realistic displays of firearm use in Hollywood?

Koda94

New member
Disclaimer, this thread is just for fun.

A while back a video was posted of a clip from a Miami Vice episode of a villain (played by a professional shooter) performing a perfect and proper draw... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsKj6RGQ2VM I was a huge fan of Miami Vice back then but never thought much of the training the actors went through. This made me wonder, what movies or TV shows are out there that present a realistic use of firearms...? (for good or bad)

Back in high school I had that one friend that always wore fatigues... he would always introduce me to B grade war movies plus all the mainstream ones that 'he thought' were good. One movie stuck out to me over time filmed in the "found footage" genre, 84 Charlie Mopic. Back then, I swore it was the most realistic war movie ever made, except that it was still fiction.... The film is a mock-up documentary of a recon mission gone bad filmed from a "84 mopic" cameraman POV. I cant help but wonder how "realistic" that movie was though to real US military techniques applied in Vietnam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQsGHslcZzo, Its a hard movie to find, but I think the link is the full feature length film...

so just for fun, what movies or TV shows are out there that present a realistic use of firearms...?
 
Miami Vice, Collateral, and Heat all have Michael Mann as director.

Anything with Dale Dye as an advisor - he worked on Platoon, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan.

Most Tom Selleck movies and shows; Selleck has attended Gun Site and Thunder Ranch, IIRC.

Way of the Gun, and Thief - James Caan seems to know his way around a pistol.

Other noted actors who are or were serious shooters include Joe Mantegna, Robert Stack, Audie Murphy, and Lee Marvin.

For that matter, Michael Caine was a Korean War vet, and shows some skill in various war and gangster flicks from the 60s.

Robert Ryan, too - but WWII Marine, IIRC (as was Marvin).
 
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What I didn't like about that scene from Collateral was the second bad guy just fumbled with his draw way too long, But Tom's draw looked perfect.

The interesting thing about Tom Selleck is he has a ton of movies out there that I was not aware of, it might be worth renting one sometime. However, I must add Collateral to my rental list as that's one recent one I have not seen yet.
 
So you figure a meth head amateur mugger should have a smooth draw, and a professional assassin should not?

Note: Cruise trained with an SAS veteran on gun handling for Collateral.

Note 2: Attend an IDPA match sometime, and see how (not) fast most newer people are on the draw, even when they are expecting the buzzer and even when nobody is shooting at them.
 
:) now I did say I have not seen collateral, yet, so realistically a meth head mugger would probably botch his draw.
 
Just watched that episode of Miami Vice a month ago, rewound that scene almost a dozen times. Was impressed, they could have changed camera angles during the draw or have cut to showing him with the gun already in his hand like they do in a lot of movies
 
MLeake, in your list, you mentioned "Thief." It's also a Michael Mann film. James Caan for "Thief" was trained at Gunsite when it was under Jeff Cooper.

And "Last of the Mohicans" a ditto with Michael Mann as well as the
recent "Public Enemies."
 
Doogie Howser MD....

I recall watching a older ep of the popular 1990s ABC sitcom Doogie Howser MD.

In the episode, Doogie(who as a boy genius became a MD) decided to buy a handgun for protection. He goes to a southern CA area gun shop & SURPRISE, the gun shop manager was informative, mature & explained that he would need to learn firearms safety/secure storage.

The TV sitcom episode was a welcome change from how most gun owners or gun shop clerks are displayed by Hollywood.

CF
 
Movies "influenced" by John Milius generally have the guns and gunhandling well done. He has been involved in the Dirty Harry series, the original Red Dawn, The Wind and the Lion, Jeremiah Johnson, and Rough Riders.
 
Most realistic gun handling and tactics in movies and TV:

The original starsky and hutch with David Soul and Paul Glaser. Awesome.

Sylvester Stalone in First Blood. Wow, can't get more realistic than that.

Early Arnold Films, particularly Commando, Raw Deal, and Predator...

The Matrix. This is what I aspire to in all my training... I want to be like Neo...
 
Other noted actors who are or were serious shooters include .... Audie Murphy, ...

Ya think???? Anybody who is awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting the enemy, might just be serious about shooting!

(I had to make this comment for the benefit of the younger people on this forum, who might not know who Audie Murphy was.)

We do have younger people, don't we?

I certainly would not be one of them :(

Bart Noir
 
I have to give high marks to the scene in Sahara (the Dirk Pitt one, not the old Bogart flic), where the sidekick character picks up a discarded AK during a gun fight, and (wonder of wonders), pops the mag, looks in it, re-seats it, than checks the chamber before shooting. Not what one commonly sees these days.
 
There a couple really good gun play scenes in "Elephant White", there's also some bad ones, but overall I thought it was a decent film. Its on netflix streaming and you can catch some clips on IMDB.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1578882/

The scenes that stuck out to me where the martial arts scene in the woods when he's dreaming; saw a decent amount of bujikan/ninjutsu in his lower to the ground executions. The other scene was when he was sniping, patiently choreographing his moves, talking to himself as he does "Definitely coming back for you" "And you too" and then executing his plan.
 
If you mean firefights, veterans seem to claim that "Heat" is among the best, and might have been to firefights what "Bullitt" did to first depict exciting car chases.
 
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