More Hollywood gun folly?

The original Planet of the Apes put M1 carbines in futuristic stocks.

Don't forget Han Solo and his Mauser Broomhandle in Star Wars. I wonder if they really will still be using them in the year 3550 A.D.?
 
My big pet peeve, relative to gun folly, is the current trend of television producers re-creating or dramatizing WWII or WWI events with actors. Today, I saw a short clip about WWI. It showed U.S. soldiers shooting with M-1 carbines. Now I ask you, how difficult would it be for a producer or director to do just a little research.

Also, many years ago and I don't recall if it was the movie, "Midway" or, "Tora, Tora, Tora", there is a scene of a large aircraft flying away from a ship at sea. The aircraft was a long distance from the ship but it was clear it was a C-130. There is no mistaking the rear end profile of a C-130 with dark exhaust smoke coming from four engines.
 
My big pet peeve, relative to gun folly, is the current trend of television producers re-creating or dramatizing WWII or WWI events with actors. Today, I saw a short clip about WWI. It showed U.S. soldiers shooting with M-1 carbines. Now I ask you, how difficult would it be for a producer or director to do just a little research.
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And while they are doing a little research, maybe they could recognize the fact that the sound of distant bombs exploding does not travel at the speed of light.
 
In saving Private Ryan, did anyone else notice that the MG42's were not ejecting any shells when firing?

Also, I'm sure many of us remember the horrific "Pewt pewt" sound effect that Hollywood applied to just about ANY suppressed firearm.
 
One thing I've noticed in the old Bogart era movies is that none of the revolvers had any recoil whatsoever.

The funny thing about modern movies is that they all use the exact same sound effect of brass hitting on concrete, and of the metalic ping and sparks flying while bullets bounce off of car fenders and 55 gallon drums without penetrating.
 
Next time you are watching Saving Private Ryan look closely at the guy carrying the 30 cal. belts in the final battle. They have fired primers or no primers.
 
TimSr said:
One thing I've noticed in the old Bogart era movies is that none of the revolvers had any recoil whatsoever.
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One benefit of using revolvers is that there's no need for the blanks to build up enough pressure to operate the action, so you can use extremely low-pressure blanks, and there's never a need to modify the revolver to fire them.
 
Kimio,

I did not notice the MG42s in Private Ryan but, this week, I will watch the movie again just to see this. If there are no blanks, how do they get the gun to cycle? Thanks.
 
One of the first serious "gun flubs" I ever noticed was in the movie "Shenandoah" staring Jimmy Stewart. During the battle scene you can clearly tell that the Confederate troops are using trapdoor Springfield rifles.

But even then as a kid, I had to give them credit for at least making an attempt to make it look like they were using period rifles. It's a lot easier to teach extra's to shoot a blank cartridge firing rifle (and probably safer) than to teach them to load and fire a muzzleloader...and they no doubt had the trapdoors on hand.

It's a movie, not a historical documentary.

I recently purchased DVD sets of the "Combat", and 12 O'Clock High (TV Series). In "Combat" all the German tanks and trucks look a lot like American tanks and trucks. I guess "Bubba's Used Tank Lot" was fresh out of Tigers. A lot of the German fighters attacking the 918th look like Thunderbolts to me. (They do have a lot of battle film of actual German fighters though, often misidentified in the script however.")

And we won't even talk about the guns used in "The Avengers" TV show. Who cares when Diana Riggs is in it?

Still a lot better than anything I see on TV today.
 
If film footage from WW2 showed German trucks that looked like they were Fords, that's because they were.
Cars, too, and not just from Ford.
There was plenty of international trade right up to the start of the war.
Plus all the stuff the Germans captured.
 
It's a movie, not a historical documentary.
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True & a certain amount of the flubs are for practical reasons.
But I wish (particularly with CGI) they'd at least TRY to be close.
I remeber one WW2 movie where they had P 38's Heinkel 111's & P 51's bombing pearl harbor.

Maybe it was Animal House?:D
 
It still drives me nuts when they pick up a firearm in a movie or show, no matter what it may be, and it sounds like chains rattling, or nails in a coffee can, or something weird. Even a musket wth few moving parts sounds like it's about to fall apart. :rolleyes:
 
What bothers me more than the flubs and screw-ups in fictional shows are the ones in what are supposed to be history shows.

Today, with CGI there is no excuse for planes, tanks ships, etc that don't look right. But, they still do it. Not as bad as it used to be, but there are still mistakes, even in the CGI stuff.

Essentially, the only people working on the movie who actually know what is the right stuff are the tech advisors, and they are not infallible.

And, they are only advisors. The director gets what he wants, historically accurate, or not. Sometimes, reality is deliberately ignored for dramatic effect.

Other times, its a question of "this is the only way we can afford to do it", or, "we can't get the right stuff, this will have to do".

TV shows still lag behind, mostly because they are "low budget" compared to major studio movies, and getting stuff right is less important than getting it done. Also, by the time the show gets its final screening, it may be too late/too expensive to correct errors that only get discovered when the show is screened.

Someone really needs to talk to the sound editors (or directors who demand it). When they put in the click of a cocking hammer, or the sound of a racking slide where it doesn't belong, those of us who know better recognize it. The tech rep on the set would recognize it too, except they don't even know about it on the set, its added in post production...

Even CGI screws up, if the people doing it aren't gun or history buffs. One of my favorite subtle screw ups is in Enemy at the Gates, but only a panzer buff would recognize it. There's a shot in a German tank park, nice rows of CGI Panzer IIIs facing each other. The row of tanks on one side is perfect, the row opposite is a clear mirror image, easily seen (if you know what you are looking at) because the hull machineguns (right side of the real tank) are on the LEFT.

And, speaking of sound, this is the most common "gun flub" I see, overall, every action scene, people shooting without hearing protection, shooting rifles and pistols inside small enclosed spaces, and being able to hear not just normal conversation but small sounds and whispers immediately after the shooting stops.

I have been exposed to that kind of noise, and my experience was much different!! ;)
 
They had to use AT6 Texans modified to resemble Zeros in the movie "Tora Tora Tora". The allies forced Japan to destroy all remaining aircraft and the only Zeros still around today are too valuable to fly. I have heard that there are only two airworthy Zeros in existence today.

When you see a "Zero" at an airshow, it's probably a AT6 modified to look like a Zero, also known as the "Hollywood Zero".
 
There are flyable Zeros and they do participate at airshows. One was at Wings Over Houston last year and that pilot put it through its paces. It was pretty cool to see how maneuverable it is.
Strangely, MiG-17s are pretty maneuverable too.
 
The funniest parts regarding Hollywood guns to me are quietness (someone mentioned it, shooting indoors, actors are still able to hear quiet sounds and normal conversation immediately after) and 'Hollywood lethality' where secondary characters just fall down right away when shot once in the body with a handgun. Then there's 'Hollywood gun safety' :)

This is more of a problem of clueless script writers, though.
 
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