Films with realistic depiction's of firefights and shoot-outs

Hi everyone,

I thought I would come to the one place where I could get some decent feedback, on what films have realistic depiction's of firefights and shoot-outs. Of course they don't have to be totally accurate, but believable. Any period in cinema or genre.

[Gunmaster45]

Heat, a favorite film of many users on the site, is considered to be one of the most realistic gun movies, with great firefights and realistic gunshots (echoing loud outside and deafeningly short inside). Unfortunately magazine capacity isn't always followed and no one depicts recoil (a personal pet peeve of mine)

Another realistic one is Collateral, which is also directed by Michael Mann. After Heat though, Mann's realism got dampened a bit. Only outside do the guns even echo in Collateral an not as impressively. Tom Cruise does a great job with pistol techniques such as shooting and reloading.

Street Kings is pretty realistic, usually following magazine capacities and realistic shootouts. Keanu Reeves took training courses to be more convincing as a well trained cop (and I think he is the only person to ever use the decocker on his pistol). Gunshots were kind of crappy though.

Black Hawk Down was pretty good although the gunfire was again kind of weak. You never see someone break magazine capacity though.

Dirty Harry shows us that some people take recoil into acount, as Eastwood fired a real .44 Magnum so he could properly imitate recoil. After Dirty Harry, all of Eastwood's films have him properly depicting recoil and when he directs the film, almost everyone follows this rule as well. Just watch a movie like The Outlaw Josey Wales or Flags of our Fathers and you'll see what I mean.

Another actor who follows the recoil rule is Kevin Costner (except in Mr. Brooks), so check out his films for some good gun handling.

A History of Violence had a director who also favors recoil depiction and also shows very detailed depictions of what a bullet does to a person (so the film is pretty gorey), but still realistic.

But the sad thing is, most films don't accurately depict firearms, because Hollywood is run mainly by gun-ignorant liberals who are more concerned with what "looks cool", and usually ignore the weapons coordinator, gun coach, and armorer in favor of their own ridiculous ideas. I've always been a stickler for gun realism in movies, so I get disapointed a lot, but the movies I listed are a good place to start.

[MT2008]

Another that's pretty realistic is "Proof of Life". The ending gun battle has some very impressive shooting and technique demonstrated by the team of private contractors led by Russell Crowe. The gunfire sounds pretty good, too, almost as good as "Heat".

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by Gunmaster45

Street Kings is pretty realistic, usually following magazine capacities and realistic shootouts. Keanu Reeves took training courses to be more convincing as a well trained cop (and I think he is the only person to ever use the decocker on his pistol). Gunshots were kind of crappy though.

Besides the fact that the gun handling was quite realistic, the best thing about "Street Kings" is the opening scene where he poses as an arms dealer and tries to sell the Korean gangsters a Browning M2. The dialogue in that scene (which I added to the quote feed on the Main Page) is just priceless.

Realistic shootouts are pretty much mandatory in war films. Just look Saving Private Ryan or Letters from Iwo Jima.

Personally I don't care if a shootout is realistic or over the top I just want it to be well done.

[AlkoTanko]

I'd recommend the severely underrated Way of the Gun for both realistic-looking (at least for the eye of common viewer) and exciting shootouts, with director Christopher McQuarrie's brother, a former Navy SEAL, choreographing them.

[phalyn]

Didnt Arnold get some sort of praise for his realistic handling of weapons in Terminator? I thought I heard something about that somewhere.

Another movie that kind of stands out, but almost instantly loses my praise is Death Sentence.

I praise the movie for actually depicting Kevin Bacon, as not knowing how to use a gun at all, to the point that he reads the Owner Manuals. (which is a little odd, because its supposed to be part of the Death Wish series, and Brosnans character knew his guns.) So he goes from not even knowing how to open the chamber on his revolver, to being ok with them.

But then the film made me groan, when he uses a double barrel shotgun, and you can hear the sound guys have given the weapon a 'cocking' sound when he turns a corner or two, much, very much like the sound a pump action has in movies. Nitpicking? yes, but thats what I do.

The other movie that really messes it up, and I think its mainly due to bad editing, is Hellboy. His revolver, the Samaritan, is known for being a 4 shot gun. but in one of the shootouts you hear him fire the gun six times, then reloads. Probably just bad editing, but still.

[jdun]

I didn't think Heat was realistic.

[Gunmaster45]

Well, when Shiherlis doesn't reload until he spits out about 100 rounds, that is a little off, but keep in mind, practically NO films had used realistic gun fire that was loud and echoed (or didn't indoors, another important thing). Also note, people hardly hit anything during the bank shootout, as opposed to action movies where a guy with two guns flies around blowing away everyone he sees.

If I ever make a movie (doubtful though), my first mission would be to accomplish the most realistic gun film ever, with Heat as inspiration.

Never ask too much from movies gun-wise, you'll always be disapointed.

[MT2008]

Originally Posted by jdun

I didn't think Heat was realistic.

Well, it's more realistic than most movies, but not very realistic compared to real life. I guess that's the best of putting it.