Hoppe's no.10
05-28-2008, 07:06 PM
BIGSP and I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last week. I'll pass on a review of the other than to say: "Worth the price of admission ..." Towards the end of the movie, however, a bad guy pulled a pistol out of his holster that looked an awful lot like a Browning Hi-Power (BHP) . I posted a query about this on another site which led to a number of links and replies which led me to learn that in Raiders of the Lost Ark IJ used - in a addition to a S&W Hand Ejector Model 2 .455 Eley - a BHP in the Ravenwood saloon shootout (Nepal) in the beginning of the movie. I always assumed he was shooting a 1911*. Rented the video and went through the shootout frame by frame and I would say probably a HP but tough to tell for sure. In the subsequent scenes, however, when IJ is on a freighter being boarded by a German/Nazi submarine crew he is definitely 'packin' a Hi-Power - 'Commander' hammer and all:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47ac04799f700000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47abf40d95700000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47b30cdb94900000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
Kind of a revelatory hat trick for me as I'm a huge fan of the Hi-Power, Indiana Jones, and the inter-war years (Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in 1936). I'm also a fan of the various exotic semi-auto handguns which emerged into general usage during this period such as the Hi-Power, Luger, "Broomhandle" Mauser and the Walther P-38. Arguably the BHP is THE iconic symbol of the high capacity semi-auto pistol as a viable military, police and defensive handgun.
For all you legions of supporters of the 1911 and it's clones I'm not saying the HP is definitively a better handgun (although this can be argued on more than one point) and I'm certainly not saying the 9mm is a better defensive cartridge than the .45 ACP - I'm only saying that the BHP has had more influence WORLDWIDE on the acceptance of the semi-auto as a military/police/ defensive handgun then any other semi-auto and portended the slow but inexorable decline of the revolver in the same venue.
Go Indy!
Hoppe's no.10
*Read on another web site that Hi-Powers (when time frame and locale of the movie permits) are generally more favored in movies with 'shootout' scenes than 1911s because the 9mm blank is more reliable than the .45 ACP blank and thus results in a lesser number of costly re-takes.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47ac04799f700000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47abf40d95700000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8db02b3127ccec47b30cdb94900000050O00DaN2zhk5Yg9 vPgg/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D560/ry%3D300/
Kind of a revelatory hat trick for me as I'm a huge fan of the Hi-Power, Indiana Jones, and the inter-war years (Raiders of the Lost Ark was set in 1936). I'm also a fan of the various exotic semi-auto handguns which emerged into general usage during this period such as the Hi-Power, Luger, "Broomhandle" Mauser and the Walther P-38. Arguably the BHP is THE iconic symbol of the high capacity semi-auto pistol as a viable military, police and defensive handgun.
For all you legions of supporters of the 1911 and it's clones I'm not saying the HP is definitively a better handgun (although this can be argued on more than one point) and I'm certainly not saying the 9mm is a better defensive cartridge than the .45 ACP - I'm only saying that the BHP has had more influence WORLDWIDE on the acceptance of the semi-auto as a military/police/ defensive handgun then any other semi-auto and portended the slow but inexorable decline of the revolver in the same venue.
Go Indy!
Hoppe's no.10
*Read on another web site that Hi-Powers (when time frame and locale of the movie permits) are generally more favored in movies with 'shootout' scenes than 1911s because the 9mm blank is more reliable than the .45 ACP blank and thus results in a lesser number of costly re-takes.