX, The Americans....

[ClydeFrog]

Weapon discharges; MRI incident....

I agree.
Few people outside of gun owners, hunters & those in the gun industry understand that guns do not just discharge or go off.
Gun companies & FFL holders don't like to be sued. Safety & civil liability really became more important in the last 20/30 years.

The only real, documented AD where a modern pistol discharged by "going off" I ever heard of was a small town off-duty police officer who's single action 1911a1 series 80 .45acp discharged inside a MRI machine. The incident took place in upstate NY about 5/6 years ago. No one was injured but the Colt 1911a1 .45acp was damaged. The pistol was knocked loose hit the side of the MRI while it was on & fired one .45acp round.
It was discussed in a few medical industry magazines & forums.

Clyde

 

[g.willikers]

There are firearms trainers who specialize in teaching actors the safe use of weapons.
Taran Butler, one of the very best competitive shootists, does this.
One would think that every actor, who is asked to handle a gun on tv or in the movies, would at least want to look like they know their stuff.
Looking like a doofus, in front of the entire world, can't be good for their careers.

 

[44 AMP]

Looking like a doofus, in front of the entire world, can't be good for their careers.

Unless that's the character they are playing...

or they are doing comedy...the list of successful, wealthy, "doofus" comedians is long.

 

[UncleEd]

I think a mistake made in some of the comments here assume that the character the actor portrays is as gun wise as they should be. But in real life I've seen enough dubious things to know otherwise.

Just because a character in a show is supposed to be a gangster or pro killer or even a cop doesn't mean he/she is all that up on all the safety rules. In fact I suspect a lot of gangbangers on the big city streets are basically klutzes when it comes to firearms handling.

 

[ClydeFrog]

Post #24....

The #24 post reminds me of a true incident about 2/3 years ago in metro New York City.
A gang member ran into a cramped apartment & shot three people.
The NYPD came after him & as the thug fled his baggy pants started to sag & he fell over a fire escape. The hapless gang member went down 6 floors to the pavement below!
He was DOS(dead on scene).

 

[Sevens]

Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies of all time. And while I'm smart enough to know going in that movies take many liberties with reality, there's still one major flaw in that movie that I cannot ever get past.

John Travolta's character is a mafia tough guy, or a hitman, or a well-paid "heavy" and it's his job and career to kill people when necessary, right? In fact, he's at Butch's apartment to do exactly that.

No matter how many times we can write it off by saying "meh, it's just a movie..." I just find it to be an unacceptable hole in the plot that a mob hit man would leave his loaded, suppressed, fully-automatic Mac-10 just laying on the kitchen counter... while he visits the bathroom to relieve himself.

The world's dumbest hitman doesn't leave a submachine gun in the kitchen when he shuts himself in the crapper for a stretch.

 

[Sevens]

Hey, speaking of The Americans, I just caught a promo clip for the upcoming second season and what certainly looks like a Ruger SP-101 revolver is featured.

Now the show isn't exactly specific, but it will reference "current events" at the time in which it is set... but my question is, when did Ruger release the SP-101 revolver? A quick trip to the Wiki page for the SP-101 claims 1989.

Pretty sure that the show is set at least a handful of years before 1989, so I think I caught 'em on that one. They're spinning a revolver on the dinner table that wasn't yet produced and on the market.

No, that doesn't really matter, but it's still fun to find little detail holes.

 

[44 AMP]

that doesn't really matter, but it's still fun to find little detail holes

Yeah, like the shiny engraved .45 auto in the movie Titanic. Quite the feat, even for the very rich guy to be able to equip his "bodyguard" with an engraved, nickeled 1911A1 (the frame has the A1 relief cuts) in 1912!

 

[ClydeFrog]

The Greatest Raid....

I always laugh at & often bring up; The Greatest Raid movie poster/DVD cover ad.
The film is based on the real US Army mission to rescue a large group of POWs held by Japanese forces towards the end of WWII.
One of the US Army Rangers in the film poster holds what clearly looks like a Beretta 92F 9x19mm pistol.
That's just lame. Any prop guy or armorer should have seen that goof.

In the late 1980s, my friend wanted to get some video gear & start doing short films/student films. He asked me what kind of handgun he should buy for props/action scenes. I suggested a blank firing 1911a1 .45acp milspec pistol. My reason was that the timeless classic could be used for any time period from the early/mid 1900s to the modern era.

Clyde
PS; I think the 2nd dumbest gun related Hollywood goof is how actor Kevin Kosner's GI 1911a1 .45acp became a federal G man badge in the poster for The Untouchables(1987) on Netflix.com .

 

[Hal]

Pretty sure that the show is set at least a handful of years before 1989, so I think I caught 'em on that one. They're spinning a revolver on the dinner table that wasn't yet produced and on the market.

Could be too that a period correct revolver just isn't there for a prop.
Hollywood doesn't get a pass from the state on what firearms they're allowed to use.

 

[Sevens]

While I realize that was a joke and I did give it a half a snicker...

I believe the Top Shot series and all seasons of it were done in northern California. Anyone else wonder how they were able to use half the stuff they did - - there?!

 

[44 AMP]

Hollywood doesn't get a pass from the state on what firearms they're allowed to use.

Actually, I think they do. Not an official "get out of jail free card" but a sly, under the table wink, wink, "don't put us in a position where we have to actually enforce the law against you" kind of pass.

To say Hollywood is a major source of political money is hardly an understatement.

Most of the guns seen are either props (even firing models) may not legally be gun under CA law, or rentals from someone who is leagal to posess them.

I have even heard that sometimes there are on location machinists who actually make guns (machine guns - smg-etc) for the filming, and destroy them afterwards, never filing one bit of paperwork, or paying the required taxes. Can't say its true, and won't say its not, but there's been talk!

After all, when you are spending a few hundred million dollars, the temptation to cut a few corners on silly laws that really don't matter, after all, its just a movie, must be pretty strong...

 

[ClydeFrog]

Overseas....

I'm not sure about CONUS but many films & TV productions are produced overseas to save $$$.
The Expendibles movies(I II & III) were filmed in Eastern Europe.
They used many different weapons & SFX systems.
The productions had a few stunt performers killed too.
I'm not sure how many times film & TV crews still use live firing weapons but Id bet it's mostly outside the US(not OSHA, EPA or union regs).

 

[HawkeyeNRAlifer]

My experience is that Hollywood has jumped on board the last several years with depicting the good guys with their fingers outside the trigger guard. That's commendable, but it's taken to the extreme. I've lost count the times that a bad guy has shot at or killed someone and is then cornered buy the good guys. Invariably their fingers are STILL outside the guard, even facing the BG with pointing back and ready to shoot. I think if I'm facing a shooter/killer pointing a gun at me I'd have my finger lightly on the trigger, at least. I know it's make believe, but you would think the same instructors giving advice would mention this, but maybe you can't over do safety when displaying firearms to the masses.

 

[DeadMoneyDrew]

I love Justified. I think I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Dewey Crow.

The shotgun blast in the last episode was a bit much. People do sometimes get "thrown" from a gunshot. Backwards mostly, when it happens, but sometimes forward or in a random direction. Its not the energy of the bullet moving them its their own body's muscular "twitch/spasm" due, I'm told to a "short circuit" in the nervous system. It's supposedly very rare, but it apparently has been witnessed. NOT like TV/movies, flying a dozen feet though the air.

Generaly I think the gun use is pretty good, it is, after all a fictional drama, so I allow some leeway. I like the fact that sometimes things don't do what Hollywood always has them do, though sometimes they are the standard cliché.

Bet that one bad guy gets to try his 21 foot rule against Raylan, before the season ends. I'll put my money on the marshall.

On one of the DVDs for one of the earlier seasons of Justified, there is an extensive interview with the show's firearms advisor. The guy is a retired marshal and really knows his stuff. He does everything from advising the writers on firearm issues to training all of the actors in proper gun handling. Pretty interesting.


And +1 to Dewey Crowe being one of the best characters on that show. Right now people are looking at me funny since I'm sitting in a Subway and laughing to myself as I think about the episode where ole Dewey was running around in a panic because someone convinced him that his kidneys had been stolen and that he needed to pay a ransom to get them back.

"You mean I got FOUR kidneys? ?!?"

LOL.