Remember, it’s a movie, not actual recently-recovered film and archives of what really happened. It’s a product to sell.
But.
Despite a terrible clip in the trailer showing a Thompson being fired, well, flash and noise but no motion and actuator not moving, super fake-oid, most of the gunplay was pretty good. Considering I have accepted long ago that they can’t get eveything perfect. If I were a short order cook I could probably pick apart the diner scene. So I look for the overall.
Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson? Really good stuff, great actors in my view, within the confines of the writing. Some aspects of B&C as heroes overplayed. But my very good friend Remmy Leven had a prominent part, happy about that! See if you can spot Remmy.
Tried to watch closing credits for who the armorer was. Friggin’ Netflix insists on rushing to whatever’s next and I could not read them.
Saw the promo, really hate Woody Harrelson, but I’ll give it a go.
I think Public Enemies is as good is this genre is going to get. Also really don’t care much about the Bonnie and Clyde story, he was a homo and she didn’t look anything like Faye Dunaway in her prime. The 1967 film will probably remain the standard, even with it’s inaccuracies.
Hard to watch a lot of modern day films with gunplay, CGI muzzle flashes drive me crazy.
Growing up in Texas, Capt. Frank Hamer was/is one of my personal heroes. I’ve seen in person the firearms he used to depart those oxygen thieves from this mortal coil. They even featured a Colt Monitor in the film, that was especially a nice touch for me.
So needless to say I waited for this one with great anticipation. I was not disappointed, in fact I relished it.
This was the first Hollywood feature film about Bonnie & Clyde that DID NOT glorify them . . . at all. In fact, you don’t even see their faces till the end and they don’t have but one or two lines of dialog throughout the film.
This film is a tribute to Texas Rangers Frank Hamer and Maney Gault.
I thought it was superbly cast, both Costner and Harrelson are two of my favorites and it was a treat to see them in this together. There were also two main cast members from Deadwood in this film.
Just finished a biography about Frank Hamer last week. This movie is very timely for me. Look forward to watching it. Life in Texas in the turn of the century? Wow! Exciting, rough, and incredible testimony to determined individuals.
Edited to add that if anyone wants to read a book about Frank Hamer and the early years of the Texas Rangers, try this one out…
I checked it out at the local library but here is an Amazon link to give an idea of the book.
Watched it last night and a really good film, however I don’t think it even comes close to Public Enemies. Was really happy to see that the focus was on Hammer and Gault and Bonnie and Clyde were shown as the vicious crapbags they actually were.
The gun handling / depiction was more than acceptable. The scene in the gun store was perfect.
IMDB.org says that the film’s armorer is one, “Joey Rocketshoes Dillon.”
Apparently he was armorer for Deadwood, Westworld, Godless, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (specifically the actual Buster Scruggs story), and Gangster Squad.
I saw it today, it was good. Gun store scene was awesome. Question for all you gun history aficionados? What was the cost of each of those guns back in the day. What would be the cost today just for shiza and giggles.
The Highwaymen was an Outlaw Country super group with Willie, Waylon, Chris, and Johnny.
That’s because Micheal Mann directed/co-wrote/co-produced Public Enemies. IMHO Netflix movies kind of have a “low budget” feel about them compared to studio features.
That gun store scene gave me wood. I looked over at my better half and said; “I’d ****ing love to be able to walk into a small town hardware store and purchase a Colt Monitor and a Thompson like that”.
I’ve never seen any in photos, besides they chopped theirs down. IIRC they had two with the stocks sawed off as well as the barrels so an extended mag tube would have been counter productive. One of Clyde’s he fixed a leather strap on the bottom of the cut off stock so it would hang under his arm beneath an overcoat and he could bring it up to action in an instant from concealment.
I just finished watching “The Highwaymen”, and thought it was excellent. One of my grandfathers was a young Dallas County Sheriff’s deputy during this time and used to talk about being on the lookout for Bonnie and Clyde. Parts of the movie with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were filmed in my home town. Because they used the old town bank in the movie to shoot the bank robbery scene people from other towns just assumed that Bonnie and Clyde must have robbed the bank in real life, but they didn’t because they had friends and family living here.
I liked the gun store scene but thought “that is a heckva lot of 1935 $ sitting on the counter” while watching it.
I think it more likely Hamer got his full autos from Texas National Guard, Prison or LE sources, still made an interesting scene though. As far as the Colt Monitor only 125 were made in 1931 with 90 going to the FBI and most of the rest going to prisons and law enforcement so one being in a Lubbock gun store in 1935 is not likely.
