Re: The official "Look what the mailman, UPS, FedEx brought me today..." thread.
jakeg823 said:
Band of Brothers is a great one. I just rewatched it a couple months ago. I'm a huge Jimmy Stewart fan, but I've never seen that one. How is it?
I've seen bits and pieces of B.O.B., but never sat down and watched the entire thing... can't wait to see it all!
I was really disappointed in "Carbine Williams". Overall it was a good movie and I loved Jimmy Stewart, but the entire movie was about his experience in prison and how he always marched to his own drummer- mostly at his own expense. There was almost no mention of the M1 carbine whatsoever (or any other gun for that matter) throughout the entire movie?!?
Short synopsis of the movie:
- He served in the Navy
- Went back home and started making moonshine
- Had a shootout and killed a tax man during a raid on his illegal liquor operation.
- After several years in prison, was assigned to a chain gang for punishment, and butted heads with the warden often
- Found himself in solitary confinement, locked in a small steel box in the heat of the summer for 30 days and was fed only bread and water.
- While in the box, basically went to his "happy place" to avoid the pain, and designed a new type of "short stroke piston" firearm completely in his head
- After getting out of "the hole", he began working in the prison machine shop and secretly built a prototype rifle over several years (the prototype was NOT the M1 carbine - looked more like an early BAR hunting rifle w/ magazine??)
- The warden found out, was amazed at the design and actually let him test fire it at the prison
- Word got out, the state Gov'r granted him a pardon, was hired by Winchester, and later went on to help design the M1 Carbine
- Ended up being best friends with the warden later in life, and held something like 60-70 patents for various gun parts and designs
Really amazing story, and a BRILLIANT man despite having no formal firearm design education. Just wish there woulda been more about the actual design and construction of the M1 Carbine.
My next purchase will be "The Pacific" series.... I've seen all of those, and a MUST HAVE for the collection! :thumbup:
