Monday, March 01, 2010

Corn spotted in Nebraska!

Glocks spotted in movies!

As anybody who has ever sat down in a movie theater knows, the Glock (there's only the one model) is the third most common handgun on the planet. The second most common is the Beretta 92. The Deagle Fifty is hands down the most ubiquitous; most people carry two in a double shoulder rig.

(Incidentally, the HK G36 is the most widely-issued rifle, and the T-6 Texan was used in combat by both sides in all theaters of WWII.)



(H/T to Unc.)

18 comments:

jimbob86 said...

Actually, the corn is difficult to see 'round here, as the fields (and bins) are burried under feet of Glowbul Warming, and have been for nigh 3 months now...... some kinda record, I'm told.

Blackwing1 said...

"...all theaters of WWII". Well, at least all theaters showing films of WWII.

Saw "The Battle of Britain" (the theatrical film, not the documentary of the same name) the other day. They must have rounded up every surviving Spitfire and Hurricane for that movie. From the IMDB website:

"27 Spitfires in various degrees of repair were found for the film, 12 of which could be made airworthy. Only six Hurricanes where found, three of which were made flyable. The Messerschmitt 109 where all retired from the Spanish Air Force. The production company bought them all, about 50 of them, and put 17 of them back in flying condition. They are in the movie flown by Spanish Air Force pilots, and members of the Confederate Air Force. The 32 Heinkels, with crews, were on loan for free from the Spanish Air Force, where they still were used for transport and target towing. Two of them were eventually bought by the production company and flown together with the 17 Messerschmitts to England for further shooting. The two Junkers 52 were also on loan from the Spanish Air Force."

Great aerial scenes, but the movie basically stopped dead whenever it was on the ground.

Tam said...

Among its more notable exploits, the T-6:

Shot down Hispano-German Heinkels over North Africa.

Sunk the Arizona.

Strafed British commandos on Navarone.

Matt G said...

Thirty years ago, it would have been a M29, a Government Model 1911, and your choice of K frames, I think.

Forty years ago, seemed like every other character had a Dick Special, and a 6" K frame.

Ken said...

And Germany's use of M47 Pattons in the Ardennes very nearly changed the course of the war.

fast richard said...

Tora!Tora!Tora! made perhaps the most extensive use of T-6s. They actually made extensive modifications to make them look more like Jappanese Kates, Vals, and Oscars. A couple of friends of mine owned one of those movie Kates for a while and took it to airshows when someone would pay the fuel bill. They eventually sold it to someone who could actually afford to own such a thing.

In a couple of movies, you can see an ME-108 four seat civilian Messerschmitt as a stand in for its military cousin. You almost never see real german tanks in movies either. At most a moviemaker might use a little fiberglass and bondo to make an old American tank look a little bit like a German one.

ajdshootist said...

When I worked at Bovington Tank Museum we had the Tiger they used in Saving Private Ryan it was a T34 with a lot of sheet metal built over it,looked good from a distance but as we had the real thing there you could see it was only about 2/3 the size of the real thing.

Ken said...

The Confederate (now Commemorative) Air Force has (or had) some conversions made from Vultee Valiants. I may have pictures somewhere, from my cub reporter days.

Bram said...

I was watching the X-Men Wolverine movie over the weekend. In one scene, Wolverine is fighting in Vietnam. The next scene, he is in Niger with Will I Am who is sporting a G36 carbine. No billboard stating "20 years later."

I must be a gun and history geek since that took me right out of the movie.

Billy Beck said...

"Among its more notable exploits, the T-6:..."

...terrorized the south Pacific weekly during the mid-1970's, for the greater glory of Greg Boyington and General Motors.

~~~~~

I remember very clearly the attack on Pearl Harbor. It took six weeks in the summer of 1969, when I lived on the windward side of Oahu. We used to picnic on the beaches to watch the friendly Japanese pilots waving cheerily during low-level passes in their T-6's. We missed them when they finally flew away.

wolfwalker said...

Fast Richard: Jappanese Kates, Vals, and Oscars

[buzz] Oscar was a Japanese Army fighter. Japanese carriers flew the A6M Zero fighter. A number of AT-6s were modified to resemble Zeros for Tora! Tora! Tora! and other war films, because no intact Zeros survived the war. The modifications are pretty convincing.

My favorite of these anachronisms: Watch closely in Flying Leathernecks, and you just might see John Wayne and his squadron-mates flying over Guadalcanal in F6F Hellcats -- which didn't exist in 1942.

You might also see them using 5-inch rockets and napalm firebombs in their ground strikes, which also didn't exist yet in 1942.

Timmeehh said...

"the HK G36 is the most widely-issued rifle"

No way! It's the Steyr AUG!eleven!

Dr. StrangeGun said...

Don't forget all the F5 / T38 aircraft we sold to the communist countries during the 70's, just to have to chase them out of the sky in F14s later...

Anonymous said...

I read this at work, and laughed enough to get weird looks from my co-workers.

Jim

w/v: conch. I seem to loosely recall getting pretty good and duval-faced on sh*t street a few times, yes.

Cybrludite said...

Don't forget the F-4 Phantom as some sort of MiG in a certain nameless sequel involving F-16s.

An F-111 made its movie debut with a cameo as an unnamed Soviet jet in a stinker involving Barry "@$$hole" Bostwik and Persis "Ensign Cueball" Khambatta. What can we say? The F-111 was young & needed the money...

Will said...

Just read a very informative book on the Battle of Britain. "With Wings Like Eagles", by Michael Korda. Explains how they got the Spitfire and Hurricane, along with their Radar system. Talks about the politics leading up to it. Covers the bomber mindset that was so pervasive throughout the world. At Costco for $9. Large paperback.

Another excellent read is "Sigh For A Merlin" (1979), by the head test pilot of Spitfires, Alex Henshaw.

Weer'd Beard said...

Don't forget the MP5, EVERYBODY has an MP5.

Ed Foster said...

reflectoscope again, by a whisker. "Duval-faced on S--t St." indeed. I want that on a T-Shirt.

I was there when that pilot of the "Mile High" ride got hijacked, then fought the two crazy Cubans all the way down to the water. He still had the presence of mind and professionalism to throw them lifejackets as the plane was sinking.

Unfortunately, they inflated them inside the cockpit, couldn't get out the hatch, and both went down with the plane.

To say Duval St. was looking for a party was putting it mildly. They got him drunk, puked him out, got him drunk again, then repeated the process far into the night.

An unusual place is Key West.