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Shooter


zhunter

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Liked the action but I had a hard time paying for a movie that Hugo Chavez kissing, super liberal Danny Glover would benefit from. The idea that all evil deeds are known and approved by a "hidden hand" supposedly extreme right-wingers, under-pins the screen writing and is a belief held that evil white men are at the bottom of all atrocities by devout lefties such as Glover. Notice that Bob-Lee is reading the 9/11 Commission report when Glover shows up and sets up the premise that 9/11 was known and approved by the US government. Knowing the extreme-left wing involvement it was hard not to notice the subtle digs at gun owners and conservatives such as the line that Bob-Lee has something to the effect of "I come from a State of too many guns". The "too many guns" is correct the 1st part is paraphrased. The idea that the US military would look the other way while evil men carry out the slaughter of an entire village just so big-oil can keep their interests protected is a plot that surely attracted Danny's signing on to this movie. So too is the idea that the men and women of the armed forces are expendable to further the ambitions of the "evil hand" and so Bob-Lee is left behind even though he is supposedly the highest trained sniper asset in the US Forces. If our Military ever adopts a policy of expendability they will be hard pressed to ever motivate anyone to enter battle without resorting to the old seven virgins and a camel promise. I guess I can take satisfaction that though most likely unintended, in the end the guy who knows how to use a gun, wins.

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Holly weird does this a lot, take a nationalist, conservative or centrist story and make it left wing. Look at Rising Sun sometime. Rather than serve as a wakeup call to Americans at the risk of offending Japanese (like the book was), they make the movie Japanese "honrable" and a greedy white guy the villian.

don't even get me started....

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Yep, dubletap and dp40 make good points. I'm sure the anti-right bias is intentional. But I did like it when the Glover character and Bob Lee first meet. Swagger is presented with the need for him to do his duty to protect the president. His reply was "I don't like him (the president) much. Didn't like the last one either." I know we are not talking about actual presidents (necessarily) but the implication seemed to be that political party and philosphy did not matter. Bob doesn't like overbearing, oppressive government, period. Neither did a guy named Jefferson.

Small solace.

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I saw the movie over the weekend and really enjoyed it.

I agree with dubletap but if you avoid entertainment because you don't like the politics of the actors or producers, you're going to have to just write off Hollywood.

Wahlberg does a decent job with the role.

Who else could have pulled it off?

Here are some guys that come to mind.

Viggo Mortensen

Michael Biehn

Val Kilmer

Tom Beringer (Been there done that)

Perhaps a young Kevin Costner.

Tls

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I went two nights ago with a group of Army buddies - I enjoyed the movie. I really liked the book so I was hoping the movie would be good.

If they make a war movie really realistic it would be 99% boring and 1% terrifying!

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I like Mark Wahlberg as an actor, but I have to admit I'm having a hard time seeing him as Bob the Nailer. But then, who the hell really could play that role? No one occurs to me.

After seeing him say some very negative anti gun comments, and putting down Charlton Heston for being NRA president, I find it very hard to watch him.

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I was so excited for the flick (I've read and re-read all of Hunter's books) and was dissapointed. I don't know what the deal was with Danny Glover's speech (hard to take serious when he sounds like a 13 year old with a new retainer) and I was pretty dissapointed with the casting (aside from Donny Fenn's fiance :). Seems like they picked and chose certain elements from the book but missed a lot of the good stuff.

It's too bad because the books are absolutely the best and most accurate depictions of firearms out there (imho)... Hunter is an IPSC shooter (i've heard) and makes several references to Swagger's IPSC exploits. They just didn't capture the potential from the book.

Edited by Z-man
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Does anyone know what rifle Mark had , the one in the desert camo. I would guess it was some kind of 338 lapua, not a 50 bmg, just looking at the ammo he was handling. I initially thought it was a cobb, but I think the rifle he had was a bolt, not a semi.

Ok, I guess I get to answer my own question the rifle used is a, chey tac m 200 in a 408 caliber. Never even hear of them before. Suppose to be efffective past 2000 meters.

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Finally saw this the other night. I haven't read the books so can't comment there, but the action was well done. Entertaining flick overall...

Without exception my favorite part was Levon Helm as the famous old gunsmith. For anyone that doesn't know Levon is the fella that sung some of The Band's most famous songs. 'Up on Cripple Creek', 'The Weight' and ' The night they drove old dixie down'. To name a few... When I saw his name roll on the opening credits I was excited, but knowing that he is almost 70 and not in the best of health I was worried I might not recognize him. What a pleasant surprise when the scene happened with Bob Lee asking his first question and hearing that voice. What an incredibly distinctive accent!!! Levon contracted throat cancer in the mid/late 90's and was reduced to a whisper for many years. How cool is it that he's back!!!

Sorry to drift the thread. This was a pretty well made movie, but hearin Levon talk again blew it out of the water for me. I'll always associate the film with that. Now all I need to do is find a way to get to Woodstock NY and see one of his 'Midnight Ramble's' and get a picture in front of 'Big Pink'!!!

:D:PB)

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I get to answer my own question the rifle used is a, chey tac m 200 in a 408 caliber

http://www.cheytac.com/M-200.html

I just saw an episode of "future weapons" on the Discovery Channel that featured them. Supposedly they designed a projectile to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible, and carried as much energy out to distance as possible... and then designed a cartridge and weapons system around that projectile.

ymmv. At the very least, it is compelling from a marketing point of view....

Bruce

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  • 2 months later...
Finally saw this the other night. I haven't read the books so can't comment there, but the action was well done. Entertaining flick overall...

Without exception my favorite part was Levon Helm as the famous old gunsmith. For anyone that doesn't know Levon is the fella that sung some of The Band's most famous songs. 'Up on Cripple Creek', 'The Weight' and ' The night they drove old dixie down'. To name a few... When I saw his name roll on the opening credits I was excited, but knowing that he is almost 70 and not in the best of health I was worried I might not recognize him. What a pleasant surprise when the scene happened with Bob Lee asking his first question and hearing that voice. What an incredibly distinctive accent!!! Levon contracted throat cancer in the mid/late 90's and was reduced to a whisper for many years. How cool is it that he's back!!!

Sorry to drift the thread. This was a pretty well made movie, but hearin Levon talk again blew it out of the water for me. I'll always associate the film with that. Now all I need to do is find a way to get to Woodstock NY and see one of his 'Midnight Ramble's' and get a picture in front of 'Big Pink'!!!

:D:PB)

OK! I just saw this last night. Overall, with a dose of "Hollywood ain't real" under my belt, I liked it. But I came here to see if anyone else recognized Levon Helm (3QT -- ;) ). What a voice! He should have started acting much sooner.

In case anyone doesn't know, he also played Jack Ridley, Chuck Yeager's good buddy in "The Right Stuff" and did the narration for that film.

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Just picked up a copy tonight at Wal-Mart and watched after dinner. I can say that it was a pretty damn good movie and waiting on the next one to come out in the movies (atleast I hope there is more to come). I need to re-read the one book I have and buy the others.

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If anyone is interested Circuit City is selling SHOOTER with a BONUS DVD for $15.99. The BONUS DVD has a real good story on Carlos Hathcock, a breakdown on the 408 CheyTac and also a sitdown with Marky Marky and the Director.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just watched the movie on DVD and thought it was interesting that "Tagger" seems to be ambidextrous.

In the opening scene he shoots a standard issue sniper rifle and a 50 bmg right handed (left eye closed).

In the shootout in Virginia he shoots a handgun and a AR left handed (both eyes open).

In the sniper vs. sniper scene on the snow covered mountain he shoots left handed with a right handed bolt rifle, this time with right eye closed.

Wow, if only I lived in a world where strong hand / weak hand and eye dominance made no difference.

Not only would my weak hand classifiers improve but I wouldn't have needed to buy all that left handed gear.

Oh, and just for the record, one really confused bad guy carried a long gun at the ready position left handed while wearing a pistol in a RH tactical holster on his thigh.

He must have been very conflicted. :huh:

It's no wonder he got killed without firing a shot.

He was too busy trying to figure out how to draw that pistol. :rolleyes:

Oh well, it was still a fun movie to watch.

Tony

Edited by 38superman
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Yeah, so when I saw the title of the movie initially, "Shooter", I assumed it was about the book by the same name. I finally got around to renting the DVD and realized what book it really is. I had almost forgotten about Point of Impact, having read it several years ago. Anyway, its a great book, and they did well with the movie. It was a fun watch.

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I get to answer my own question the rifle used is a, chey tac m 200 in a 408 caliber

http://www.cheytac.com/M-200.html

I just saw an episode of "future weapons" on the Discovery Channel that featured them. Supposedly they designed a projectile to be as aerodynamically efficient as possible, and carried as much energy out to distance as possible... and then designed a cartridge and weapons system around that projectile.

ymmv. At the very least, it is compelling from a marketing point of view....

Bruce

Manufactured in Arco Idaho.

TG

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