Don't know if this has ever been discussed, but was curious if this was a mistake or something that I just didn't catch.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Missouri Breaks
pnc007 — 20 years ago(February 20, 2006 08:55 AM)
Don't know if this has ever been discussed, but was curious if this was a mistake or something that I just didn't catch.
When Brando comes to visit Nicholson when he is gardening, he tests him by shooting up the place (with deadly accuracy) then tosses his gun to Nicholson and says, "There's one left." Nicholson clicks the cylinder in the direction of the ground.
However, Brando only shot 4 times. I know that most revolvers in the old west had 6 rounds, but did this model only have 5? Curious if I've missed something. -
flutter_bi2230 — 20 years ago(February 26, 2006 10:33 PM)
My guess is that Brando only put 4 rounds into the gunand Nicholson's character being smarter than the average bearfigures that Brando, being the wily man-hunter that he is, isn't going to give him a gun with ammo in the chamberso he just fires at the groundand voilanothing happens. A very good scene of two rivals feeling each other out.
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pnc007 — 20 years ago(February 27, 2006 11:55 AM)
I do recognize the fact that these two are feeling each other out. It was a very well done scene. But, when Brando throws him the gun, he says, "Here, there's one left." Since he only fired 4 shots, did the gun only have 5 chambers? Generally, they had 6. Did this one only have 5?
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flutter_bi2230 — 20 years ago(February 27, 2006 10:10 PM)
I'm fairly sure that the gun would have had 6 chambers, but Brando's character only put 4 in the gun. So he fires 4, lies through his teeth and tells Nicholson there's one left, and gives him the gun to see what Nicholson's reaction will be. Nicholson, realizing that Brando's character would never give him a chance to kill him straight up, fires into the ground to show Brando that he's not dealing with the average bumpkin.
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Adams5905 — 16 years ago(January 24, 2010 11:21 AM)
I do know that many professional gunslingers only loaded 5 rounds so that, should they catch the hammer on anything protruding, by accident, such as part of their rig, or an overhanging branch, the revolver would not fire, unintentionally injuring themselves or someone else, because the next chamber would be empty. So if Lee deliberately 'underloads'by one round, this would only give him 4 shots!
There were, however 5 round revolvers produced, such as the 1873 Cattleman .45 Colt revolver, which has a short barrel, so that
may
be the silver-plated and chased revolver that he's using
I've
seen
things you people wouldn't believe -
jonchopwood — 19 years ago(August 07, 2006 08:09 AM)
The pistol apparently is a single-action Colt .45. It has six chambers. However, the problem with such guns was that if something struck the hammer, while still in the holster, the hammer would contact the cap, thus igniting the charge and round, leading to a discharge that could wound the person. Thus, anyone carrying around such a pistol (rather than, say, going out on the range for target practice) would have the hammer over an empty chamber. Anyone with a six-gun strapped to his side for the long-haul would thus have only five rounds in the gun.
Thus, he fires off four, which would leave one round in the chamber, something that a gunfighter/rustler would know (that there was five rather than six in the gun). Thus, he is testing him doubly. -
tjantus — 19 years ago(January 05, 2007 10:38 PM)
Having loaded 4 and fired 4 from a chamber that would hold 6, there would be the chance of there being either one or two rounds left, or none. Since Lee knew exactly how many rounds there were loaded to begin with and Tom never did, the odds would always be in his favor.
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partee-boyee — 18 years ago(December 31, 2007 06:26 AM)
Your question highlights a part of the film's appeal, and that is while you're watching it, it seems as if you're in a time bottle, watching a piece of what really was.and the number of bullets is just another example of that.
The answer to your question is this: anyone who carried an American-made single-action revolver in those days learned very quickly it's tendency to discharge accidentally when it was subjected to a sudden tremour or impact, i.e. riding your horse, jumping off the horse, etc. If you were lucky enough not to shoot one of your toes off or lose the whole foot, you quickly developed the habit of keeping 5 rounds in the cylinder instead of six. It was referred to as "keepin' five beans in the wheel". It took decades before improved manufacturing standards made it safe enough for active gun-carriers to max up their pieces to a full six rounds.
Brando was known for his subtleties, i.e. using little things to make a huge impact. It makes sense that "Lee Clayton" would remove a round before approaching Nicholson's "Logan" because that was the whole idea: CLAYTON HAD NO INTENTION OF GIVING LOGAN A LOADED GUN, HE WAS A DRY-GULCHER WHO INTENDED TO KILL LOGAN FROM THE START. So, he simply fires four rounds, tosses the gun to Logan who is supposed to think that there is a round left in the cylinder (the ususal 5th and last round for a regular gun carrier).
But Logan is more than a gunman, he also thinks on his feet: he carefully cocks the gun away from Clayton, points the gun to the ground below, mutters "I doubt it" and pulls the trigger on an emptry chamber. Click.
Clayton acknowledges Logan winning the first round of their battle of wits, saying "You're smart". But, he leaves, showing the sadistic, predatory side of Clayton by saying" I don't know what it is you do, but you'd better go back to doing itbecause you can't farm worth spit".
A great film in any era.