Author Topic: Cannon in movies... (Read 1666 times)

p51 · « **on:** January 20, 2009, 05:20:08 PM »

Anyone have any artillery spotted in films where you wonder, "What's that doing there?"

I'll start off. From the 1986 movie, "Something Wild" which was Ray Liotta's first big move with Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith:

Note the gun on the trailer. It doesn't show up much better in the following scenes.

Artilleryman · « **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2009, 05:48:11 PM »

Confederate?

BoomLover · « **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2009, 05:55:17 PM »

Good eye, Artilleryman, was it the Gray uniforms that gave that away? I was focusing on that till I got a look at the price of gas on the sign, Oh for the "Good Old Days"! BoomLover

Frank46 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2009, 06:34:58 PM »

Movie guns??. Don't remember the title but it starred Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren and some actor played a british officer. They were dragging around a huge cannon with which they were going batter down the fortified walls of a french held city in spain. Was that a prop or the real deal?. Frank

GGaskill · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2009, 09:39:12 PM »

The Datsun 240Z kind of dates it too.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2009, 10:03:13 PM »

Frank, that is one of my 1957 favorites featuring Sophia Loren and the big cannon. The title was "The Pride and the Passion". Cary Grant was also in it. The big cannon looked like a prop to me the way it twitched and jumped over some little rough spots on the mountain as it gained speed going downhill.

My personal favorite of 1966 has to be the best spaghetti western ever filmed, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly directed by Sergio Leone and featuring Clint Eastwood as Blondie, Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes and Eli Wallach as Tuco, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Besides having all those great cannon firing during the Civil War battle scene on the hill overlooking the bridge and the river, you also had Blondie, the gunner, with his lit cigar and the field piece loaded and fused. Tuco was the moving target, of course. Remember that line uttered by Tuco as black powder smoke swirled above his bubble bath as the bad guy staggers backward, mortally wounded? Tuco says, "If you're going to shoot, shoot; don't talk!" Great movie!

TK

Max Caliber · « **Reply #6 on:** January 21, 2009, 05:07:47 AM »

The cannon from the movie "The Pride and the Passion" used to be located outside of Ripley's Belive It Or Not Museum in St. Augustine, Fla. It was very nicely constructed of fiberglass and had the usual movie cannon firing chamber which extended into the muzzle around 12 inches or so.

p51 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 21, 2009, 04:45:11 PM »

Not exactly artillery, but what about the quad .50 MG mount in "Waterworld"? It's been so long nobody can remember the world was once dry, yet someone perfectly preserved a complete WW2 turret and four MG's and also found enough ammo to shoot from them that survived a worldwide flood? Heck, those belts jam up easily when they're new from the factory!

Quote from: GGaskill on January 20, 2009, 09:39:12 PM

The Datsun 240Z kind of dates it too.

I think that's a 280Z, though

Frank46 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 22, 2009, 12:30:25 AM »

Mike & Tracey, OK here's another one for you. "Last of the Mohicans" Daniel Day Lewis and Madeline Stowe
French cannoneers and Mortars. Now those had to be real. No movie prop I ever saw generated that much smoke and noise. "The Good the Bad and The Ugly". The bridge scene was one of my favorites also. Thanks, Frank

Swampman · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2009, 01:31:35 AM »

The cannons in Last of the Mohicans are fiberglass and fired with propane. I had quite a few friends in the movie. I was supposed to go as a French Marine, but they were only paying $50.00 a day.

Frank46 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2009, 07:58:48 AM »

Ah Swampman, you took the fun out of it. Always thought that those were real. But guess the prop guys really outdid themselves on that one. Ok here is another one "Gettiesburg" with tom beringer, jeff davis. Can't tell me those were fakes, at least not all of them. Best scene, when confederate cannon fire en masse
in the up in the air shots. Rough Riders, also tom beringer as teddy roosevelt, spanish cannon where the rough riders made their charge. Frank

Artilleryman · « **Reply #11 on:** January 22, 2009, 11:32:44 AM »

The movie Gettysburg used real artillery pieces. My 10pdr Parrott was one of them.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #12 on:** January 22, 2009, 11:42:30 AM »

What was the movie where Clint eastwood used a AAA cannon to blow the doors off a vault?
In Delta Farce they had a Nepolean in it. Did the F troop thing and it fired.

Terry C. · « **Reply #13 on:** January 22, 2009, 01:30:03 PM »

Quote from: mcwoodduck on January 22, 2009, 11:42:30 AM

What was the movie where Clint eastwood used a AAA cannon to blow the doors off a vault?

"Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"

BoomLover · « **Reply #14 on:** January 22, 2009, 03:01:48 PM »

"Cutthroat Island", with Geena Davis, Matthew Modine, 1995(?). Lots of cannons, but, anyone know how many of them were real? They did some pretty realistic scenes! Good action flik! BoomLover

Evil Dog · « **Reply #15 on:** January 22, 2009, 03:36:32 PM »

Quote

Good action flik!

An even better comedy.

p51 · « **Reply #16 on:** January 22, 2009, 04:31:45 PM »

Quote from: Swampman on January 22, 2009, 01:31:35 AM

The cannons in Last of the Mohicans are fiberglass and fired with propane.

I had a buddy in that movie as well, he told me he was shocked when he saw the film at how good they looked because those "guns" looked pretty silly in the daylight. I agree that at least they got the smoke right, but they're firing at downright insane ranges. As close as the gun lines were to each other in that movie, they could have just picked up the rounds and thrown them at one another! At least they looked better than guns on older movies, like Max pointed out, with a bore than only goes about a foot into the barrel.

Ex 49'er · « **Reply #17 on:** January 22, 2009, 07:53:20 PM »

How about "Support Your Local Sheriff" where James Garner ties Bruce Dern in front of a cannon and threatens to blow him up if the Danby family led by Walter Brennan doesn't give up.
and
"Sahara" with Mathew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. Movie has an ironclad at the end of the civil war that traveled over the Atlantic ocean to Africa, up a river in Nigeria and is
discovered buried under a sand dune. At the end a cannon is used to shoot down a helicopter.
and
"Swashbuckler" with Robert Shaw. A nifty little privateer(pirate) flic.
and
"Davy Crocket and the River Pirates" where Mike Fink shoots a swivel gun from the hip.

mcwoodduck · « **Reply #18 on:** January 23, 2009, 05:18:36 AM »

The Good the Bad and the Ugly had a cannon sceene.

KABAR2 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 23, 2009, 06:52:51 AM »

Quote from: Frank46 on January 22, 2009, 07:58:48 AM

Ah Swampman, you took the fun out of it. Always thought that those were real. But guess the prop guys really outdid themselves on that one. Ok here is another one "Gettiesburg" with tom beringer, jeff davis. Can't tell me those were fakes, at least not all of them. Best scene, when confederate cannon fire en masse
in the up in the air shots. Rough Riders, also tom beringer as teddy roosevelt, spanish cannon where the rough riders made their charge. Frank

The "spanish cannon" if I remember right is a U.S. m1903 in the movie the Spanish used it with the shield, the round they take out of the crate is an
all brass drill round for that gun, the U.S. artillery is the same gun with the shield removed. they also reversed the negative of the Rough Riders firing the captured Maxims you can tell because the feed is now on the left and the brass fussie spring covers are on the right. total reverse of reality.

Frank46 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 23, 2009, 04:57:28 PM »

Swampman, thank you for the info. OK here is another one for you British cannon fans. The latest Horatio Hornblower series. British ship of the line. I believe this took place during the Napoleonic Wars. Were any of these cannons real or props?. Frank

subdjoe · « **Reply #21 on:** January 23, 2009, 05:51:34 PM »

In The Wind and the Lion, Sean Connery, Candice Bergen, 1975. The last battle scene with the German artillery firing on the Berbers charging in on them. The last round seems to be canister.

Added 1/24: last two rounds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWVQKcmsUTc

BoomLover · « **Reply #22 on:** January 23, 2009, 09:04:45 PM »

"Wild Wild West" with Will Smith, 1999, a war wagon, with cannon and gatling guns, ok...steam powered, ok...but operated from across a body of water using remote control? Shortly after the Civil War, in the late 1800? Hummm.... BoomLover

Ex 49'er · « **Reply #23 on:** April 30, 2010, 07:43:23 PM »

Just watched "Man in the Wilderness" with Richard Harris and John Huston. There is a riverboat that has a couple of big swivel guns on it. Fire and smoke, too.

KABAR2 · « **Reply #24 on:** May 01, 2010, 05:13:49 AM »

Quote from: Ex 49'er on April 30, 2010, 07:43:23 PM

Just watched "Man in the Wilderness" with Richard Harris and John Huston. There is a riverboat that has a couple of big swivel guns on it. Fire and smoke, too.

Yeah "big swivel guns" if memory serves they looked like napoleon's .......... yeah nowTHAT'S A SWIVEL!

Ex 49'er · « **Reply #25 on:** May 01, 2010, 08:30:34 AM »

They were wearing dolphinz, too.

seacoastartillery · « **Reply #26 on:** May 01, 2010, 07:01:20 PM »

The seacoast guys like that "Beauregarde Gun" on the Barbette Level of Battery Wagner which Col. Shaw's troops run past just after they jump down from the top of the parapet. Leave it to us to spot the big guns, even if they are fiberglass! During the movie this monster is in view for only a half second or so. Sure did look real, just like the one from Fort Pulaski east of Savannah, Georgia in the pic below:

Tracy and Mike

Frank46 · « **Reply #27 on:** May 01, 2010, 07:06:57 PM »

OK, got another one for you all. Master and Commander the Far side of the world. Russel Crowe. Real cannons or fake??. Curious minds want to know. Frank

Double D · « **Reply #28 on:** May 01, 2010, 07:10:23 PM »

Can't say if the cannons are real in Master and Commander, but the sounds are. They were created by our own Artilleryman.