Blackpowder Mortar and Cannons in movies.

[bluez]

What is your favorite movie featuring older cannons and mortars?

I like

The Patriot (2000)

Master & commander (2003)

[steelcharge]

I love old war movies with cannons in them, I actually think that a war movie cannot be "perfect" without cannons!
Because I like historical uses of improvised guns, or the use of obsolete guns in more modern times, movies that have either one of those, are the best.

Maybe some slight spoilers, so don't read if you intend to watch these movies and don't want to know anything beforehand.

Some of my favourites are:
Lord Jim (1965): Set in early 1900s Indonesia, old field gun used to bombard a fortress of "an evil mining company" and two ancient bronze guns loaded with coins used to kill some of the companys men.

55 Days At Peking (1963): Set during the Boxer Rebellion, the allied use a "half-improvised" breechloader "Betsy" to fight the chinese rebels. The only thing I dislike here is that "Betsy" blows up, it really didn't, and that it's not a muzzleloader (in reality it was).

Real Glory (1939): Set during the "Moro Wars" and one of my ultimate favorite war movies. A scene of the moro warriors firing a captured Hotchkiss 2pdr mountain gun at the Philippine Constabulary fort. A short glimpse of a "lantaka" and some really cool scenes with Gatlings.

North West Frontier (1959): Set during some, probably imaginary, conflict in the "north west frontier" (back then part of British India). During the beginning of the movie the british fight attacking tribesmen using Vickers-Maxim 2.95" QF mountain guns and some obsolete muzzleloaders.

And of course; "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" with the historically incorrect, but otherwise very cool scene of Union and Confederate men fighting for a bridge.

[Zulu]

And of course; "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" with the historically incorrect, but otherwise very cool scene of Union and Confederate men fighting for a bridge.
 
Wasn't that "The Horse Soldiers" with John Wayne?
Zulu
 

[steelcharge]

And of course; "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" with the historically incorrect, but otherwise very cool scene of Union and Confederate men fighting for a bridge.
 
Wasn't that "The Horse Soldiers" with John Wayne?
Zulu
 

I haven't seen that one, but I think it also has a scene about fighting for a bridge. But here's the beginning of the scene from "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly". You can see some of the cannons, but not many, used in the actual fighting scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryo8RtIYBnU

[Cannoneer]

IMO, as a movie “The Last Samurai” is just another load of fantasized Hollywood tripe, but at least they did manage to have some Model 1841 12-pounder field howitzers cast for the battle scenes.

[subdjoe]

Drums in the Deep South

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9L5GQ3u-r8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drums_in_the_Deep_South

[brass cannon]

The siege of Fort McHenry in the Last of the Mohicans was properly researched and correctly done.  The special effects man from that film asked a cannon expert friend of mine for help.  The fx guy was told to read certain books and come back if he had any questions.  If he didn't read them, don't bother to return.  He came back with only one question.  What color were the French carriages painted?  The result was a historically correct night artillery battle scene.

[brass cannon]

My California Military Reserve unit has one of the cannons used for The Last Samurai.  The tube and carriage are very nice, full size reproductions but the tools are a joke.  The tube is bronze and the carriage is painted but appears to be hard wood.  I bought two of the 12 pounders used on Master and Commander.  Most of the guns for that movie were purchased by a company in San Diego to go on a ship there.  The tubes were actually bored and sleeved cast iron 6 pounders.  The tubes were quite nice but the carriages were poorly researched, constructed of pine and in bad shape.  I redid them in oak and donated them to a museum for a decent tax write off.

[flagman1776]

That would be Fort William Henry on Lake George in NY state. http://www.fwhmuseum.com/ 
Not Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland http://www.nps.gov/fomc/index.htm 

I started to write a list of the ones I like...  a very long list... 

The siege of Fort McHenry in the Last of the Mohicans was properly researched and correctly done.  The special effects man from that film asked a cannon expert friend of mine for help.  The fx guy was told to read certain books and come back if he had any questions.  If he didn't read them, don't bother to return.  He came back with only one question.  What color were the French carriages painted?  The result was a historically correct night artillery battle scene.

[seacoastartillery]

   The Last of the Mohicans, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Glory in that order.  In the James Fenimore Cooper tale, the French artillery which bombarded Fort William Henry, if memory serves, was described as prolific or robust and indeed it was.  The French artillerymen had almost 40 pieces arrayed on the heights overlooking the southern head of Lake George in batteries close to where Lake George Village is located today.  The breakdown was about 1/3  mortars of all sizes with at least 4 heavy siege mortars of 8 to 12 inch bore size, 1/3 siege guns and howitzers and 1/3 field artillery.  The initial bombardment was from approximately 2,000 yards. Only the heavy 10 or 12 inch siege mortars could attain this range and throw bombes large enough to do some real damage.
 
Mike & Tracy
 
 
Montcalm's French siege batteries were laid out as this sketch shows.
 
 
 
 
      Also,  The Last of the Mohicans has probably the only look at authentic French artillery of the period in any movie.  The ferocity of the bombardment can only be imagined, but one result of it became evident as I gazed upon a temporary display of an archeological dig at the site of the ruins of Fort William Henry at the age of 10 in 1957.  They had just started re-construction of the fort and a small display of artifacts they found included a skull of some unfortunate in the fort's British surgery with a bullet clenched in it's teeth and a heavy mortar bomb fragment lodged in it's brain pan. 
 
      To give all of you a good idea of how big some of the French mortars were, we have included below several views of a similar mortar from 15 years later which most likely came over with the French forces in General Rochambeau's French Expeditionary Corps in America from 1780 to 1782 or is a darn good replica of such.  Dated 1772, it could have been used near the end of the Revolutionary War in September or October of 1781 at the Siege of Yorktown and it is representative of French heavy siege mortars used during the French and Indian War or Seven Years War.
 
 This large French Siege Mortar, cast in 1772 is now located at Fort Ticonderoga 50-60 miles northeast of Fort William Henry. 
 
 
 
 
 The casting date, the weight and some Fleur de lis, etc. on this Mortier Francais.
 
 
 
 
 Fleur de lis
 
 
 
 
 12 Inch bore and chamber.
 
 
   
 

[seacoastartillery]

     Also in The Last of the Mohicans, the British fought the French and Indian forces encircling them with artillery pieces like these that we photographed at Fort Ligonier 1758-1766 in western Pennsylvania.  Several of the large cast iron British guns burst from extreme frequency of use and the extra strain of high elevations.  Artillery like the bronze Royal Cohorn mortars and six pounder pictured were used continuously during the 3 day siege and were captured by French forces at it's conclusion.

Mike and Tracy


A popular style of mortar was the Coehorn during the French and Indian War.




The six pounder gun was an accurate counter battery gun and caused some damage to French artillerymen and equipment during the siege.

[Cannoneer]

I know that the original question was about favorite flicks, but what the heck, I'm in a negative frame of mind.
This clip is in French and subtitled in English, but it shows the scene I'm concerned with. The movie is "Cold Mountain" and the scene is the siege of Petersburg, Virginia.
At around 58 seconds, a row of CSA siege guns come into view that show the definite inspiration of John Dahlgren, but evidently their creators didn't care for his breeching jaw design.
Considering the amount of money used to make the movie, you would think that they could have afforded to pay a competent consultant to avoid this kind of silliness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dVTm_4fg2A

[flagman1776]

a couple of historical asides:
The siege artillery that appeared at Yorktown, shows the extent of the French support.  Admiral DeGrasse had been in constant contact with Gen Rochambeau.  The French fleet's orders were officially to coast the Americas before returning to France ahead of hurricane season.  Cornwallis expected to be evacuated by the British Navy as they had been before...  never expecting the French Fleet to block that evacuation.  When the French Fleet fought a major battle (possibly a draw but the British withdrew leaving the French in possession of the field of battle) & kept the cork in the bottle...  the Chesapeake...  off loaded heavy siege artillery (why was heavy siege artillery in a French Fleet with his orders?) and engineers to lay out the trenches because the cause required Yorktown to be taken by force before DeGrasse was forced to depart American waters.   
When I took my British Cousins to tour Fort Ticonderoga...  I mentioned that the artillery displayed was largely not original to that fort...  because a book seller named Knox dragged the artillery to the heights of Dorchester overlooking Boston Harbor.  A gentleman's agreement was struck once the colonial gunners found the range.  The colonials would refrain from shelling the British ships in the harbor and the British would evacuate in the Spring without burning Boston.