The Wild Geese Uzis

[John Matrix]

I just rewatched The Wild Geese. Why did several of the prominently shown Uzis have stainless looking barrels? Blanks, props, actual African wear patterns? Just something that stood out to me.

 

[deadduck]

I saw that too.
It's like the production ran out of gaff tape and black paint.
Don't you hate trying to just enjoy a movie then something pops out and bugs you the whole time.

 

[Jones]

Hope this isn't taking the magic out of anyone's movie experience but we used to build movie props and lots of weapons in battle scenes weren't much more than pipe (sometimes conduit) and a rough-shaped 2X4.
Lots of stuff in crowd scenes are panned past so quick that details disappear in a blur. For close-ups, the three or four "realistic" or blank-firing pieces are just passed around throughout the various scenes. Now, with CGI, it's all just copy and paste against a green screen.
We hung a door on a shed that turned out to be about 4" too narrow for the door frame; but since the door was always shown standing open, the director said 'who cares'... and he was right. Couldn't see it even when we knew to look for it.

 

[slimshady]

And back then for real UZIs were somewhat hard to get in the US, probably some other countries as well. Was fairly common to look close and discover the "UZI" the hero was wielding was actually a MAC10 with "UZI-like" add ons.

According to the IMFDB, there were only 5 UZIs used for filming. As Jones said, passed around as needed for closeups, so even 1 shiny bbl would look like several.

 

[SecondAmend]

By 1984, anybody could just walk into their local gun store and buy an Uzi:

 

[Jones]

... or Mac 10s, or MK-760s, or AKs, or ARs. You're right SecondAmend, those were the days.

 

[Rob1928]

Hope this isn't taking the magic out of anyone's movie experience but we used to build movie props and lots of weapons in battle scenes weren't much more than pipe (sometimes conduit) and a rough-shaped 2X4.
Lots of stuff in crowd scenes are panned past so quick that details disappear in a blur. For close-ups, the three or four "realistic" or blank-firing pieces are just passed around throughout the various scenes. Now, with CGI, it's all just copy and paste against a green screen.
We hung a door on a shed that turned out to be about 4" too narrow for the door frame; but since the door was always shown standing open, the director said 'who cares'... and he was right. Couldn't see it even when we knew to look for it.

You mean like this UZi-MAC hybrid? LOL! From Dogs of War (1980). It looks like they did have several real uzis, but for whatever reason used one of the obvious fakes for a split second close up.

 

[Jones]

Good catch, Rob. Probably held together with gaffer's tape on the side away from the camera.