I thought that the "gun stuff" was the best I've seen since
Thief or
Heat… there wasn't a single false step in technique or handling (no John Woo-woo here!), and the only firearms related nit I would pick has to do with the neatness of the "impact pattern" made when Del Toro is tracking (through the wall) one of the other crew with his Galil.
Notice that none of the ordnance is tricked out with sights, accessories, compensators, or anything other than a "TEAM Sling" on a shotgun. And we've got pistols (note the pre-Serious '70 Government Models!), revolvers (mostly old snubbies), shotguns, carbines, and rifles.
And for anyone who criticizes the practiced movements of Del Toro and Phillippe as being "unrealistic" for a couple of "inept criminals
¹," remember that Platt and Matix knew how to move. (Now that I think of it, so too did Phillips and Matasereanu… and they
were a couple o'clowns!)
Another nit: Caan is getting great notices for his role as "Joe Sarno," and it worked for me, but the character (the actor's choices) was very heavily based on "Frank" in
Thief,
i.e., it wasn't "original." I've been clocking the guy for over 30 years now, and his range as an actor seems, um, "limited." (Happily, his firearms technique, learned during a crash-course with Chuck Taylor
² while preparing for his role in the Michael Mann film, seems to have stayed with him.)
I agree that there were a number of "groaner" lines in
The Way of the Gun… they just didn't fit. Another "groaner" were the names Del Toro and Phillippe chose to give themslves: "Longbaugh" and "Parker," the birth names of a couple of celebrated Western desperados on a century ago.
But the more I reflect on this film, the more I liked it… it has some of the same elements present that I enjoyed in writer-director Christopher McQuarrie's earlier screenplay for
The Usual Suspects, plus it's got all that great gun action, the end credit for which was given to "Doug McQuarrie," some relative
³ who's clearly into guns. Good work!
BTW: Caan's delightful ol' co-hort "Abner" was Geoffrey Lewis… his is the most protracted "death scene" since Bernie Casey's in
Sharkey's Machine.
« -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- • -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- »
¹.- Cf the film's on-line Excite.com synopsis: <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Two inept criminals kidnap a wealthy pregnant woman, but soon find things going awry when the woman's parents send an aging mercenary to deliver the ransom.[/quote] I didn't find them inept at all. I found them to be… criminals! And "mercenary?!?" Good grief! He's an aging "hard guy," a wily ol' "bag man." (And she's not wealthy… etc.!)
².- When Caan and Mann had approached Cooper about instructing the actor in the then rudimentary "Modern Technique of the Pistol," Jeff had declined, dismissing the idea as nonsensical since the character of "Frank," as a career criminal with a lot of time (11 years?) in prison, would not have been exposed to such training. Taylor was D.Ops at API then, and agreed to give Caan an accelerated 24-hour course so that he at least
looked like he knew what he was doing. Caan repaid this service during a call-in radio show one evening while promoting
Thief; asked where he acquired his seemingly authentic firearms skills, the actor muttered that "some Nazi took me into the desert and showed me a couple of things." (On the excellent DVD of that film, in the SAP narrative, both Caan and Mann frequently refer to Cooper and Gunsite in a considerably more respectful way, so I'd venture to suggest that there was a considerable ego-conflict between the notoriously macho actor and the even more infamously egocentric writer/instructor.)
³.- Somebody somewhere really blew an ideal opportunity by not contacting one of the gunzines last year and having a timely feature this past Summer, something along the lines of "
The Way of the Gun… a movie finally gets it right!" or something of that nature. I would have had a lot of fun with the assignment 'twere I still active, but there's a guy from the NYC area, John somebody who occasionally writes for
American Handgunner, who could have done a good job with it as well. A lead feature in
Guns or
G&A or
Shooting Times in July or August would certainly have whet firearms aficionados' appetites and helped out at the box office where it certainly can use all the help it can get.
------------------
•
Dean Speir, jus' visiting from
The Gun Zone
[This message has been edited by Dean Speir (edited September 24, 2000).]
!!!
.