Famous guns of Hollywood spotlighted at NRA museum

The Coen Brothers' “True Grit" is up for the Best Picture Oscar on Sunday. It's the only one of the 10 nominees that’s a real “shoot ‘em up” flick. At The National Rifle Association’s National Firearms Museum in Fairfax, Va., you can see a vast collection of famous Hollywood guns, including the Winchester used in the 1969 "True Grit" movie.

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What would a western be without a repeating rifle?

Curly: "I’ll take the Winchester."

Ringo: "You might need me and this Winchester, Curly."

John Wayne’s Ringo Kid starred in the 1939 classic “Stagecoach.” So did that 1892 Winchester rifle.

Firearms Museum director Jim Supica says the Winchester is a favorite of Hollywood prop guys – it’s available, it’s reliable and it easily shoots the blanks needed for movies. But Supica says Wayne’s Winchesters were specially crafted.

"The thing that he did with his that made it very unique," says Supica, "was he made an extra large loop on that lever. Now, he was a big man, he had big hands, and also a signature move that he initiated in 'Stagecoach' was the spinning of the rifle to cock it."

It was a move “The Duke” used with the same rifle 30 years later in the role that won him his only Academy Award: the aging lawman Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit.”

Cogburn (Wayne): "I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned. Or see you hanged in Ft. Smith at Judge Parker’s convenience. Which’ll it be?"

Ned (Robert Duvall): "I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!"

The Winchesters in “Stagecoach” and “True Grit” are on display in the Firearms Museum “Hollywood Guns” exhibit. Jim Supica says it drives him crazy when Hollywood gets it wrong.

Famous Guns of Hollywood at the NRA National Firearms Museum.
"Not just me, but gun guys all over the country will have their own critiques of movies." He says, "it can just ruin a movie for a guy when that revolver fires the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth rounds or they use a gun that was introduced 30 years after the movie is supposed to take place."

Supica says guns are sometimes “tarted up” in films – usually when the authentic era firearm is unavailable. He says even John Wayne’s films used the wrong era Winchester. But Supica cuts the Duke some slack. "Hey, he’s John Wayne. He can do whatever he wants."

One film not only got the gun right – the weapon itself became a co-star of sorts. The movie? The 1971 hit “Dirty Harry.”

"I know what you’re thinking: did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth in all this excitement, I’ve kind of lost track myself. But being that this is a .44 Magnum – the most powerful handgun in the world – and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

Jim Supica says the movie had a tremendous impact on the firearms market because the .44 Magnum was kind of a specialty handgun. "Sales were just kind of slow and steady for Smith and Wesson before the movie. Then when the movie came out, everybody had to have a .44 Magnum."

He says it was the first handgun powerful enough, and accurate enough, for hunting large game in North America. But the .44 Magnum’s appeal ran out of bullets before “Dirty Harry” did.

"A few years later, it wasn’t uncommon to find a .44 Magnum for sale with a box of shells with six of them gone out of it and after that the guy didn’t want to shoot it anymore," says Supica. "It was too much for him and he went back to a more practical size of handgun."

Sometimes Hollywood has to invent weapons. The “Hollywood Guns” exhibit has two examples from the “Star Wars” movies. Supica says the "Imperial Blasters" are made from "parts from a World War II British submachine gun plus parts off a copier machine and windshield wiper blades."

And then there’s the iconic lightsaber. It really does look like a flashlight. Supica says it's actually adapted from a Graflax flashbulb holder "for photography in the mid-20th century."

The exhibit includes everything from the 1917 A1 Browning machine gun from Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” to the HK 94 submachine gun Bruce Willis used to rappel down an airshaft in “Die Hard.” The exhibit is on display through spring of next year.